Paul Dano has booked a role on Steve McQueen’s upcoming Twelve Years A Slave. He’ll star Opposite Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Twelve Years A Slave is based on Solomon Northup’s 1853 autobiography about a free black man from Washington DC. The man was promised a job playing the violin in circus and tricked and dragged to Louisiana to be sold into slavery. There he stayed for 12 years picking cotton until he was rescued. Dano will play one of the vicious slave owners in the south who brutalized Northup played by Ejiofor.
Dano is best know for his performance in There Will Be Blood and Being Flynn. McQueen co-wrote the script with John Ridley. The film will be produced through Pitt’s production company.
Dano is also currently starring and executive producing Ruby Sparks, which is being directed by Little Miss Sunshine’s Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.
The Fox Searchlight film hits theaters July 25th.