The filmmakers behind my current top two films of the year (The Tree of Life and Shame) are teaming up for another project and now we have an official promo poster and synopsis to prove it, just as we got last year for Steve McQueen‘s sex addiction drama. Provided by Collider at American Film Market, the promo poster for 12 Years a Slave reveals that a 2012 release is intended. That is if a distributor is acquired, an acquisition almost guaranteed after buyers went crazy for the NC-17 Shame, finally going to Fox Searchlight.
McQueen will be reteaming with Michael Fassbender and have Brad Pitt (also producer) in a role, but it is Chiwetel Ejiofor who will be leading the drama. We now have an official synopsis from the script by McQueen and John Ridley (Three Kings), which can be read below, followed by the poster.
Based on a true story, 12 YEARS A SLAVE is a riveting account of a free black man kidnapped from New York and sold into brutal slavery in mid-1850s Louisiana, and the inspiring story of his desperate struggle to return home to his family.
SOLOMON NORTHUP (Chiwtel Ejiofor), an educated black man with a gift for music, lives with his wife and children in Saratoga, New York. One day, when his family is out of town, he is approached by two men claiming to be circus promoters. Solomon agrees to travel with them briefly, playing the fiddle while they perform. But after sharing a drink with the men, he awakens to find he has been drugged and bound and faces a horrifying reality: he is being shipped to the South as a slave.
No one listens to Solomon’s claim that he has papers proving his status as a free man. Despairing, he plots his escape, only to be foiled at every turn. He is sold to WILLIAM FORD, a kindly mill owner who appreciates Solomon’s thoughtful nature. But Ford is forced to sell him to a cruel master who subjects him and other slaves to unspeakable brutality. For years, Solomon nurtures his dreams of returning home. He stashes slips of stolen paper in his fiddle and develops a natural ink with which to write a letter. But when his greatest efforts come to nothing, he realizes just how trapped he is. Even if he could write the letter without being caught, where would he send it? Whom could he trust to deliver it? And will he even survive long enough to be rescued?
Refusing to abandon hope, Solomon watches helplessly as those around him succumb to violence, crushing emotional abuse and hopelessness. He realizes that he will have to take incredible risks, and depend on the most unlikely people, if he is ever to regain his freedom and be reunited with his family.
Update: A French Shame poster has also been released via IMPawards, placing Fassbender on the bed instead of just sheets like the US one.
Shame will hit theaters December 2nd, 2011 in limited release (new trailer & clip from yesterday), while we can expect Slave next year.