Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" has been hailed by dozens of critics as one of the year's best and most powerful films, providing an unflinching look into the brutality of a pre-Civil War United States. New Italian movie posters that featuring white actors as the slave drama's centerpieces, however, have created such an uproar that distributor Lionsgate has vowed to recall them, Variety magazine reports.
Italian distributor BIM worked with marketing company Fanatical About Cinema to create the posters, which feature large and somewhat cheerful-looking portraits of Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt at the expense of the film's star, Chiwetel Ejiofor, who is deferred to a small and nondescript foreground image. Pitt is a surprising choice for a poster as well, as he has only a minor role and does not appear until over halfway through the film, where he is on-screen for about five minutes.
"The '12 Years a Slave' theatrical posters featuring Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender that were recently released in Italy were unauthorized and were not approved by any of the producers or licensors of the film," a spokesperson for Lionsgate, whose label Summit is handling the film overseas, said in a statement, according to Variety. "Summit Entertainment, acting as exclusive sales agent for the licensors, is investigating and taking immediate action to stop the distribution of any unauthorized posters and to have those posters currently in the marketplace recalled."
Photos of the offending posters were posted yesterday on the Tumblr blog Carefree Black Girl, along with the caption, "I was at the movies the other day ( I live in Italy) and I saw the poster for 12 Years A Slave. I've been following the press for months and I can't wait to watch it but REALLY? I don't remember Brad Pitt being the protagonist of the film or having such a pivotal role in the story to stay in the middle of the poster... "
The U.S. version of the movie poster features Chiwetel Ejiofor exclusively, as he stars in nearly every shot of the film that details the true story of Solomon Northrup, a New York-born free man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Georgia in 1841. So far, the film has been nominated for seven Golden Globes and has won a host of awards.
Click here to see a photo of both controversial Italian "12 Years a Slave" movie posters.
