Superstar Brad Pitt and his Plan B is producing the movie adaptation of “Twelve Years a Slave”, an autobiography written in 1853 by Solomon Northup, a free black man who became enslaved. The film is being helmed by Steve McQueen with British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor playing Northup. McQueen co-wrote the script with John Ridley, a Hollywood website has reported.
Northup was a married and educated free black man living in New York when two men approached him with a job offer in Washington.
When he showed up in DC, he was kidnapped and put in a slave pen, paving the way to his gruelling life under numerous owners. Northup was able to secure his freedom when a white carpenter from Canada managed to smuggle out letters to Northup’s wife, initiating a court case that led to his freedom.