Benedict Cumberbatch joins Pitt, Dano, Ejiofor, and Fassbender in 12 Years A Slave

12 YEARS A SLAVE actually keeps getting better. I didn’t even comprehend that being possible, yet here we are as one of the most impressive filmmaking teams this side of TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY comes together to tell the true story of a free man kidnapped and sold into slavery for twelve years in the mid 1800s.

Directed and co-written by Steve McQueen (HUNGER, SHAME), and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, and Paul Dano as a brutal slave owner, 12 YEARS A SLAVE can now count the specacular Benedict Cumberbatch amongst its ranks in the role of “a plantation owner who buys Ejiofor’s character and is won over by his engineering skills.”

Production begins at the end of June, meaning we can probably expect a release in the fall of 2013.  Do you think this might give McQueen the chance at the Oscar recogniition he so richly deserves, or will it still be too brutal and raw in the way SHAME was for the Academy to feel comfortable recognizing his skill?