Superstar Brad Pitt and his Plan B is producing the movie adaptation of ‘Twelve Years a Slave’, an autobiography written in 1853 by Solomon Northup, a free black man who became enslaved.
The film is being helmed by Steve McQueen with British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor playing Northup. McQueen co-wrote the script with John Ridley, the Hollywood Reporter said.
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 DC, he was kidnapped and put in a slave pen, paving the way to his grueling life under numerous owners.
Northup was able to secure his freedom when a white carpenter from Canada managed to smuggle out letters to Northup’s wife, initiating a court case that led to his freedom.(PTI)
