Brad Pitt producing TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE, Steve McQueen to direct

Brad Pitt has signed on to produce the feature adaptation of Twelve Years a Slave, an autobiography written in 1853 by Solomon Northup. THR reports that Pitt will produce under his Plan B banner and has tapped Steve McQueen (Hunger) to direct based on a script he co-wrote with John Ridley. 

Chiwetel Ejiofor (Salt, Inside Man) is attached to the part of Northup. "Northup was a married and educated free black man living in New York when two men approached him with a job offer in Washington. When he showed up in D.C., he was kidnapped and put in a slave pen, paving the way to his grueling life under numerous owners.

The book is studied for everything from its details of the slave markets that existed in D.C. to the type of food served to slaves. Northup was able to secure his freedom when a white carpenter from Canada, who didn’t believe in slavery, was able to smuggle out letters to Northup’s wife, initiating a court case that saw him set free."

This sounds like a perfect film for McQueen, he is great at directing very serious and dramatic subject matter. What are your thoughts on this news?