Based on a true story by Solomon Northup, and helmed by Shame director Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave has Oscar bells written all over it.
Story wise it's ever so slightly like Django Unchained. Though McQueen's story swaps Tarantino's Jamie Foxx with the Osar worthy Chiwetel Ejiofor and where that movie saw Leonardo DiCaprio as the hard-ass plantation master, this story sees our very own Michael Fassbender in one of his most negative and unlikeable roles yet. Style wise, however, we expect that 12 Years a Slave is about as far away from Tarantino as you could get; McQueen's going heavy, serious and epic with this one. Just give the score a listen. What's more, we're not expecting any humour here.
If the true and heartbreaking story of a free man who finds himself abducted and sold as a slave only to live out 12 years of his life at the mercy of the whip-happy Fassbender isn't enough to pique your interest, then the cast list for this movie ought to do it.
Brad Pitt, Fassbender, Ejiofor, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Benedict Cumberbatch, Scoot McNairy, Quvenzhané Wallis, and Love/Hate's Ruth Negga all star.
If previous collaborations between McQueen and Fassbender are anything to go by, 2008's Hunger and 2011's Shame, then this period drama's set to impress.
We absolutely cannot wait. But we'll have to, until January 24th 2014.
