JA from MNPP here - have y'all seen the first batch of photos from Steve McQueen's upcoming slavery drama 12 Years a Slave? USA Today has several, including the two Fassbender-centric ones you can see here. It's Fassbender's third team-up with the Hunger / Shame director, and I can't be alone in hoping this might be the role that will finally get him some Academy attention after his most terrible omission in 2011. Same goes for the film's actual lead, Chiwetel Ejiofor, who's also been doing great work for several years now - he first really caught my eye in Dirty Pretty Things back in 2002 (although to be honest I cannot for the life of me remember squat about Amistad).
I haven't read the book upon which the film's based so I even hazard to guess whether this could actually be Academy friendly - so far McQueen's proven too outre for their tastes. But this one's got some big-time star-power behind it - it also stars (deep breath) Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt, Sarah Paulson, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Garrett Dillahunt, Alfre Woodard, Scoot McNairy and Quvenzhané Wallis, amongst many others. And 12 Years a Slave is out at the end of December, a not-so-subtle sign that somebody's thinking statues...
