’12 Years a Slave’ star pulls out of Italian screening as poster controversy swirls

One of the stars of the critically acclaimed “12 Years a Slave” has dropped out of a film premiere in Italy after an ill-conceived marketing strategy came across as a throwback to a less enlightened era.

Actress Lupita Nyongo’o, who was scheduled to introduce the drama at the Capri Hollywood Film Festival, did not give a reason for her abrupt cancellation, Variety first reported.

But the move comes after the film’s Italian distributor was forced to apologize for unapproved movie posters that focused on white cast-members Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt – while the film’s lead, Chiwetel Ejiofor is confined to a corner.

Jacques Brinon/AP

Kenyan-raised actress Lupita Nyong’o dropped out of an Italian premiere for the film Friday.

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Fassbender, who plays a sadistic plantation owner, has a supporting role, while Pitt is in the film for just a few minutes.

“We apologize for creating and releasing unauthorized posters for ’12 Years a Slave’ in Italy featuring Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender in a manner inconsistent with approved advertising materials,” BIM Distribuzione said in a statement issued Thursday, according to the National Post.

Francois Duhamel/AP

Nyong’o (pictured with Michael Fassbender and Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a favorite for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination for her turn as a doomed slave.

“All inappropriate materials have now been withdrawn. We are very proud of the film and regret any distraction this incident may have caused.”

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Lionsgate’s Summit, the studio that has international rights to the film, said that director Steve McQueen and producers did not approve the posters and they should never have been released.

George Pimentel/WireImage

Actors Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o and Chiwetel Ejiofor arrive at the ‘12 Years A Slave’ premiere during the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival in September.

The white-washed images, photos of which first started circulating online Monday, are especially head-scratching considering the powerful film tells the true story of Solomon Northup (Ejiofor), a free New Yorker kidnapped and sold into slavery in pre-Civil War America.

The Academy Award contender has been compared to “Schindler’s List’s” depiction of the Holocaust for its unflinching depiction of a ugly period in history.

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‘All inappropriate materials have now been withdrawn,’ BIM Distribuzione, the film’s Italian distributor, said in a statement. ‘We are very proud of the film and regret any distraction this incident may have caused.’

Nyongo’o told the Daily News in November that playing a real life slave was not a job, but a calling.

“I knew what I was getting myself into when I took on the role, I knew it was going to be tough, but it was an honor, a privilege, I got to do it for fake when people did that for real,” she said.

“Slavery is not something that people talk about at the bar, there’s a shame about it, there is a part of history that’s swept under the carpet — and that’s no way to deal with it.”