Fox Searchlight Pictures has set the release of Steve McQueen’s (Hunger, Shame) Twelve Years a Slave for December 27.
The film, featuring a script by McQueen and John Ridley, stars Michael Fassbender, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Paul Dano, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti, Garret Dillahunt, Sarah Paulson, Scoot McNairy, Ruth Negga, Alfre Woodard and Michael Kenneth Williams.
Based on the 1853 autobiography of Solomon Northrup, Twelve Years a Slave tells of Northrup’s tragic kidnapping in Washington DC in 1841 where, despite being born a free man, he was forced into slavery at a Louisiana cotton plantation until his rescue 12 years later.
The December 27 date has Twelve Years a Slave opening opposite Olivier Dahan’s Grace of Monaco and just two days after 47 Ronin, Jack Ryan and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
