Woodard Rises Up In "12 Years"

The great Alfre Woodard has joined the cast of "Shame" and "Hunger" director Steve McQueen's Twelve Years A Slave says THR.

Set in the mid-19th century, the film tells the true story of New Yorker Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who was kidnapped and shipped off into forced labor. Eventually he was rescued from a Louisiana cotton plantation in 1853.

Woodard will play Mistress Shaw, “a former slave who has risen in the Southern caste system.”

McQueen and John Ridley (”Bobby,” “Three Kings”) wrote the script.

Paul Dano, Benedict Cumberbatch Garret Dillahunt Paul Giamatti Michael Fassbender, Sarah Paulson Ruth Negga Scoot McNairy and  Brad Pitt also star.

Production gets going soon in New Orleans.