2. John Ridley - Twelve Years a Slave
Twelve Years a Slave is based on the life of Solomon Northup, a free African-American man living in New York during the mid-19th Century who was kidnapped by Southerners and forced into slavery. He bounced around different masters for twelve long years, performing varying tasks along the way, until he was finally rescued and restored to freedom. It's a remarkable story and one that sounds perfectly fit for some shamanistic conjuring on the silver screen. The film's script is based on Mr. Northup's autobiography of the same name, which apparently caused quite the stir back in the day when it was released, but has since has existed in relative obscurity compared to its more famous slavery exposition peer, Uncle Tom's Cabin. The film's screenplay is written by African-American writer John Ridley, whose writing resume interestingly oscillates between feather-light comedies such as the television show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and the film Undercover Brother, to much more serious fare such as David O. Russell's Three Kings and Oliver Stone's U-Turn. With all due respect to Mr. Ridley though, in all likelihood the film will primarily be seen as the third feature of burgeoning film director Steve McQueen (not the legendary American action star back from the dead). McQueen has two feature films under his belt thus far, Hunger and Shame. Both films were well received among critics and the hardcore cinephile community (particularly Shame), and McQueen's frequent collaborator, actor Michael Fassbender, was likely on the cusp of receiving a Best Actor nomination for his performance in the latter film back in 2011. You can bet your bottom dollar then there are many who are eagerly anticipating McQueen's third cinematic outing. It strikes me though that this may become an issue in terms of its chances of getting nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. If McQueen's case becomes the critical cause celebre, and if the film tends to stress style cinematic style over dialogue, even if the Writer's branch likes it, they may see it as more of an achievement in directing than writing and opt to nominate a more prose-friendly screenplay. Also, as with McQueen's previous two features, the film may simply be too bleak for the Academy's liking, which would no doubt preclude it from an Oscar nomination as well.