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Spielberg Picks the WWI Project 'War Horse' as His Next Movie

by Ethan Anderton
May 3, 2010

After years of speculation surrounding Robopocalypse, a George Gershwin biopic with Zach Quinto, and a short affair with a remake of the Jimmy Stewart flick Harvey, Variety reports that the legendary Steven Spielberg has chosen the adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's 1982 novel War Horse, which he's been attached to since December, as his next film. The book tells the epic tale of a friendship between a boy and his horse, who become separated but continue to be intertwined as they try to survive the horrors of WWI. Sounds a bit more low key than his most recent (but still forthcoming) work on The Adventures of Tintin.

The last film we saw from Spielberg was the fourth Indiana Jones, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, so he's poised to make a return to the top of his game with War Horse. While I would've preferred to see him return to some sort of big budget sci-fi flick like Robopocalypse or even the sparsely mentioned Interstellar, really I'm excited for Steven Spielberg to be directing anything, even if it's not sci-fi. For a little more detail on this forthcoming emotional period drama, here's a better synopsis of the story from the novel:

In 1914, Joey, a beautiful bay-red foal with a distinctive cross on his nose, is sold to the army and thrust into the midst of the war on the Western Front. With his officer, he charges toward the enemy, witnessing the horror of the battles in France. But even in the desolation of the trenches, Joey's courage touches the soldiers around him and he is able to find warmth and hope. But his heart aches for Albert, the farmer's son he left behind. Will he ever see his true master again?

Disney and DreamWorks have already set a late August 10th, 2011 release date for Spielberg's War Horse next year, which means things will get going very soon. Of course, we know from films like Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List that Spielberg is certainly an expert on drama set around a war, which is exactly what this is. As I understand, War Horse is quite the moving tale, and will feature the kind of hard-hitting drama Spielberg hasn't taken on since 2005's Munich. Anyway, any new Spielberg flick is right at the top of my most anticipated list, so stay tuned as this project is sure to start casting right away. Your thoughts?

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