Just a few hours ago the folks over at the Cannes Film Festival were given the chance to get their first look at Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, the filmmaker's new movie about a slave looking for revenge and retribution. The seven minutes that were shown when given nearly universal praise, particularly for what was seen from Leonardo Di Caprio and Don Johnson. We have no idea when we might get our own first look at the flick, but today we do have casting news about another exceptional writer/director's movie about slavery.
Paul Dano, best known for his roles in movies like Little Miss Sunshine and There Will Be Blood, has signed on for a part in Twelve Years a Slave, the new movie from Steve McQueen, according to Deadline. Based on the Solomon Northup memoir of the same name, the film tells the story of a free black man who is promised a job playing violin in the circus when he is kidnapped, drugged and sold as a slave. The movie already has a stellar cast that includes Chiwetel Ejiofor (who will play the lead character), Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt. Dano will be playing one of the slave owners who beats the lead character unmercifully. Twelve Years A Slave will be the third movie written and directed by McQueen, whose previous credits include Shame and Hunger.
Dano has a big year ahead of him. He will next be seen in the independent film Ruby Sparks, where he plays a writer who falls in love with one of his own characters, and then in September has a part in Rian Johnson's Looper with Joseph Gord0n-Levitt.
