The response to Benh Zeitlin's magical fairy tale, Beasts of the Southern Wild, has been incredible. It's rare that any film captures the heart of practically everybody who has seen it, and I predict when it opens this weekend it will sweep the country, as it's one of those movies that pushes the limits of what we think a fantasy film should be, or how we can use entertainment to make an important point. A major part of the success was the on screen bond between Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry, and now it looks like the little indie that could is spawning a pair of future Hollywood stars.
I had the opportunity to speak to Henry just last week, and he told us that he was hoping to do a lot more acting in the future. He wasn't joking, as a profile on him in The Washington Post reveals he's a part of Steve McQueen's incredible cast for Twelve Years A Slave. His role in the adaptation of Solomon Northrup's 1853 memoir is unclear at this point, and there are literally dozens of characters so it could be anybody. He'll get to rub shoulders with Chiwetel Ejiafor, Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Paul Giamatti, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Scoot McNairy, Adepero Oduye, Sarah Paulson, Alfred Woodard, and Michael K. Williams. That's not too bad at all for a regular New Orleans guy who owns and runs a bakery as his day job.
Filming on Twelve Years A Slave is underway, and should hit theaters in 2013.
