Bill Pohlad’s River Road Entertainment has joined Plan B as producer and will finance Twelve Years A Slave from red-hot Steve McQueen (pictured). Chiwetel Ejiofor, Brad Pitt and McQueen regular Michael Fassbender to star.

Summit International will commence international sales at the AFM. The project’s pedigree immediately makes it one of the market’s prestige titles given the cast and the heavyweight awards season prospects of McQueen’s Shame starring Fassbender.

Plan B has been developing Twelve Years A Slave for some time and brought it to River Road. Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Pohlad are producing.

John Ridley and McQueen adapted Solomon Northup’s novel about an educated black man who is kidnapped from New York and sold into slavery in Louisiana in the 1850s.

River Road and Summit International previously partnered on The Tree Of Life, which starred Pitt.