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That Peculiar Institution: 12 Years a Slave Being Adapted to Film

By Steven Lloyd Wilson | Posted Under Trailers | Comments (13)

Slaveacp.jpg

12 Years a Slave is the harrowing true story of a black man born free in the North and then kidnapped as an adult, dragged to the South, and sold into slavery. Leaving behind a wife who assumed him dead, and pressed into brutal work, it was twelve years before Solomon Northup managed to find someone he trusted enough to smuggle letters to his wife. Northup was freed in an ensuing court case, although of course he himself was not allowed to testify. Following his return to the North, Northup published in 1853 his account of his experiences in the biographical 12 Years a Slave.

That account is in the public domain at this point, and available on Google Books, among a few other choice online collections. Wikipedia has a nice little summary with a few more details than I cribbed above. The work has gotten a bit more press lately, because it’s now been tapped for a film adaptation, with some particularly intriguing names attached.

Brad Pitt is producing, and Steve McQueen (not the dead actor, the live director who made Hunger) will be directing and co-writing the script with John Ridley (Red Tails). Chiwetel Ejiofor will be starring as Solomon Northup, so they’ve also got that going for them.

I’m not going to lie, this news makes me very happy. I have nothing snarky to say, except that I wish I’d stumbled across this a year ago for Pajiba Storytellers just so that now I could say they got the idea from us. Because I totally would. And we would totally sue them but we’d settle for a tasteful amount so that the movie could go on unhindered but it’d be enough that Dustin wouldn’t have to run full-screen ads anymore even though he still would so that we could keep our street cred and me and Brad Pitt would be best friends and fight aliens. And that’s why we’re going to keep doing Storytellers.

(sources: SlashFilm, THR)









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Comments

Between this work and QT's Django Unchained, it seems that Hollywood at least will be giving us more movies about slavery.

Posted by: Fredo at August 17, 2011 11:57 AM

"Hunger" was brilliant. Michael Fassbender was robbed of his Oscar.

Posted by: b at August 17, 2011 12:32 PM

Hmm,I am intrigued, especially by the casting of Chiwetel Ejiofor, who is amazing. On the other hand, this, sadly, is exactly the sort of movie I often find too painful to watch. So, now I'm presented with quite a dilemma.

Also? I love the vision of how this would have gone had you written about it for Storytellers. Storytellers is some of the best damn writing on this site.

Posted by: tamatha at August 17, 2011 12:42 PM

No reason to stop running full screen ads. Why buy the Beemer when you can have the Rolls right? I'm sure that's what the choices are.

Posted by: Socrates_Johnson at August 17, 2011 12:52 PM

Where's the perky white girl documenting all of this?

Beating a dead horse. I know. Can't help it.

Posted by: samantha t at August 17, 2011 12:59 PM

I have vague memories of reading this for my AP US History course in high school and thinking it was amazing. And I LOVE Chiwetel Ejiofor. So I think this should be made of win.

Posted by: KatSings at August 17, 2011 2:28 PM

Samantha,
"Where's the perky white girl documenting all of this?"


You can't see her because she's standing behind Matthew McConaghy, who stars as the crusading lawyer who champions Northup's rights,and is enlightened by his struggle to help the poor, but noble negro.

Posted by: khia213 at August 17, 2011 2:44 PM

Wait, white people producing and directing? Fuck that racist shit

Posted by: Protoguy at August 17, 2011 6:12 PM

No doubt Tom Hanks will be playing the slave since the hackysack-sucking college babies of this age sincerely believe the travails of slavery can be told by anyone ?

Posted by: Mr. Stitch at August 17, 2011 7:23 PM

Seriously? Is this really where we're at now? A story can't be told unless it's told by the race it impacted? It's a childish stance and one that's only going to hold us all back. Why is it automatically assumed that if a white guy does this it's out of guilt or the opposite, out of a desire to elevate the white guy as the savior of the black guy? It can't possibly be that it's a story that wants telling? It can't possibly be that it's compelling on it's own? There are really requirements that the story needs to be told FUBU or it's illegitimate? I can't describe how fucked up that is. All these years bitching and complaining that white Hollywood doesn't tell black stories only to find out that doing so will be met with hatred and disdain? Some serious childish and petty bullshit right there.

Posted by: Protoguy at August 17, 2011 11:58 PM

Isn't Steve McQueen black, anyway? What I think is more odd is that he and Ejiofor are both English, not American.

Posted by: Azara at August 18, 2011 1:56 AM

"Why is it automatically assumed that if a white guy does this it's out of guilt or the opposite, out of a desire to elevate the white guy as the savior of the black guy?"

Why Not?

Posted by: Derrick at August 18, 2011 3:58 AM

This script needs to be written by a black man with a black pen with black ink and kept in a black folder. The RZA should score the film and it should be released sometime in February. The blackest actors in Hollywood should be cast so it would be best to wait for Wesley Snipes to get out of jail.

Posted by: Gamal at August 18, 2011 6:56 PM