Today brought the Cannes debut of Andrew Dominik‘s Killing Them Softly — read our very positive take here — and, with it, the arrival of a screen duo that is apparently not too keen on cutting their ties just yet. I’m speaking of Scoot McNairy (Monsters) and a somewhat higher-profile guy named Brad Pitt who, according to this Variety report, will reunite in another enormously anticipated adaptation: Steve McQueen‘s Twelve Years a Slave.
We previously learned that Pitt‘s role in McQueen‘s Shame follow-up is going to be a mere cameo, and that’s perhaps made more appropriate now — he is, after all, the lead to McNairy‘s supporting goon in Killing Them Softly, and from the sound of things, it looks like McNairy could turn the tables by holding a pivotal narrative role in 12 Years a Slave. He’s set to “play a shrewd circus worker who masterminds the protagonist’s abduction” — that protagonist being Chiwetel Ejiofor‘s Solomon Northup, a New Yorker who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the mid-1800s.
Along with McNairy, Ruth Negga is the latest addition to the cast — she’ll “play a runaway slave.” Together, they join a stable that already includes Michael Fassbender, Paul Dano, and Adepero Oduye (Pariah). Production is slated to commence at the end of June.
For McNairy, this is yet another major pick-up in a steady line of them. In addition to this and Killing Them Softly, he’s also been pegged for supporting work in Ben Affleck‘s excellent-looking Argo, as well as Gus Van Sant‘s forthcoming Promised Land.
What do you think of the overall cast for 12 Years a Slave?