In an eye-rollingly obvious move (but still a good one), Steven Spielberg has chosen to direct a film adap of War Horse for his next project.
Why obvious? Well, because Michael Morpurgo’s original children’s book features all the meaty themes that are the Beard’s faves: war, kids, human strife, and yearning for the past.
Spielberg finally settled on War Horse after circling a number of other projects, including biopics of both George Gershwin and Abraham Lincoln, sci-fi Interstellar and Flowers For Algernon .
War Horse is set in 1914, and follows bay-red foal Joey, a horse sold to the army and “thrust into the midst of the war on the Western Front”.
There, the horse’s courage inspires the soldiers around him. But Joey is desperate to return to the life he left behind, which included Albert, the kindly farmer’s son who was his friend.
The story has been a massive hit on London stages, in which giant, man-operated horse puppets are used. We’re sure Spielberg will come up with something a little more film-y hi-tech for his adaptation. Let's just hope he doesn't give us Narnia-style talking horses.
Think War Horse is the perfect pet project for Spielberg?
