Solomon Northup’s book “Twelve Years of Slavery” had already been adapted before the film “12 Years a Slave”, and for television.
12 Years a Slave tells the story of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a young black man from New York who is kidnapped and sold as a slave on a cotton plantation and who will struggle to survive the terrible conditions to which he is subjected. But did you know that the book the film is based on has already been adapted?
12 Years a Slave is adapted from a story written by David Wilson based on the true story of Solomon Northup, drugged and kidnapped in Washington in 1841 and then sold as a slave. His meeting with a Canadian abolitionist allows him to find his family and to be freed in 1853. The book had been published in France under the title Twelve Years of Slavery.
Long before the film produced by Brad Pitt and directed by Steve McQueen, an adaptation of this story had been produced for the small screen as part of the American Playhouse collection, broadcast by the PBS channel, which offered unseen feature films on a weekly basis. , specially shot for the show.
On December 10, 1984, PBS broadcast Solomon Northup’s Odyssey (literally, The Odyssey of Solomon Northup) which therefore recounts the same events as 12 Years a Slave. The direction is entrusted to Gordon Parks (Shaft, The Paths of Violence) and Northup interpreted by Avery Brooks, who signs there his first appearance on the screen. He would later appear in American History X and serve as Captain Benjamin Sisko in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series from 1993 to 1999.
Screenshot / PBS
Avery Brooks in Solomon Northup’s Odyssey
Note that the photography is provided by Hiro Narita, who will sign that of Chérie, I shrunk the kids or Hocus Pocus from Disney and that as usual, Parks himself provides the soundtrack of the (TV) film. We can see in the cast Lee Bryant of Is there a pilot on the plane and who had just appeared in Hooker, but also John Saxon (The Claws of the night, Operation Dragon).
This TV movie is unfortunately not available in France, but can be found on DVD at varying prices (from 20 to 100 euros!). As for 12 Years a Slave, much less rare, it is very easy to find at a reasonable price and it is currently available on Netflix.
For more on the hero of 12 Years a Slave, review his rich career:
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