Dano, McNairy, Negga and Oduye join the cast of adaptation.
Paul Dano is set to join Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt on the cast of Steve McQueen’s adaptation of Solomon Northup’s 1853 autobiography ‘Twelve Years a Slave.’
The film sees Ejiofor in the role of Northup, an educated and married black man living in New York who, promised a job playing violin in the circus, is drugged and dragged to Louisiana and sold into slavery. Deadline reports that Dano will play one of the slave owners who brutalize Northup.
Also joining the cast will be Irish actress Ruth Negga (‘Misfits,’ ‘Breakfast on Pluto’) playing a runaway slave; Scoot McNairy (‘Killing Them Softly,’ ‘Argo’) in the role of a shrewd circus worker who masterminds Northup’s abduction. ‘Pariah’ star Adepero Oduye and Taran Killam (‘Saturday Night Live,’ ‘Community’) will also co-star.
McQueen is directing the adaptation from a screenplay he penned with John Ridley (‘Bobby,’ ‘Three Kings’).