Hans Zimmer Scoring Steve McQueen's 'Twelve Years A Slave'

An an eight time Oscar nominee - winning for "The Lion King" in 1995 - recent years have seen Hans Zimmer mostly in blockbuster mode. For Christopher Nolan, he's tuned up "Inception," "The Dark Knight" trilogy and the forthcoming "Man Of Steel," and he's given Captain Jack Sparrow some bounce in three of the four "Pirates Of The Caribbean" movies. This year alone he's already delivered music for the hit mini-series "The Bible," with work on "Rush" and "The Lone Ranger" around the corner. But a slavery drama? We didn't see this coming.

Indeed, Zimmer will be scoring Steve McQueen's "Twelve Years A Slave," adding another intriguing ingredient to what is already a very anticipated film. The talent is as great as it is extensive: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Scoot McNairy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti, Paul Dano, Sarah Paulson, Garret Dillahunt, Ruth Negga, Taran Killam, Adepero Oduye, Alfre Woodard, Quvenzhane Wallis, Dwight Henry, Michael K. Williams and Brad Pitt all feature in the true story of Solomon Northup (Ejiofor), a free black man who is tricked back into slavery, faces grueling life under several owners and has to go to court to reclaim his status.

What Zimmer will do with his BRAAAHM-tacular bag of tricks at bay, so yeah, another reason to look forward to this one. "Twelve Years A Slave" opens on December 27th.