By Taran Killam, who you might know from Saturday Night Live but I know as the glee club advisor from Community has decided to go somewhere serious. He has set to join Steve McQueen’s next project. McQueen, who directed last year’s Fassbender-filled sex opus Shame, is now making a movie about slavery, appropriately titled Twelve Years a Slave. Killam will play a travelling showman who kidnaps a black man, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, and sells him in the South to work as a slave.
The film will also feature Brad Pitt, Paul Dano, and Michael Fassbender’s penis, although there’s no word on what their various roles will be.
This is certainly an interesting casting choice, but McQueen blew me away with both Shame (which was my #2 film of last year) and his first film, Hunger, so I trust his judgment. I can say two things about Twelve Years a Slave, though: it’s going to be incredibly difficult to watch, and it’s going to be amazing.
Also, I want to clarify something: even I find the header image somewhat tasteless, but I went ahead with using it anyway. Why? Two reasons. 1) Geoff told me I had to, and 2) because I think it’s amazing what a completely innocuous image can become within a different context. So take that for what you will.
[Via Deadline]