Where to watch 12 Years a Slave (2013)
12 Years a Slave is available to stream in AU on Stan. It can also be rented or bought from AppleTV and Amazon.
In the years before the Civil War, a free Black man is abducted and sold into slavery in Louisiana. Forced to endure cruelty, exploitation, and uncertainty, he struggles to survive while holding on to his dignity and hope of returning to his family.
Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong'o, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Sarah Paulson, Adepero Oduye, Scoot McNairy, Paul Giamatti, Brad Pitt, Michael Kenneth Williams, Alfre Woodard
Stream | AU
Rent or Buy
Trivia & production notes
- Steve McQueen discovered Solomon Northup's 1853 memoir through his partner Bianca Stigter after years of developing the project with screenwriter John Ridley.
- Michael Fassbender reunited with director Steve McQueen for the film, having previously starred in McQueen's films Hunger and Shame.
- Dialect coach Michael Buster used rural speech samples from Mississippi and Louisiana for some actors, upper-class New Orleans recordings from the 1930s for others, and worked with Lupita Nyong'o to adapt her Kenyan accent to American speech.
- After both won Oscars, Steve McQueen and John Ridley were reported to have feuded over screenplay credit, with McQueen requesting shared credit that Ridley declined and the studio upheld based on Writers Guild rules.
- Principal photography took place over seven weeks in New Orleans, beginning June 27, 2012 and concluding August 13, 2012, with a production budget of $22 million.
- Filming used four historic antebellum plantations—Felicity, Bocage, Destrehan, and Magnolia—with Magnolia located just miles from where the historical Solomon Northup was actually enslaved.
- Cinematographer Sean Bobbitt shot the film on 35mm using anamorphic lenses to emphasize the widescreen format as befitting an epic historical narrative.
- Director Steve McQueen deliberately drew visual inspiration from Spanish painter Francisco Goya, using richly composed imagery of violence and cruelty rather than a desaturated documentary aesthetic to force viewers to confront the subject matter.
- Brad Pitt's production company Plan B Entertainment backed the project and helped secure financing from multiple film studios.
- Chiwetel Ejiofor was cast to portray Solomon Northup based on McQueen's perception of his embodiment of class and dignity comparable to Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article 12 Years a Slave (film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.
Also available in
This title is listed in these countries too — pick one to see its services and prices.