Brad Pitt to Produce ‘Twelve Years a Slave’

Steve McQueen is set to direct the movie, based on the 1853 autobiography of Solomon Northup, a free black man

The increasingly-busy Brad Pitt has just gotten busier yet.

The actor, now filming Paramount's "World War Z," is set to produce "Twelve Years a Slave," TheWrap has confirmed.

Steve McQueen is directing the movie, which is based on a brutal and true story.

"Twelve Years a Slave" is the 1853 memoir of Solomon Northup, a black man who was born free and, as an adult, kidnapped into slavery.

McQueen, who won the Camera d'Or in Cannes in 2008 for his first film, "Hunger," and whose second film, "Shame," is premiering at the Venice Film Festival, co-wrote the screenplay with John Ridley. Chiwetel Ejiofor ("Children of Men") stars as Northup.

So how busy is Pitt?

He is negotiating to play CIA agent-turned assassin Court Gentry in "The Gray Man," for New Regency. He's starring in and producing "World War Z" and is starring in and producing "Cogan's Trade," which is now in post-production. Plus he has six kids.

On "Twelve Years a Slave," Pitt's Plan B Entertainment is producing. Pitt's agency, CAA, is arranging the financing for the project and representing domestic distribution rights.

CAA also represents McQueen (no relation to the iconic actor of the 1960s).

Variety first reported the news.

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