JA from MNPP here - almost every review I've read of Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave has made note of the fact that this is a British man making a movie about an American experience, and usually falling down on the side that maybe it took the perspective of an outsider looking in to capture something previously uncaptured about it..
Well the only luxury of distance McQueen will have with his next project is that of time, and only that partially - he's next planning (after he wins an Oscar, fingers crossed) on making what's being called an "epic" series for the BBC on "the black experience in Britain" from the end of the 1960s up until today. (There might be an emphasis on the 1981 Brixton riots - he's talked about them before.) He talks to The Daily Mail about the new project here - it's in the early stages, without any actors attached or script yet... although I'd be shocked if there's not at least at least one Irish-German ginger skulking around in it at least in a small part somewhere, wouldn't you?