Italian '12 Years A Slave' Poster Ignores Star In Favor Of Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt has a small role in "12 Years A Slave," appearing toward the end of the harrowing film as a Canadian man who helps facilitate the release of the enslaved lead character, Solomon Northup. Played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Northup appears in almost every scene in Steve McQueen's film, and it's his journey into hell that is chronicled in "12 Years A Slave." Not that anyone would guess that if they only saw the film's Italian poster.



As first posted by Tumblr user Carefree Black Girl, and picked up on Twitter and other social media sites, the Italian "12 Years A Slave" poster makes Pitt the focal point (with a photo that isn't even taken from the film itself), with Ejiofor relegated to secondary status in the lower portion of the artwork.







As BuzzFeed pointed out, other "12 Years A Slave" posters in Italy also prominently feature co-star Michael Fassbender, who plays an amoral slave owner in the film. (A Flickr gallery of the images can be found here.)



HuffPost Entertainment contacted "12 Years A Slave" U.S. distributor Fox Searchlight, as well as Italian distributor BIM, to see if either company could confirm the legitimacy of the poster. Fox Searchlight, for its part, has a much better handle on how to market the Oscar favorite to audiences.