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Michael Fassbender & McQueen Reteaming Again for '12 Years a Slave'

by Alex Billington
October 11, 2011
Source: Variety

Get ready to hear a lot about these two this awards season. British filmmaker Steve McQueen (seen right above), of Hunger and this year's Shame, and actor Michael Fassbender have been working together since 2007 on both films, and will continue that relationship again. Variety is reporting that Fassbender will play a role in McQueen's next film, titled 12 Years a Slave, that's already set to star Chiwetel Ejiofor in the true story of Solomon Northrup, a New Yorker who was kidnapped in Washington and rescued from a cotton plantation in Louisiana in 1853. Pre-production is already underway to start shooting early next year.

Fassbender and McQueen will be getting a lot of acclaim this year (and next) for their work on Shame, so it's great to see these two already planning to work together yet again. In 12 Years a Slave, the story follows Northup, a married, educated and free black man living in New York who was approached by two men with a job offer in Washington D.C. But upon his arrival, he was kidnapped, put in a slave pen and passed around through various slave owners for twelve years. While Variety doesn't specify Fassbender's role, we assume it will be that of a Canadian carpenter who opposed slavery and smuggled letters to Northup's wife, which help launch a court case to set him free. Plan B's Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner are set to produce the film, from a script by McQueen and John Ridley (Bobby, Three Kings). We'll definitely keep an eye on this.

Filed under Casting, Development, Movie News

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