It was the basis for one of the most buzzed about plays in London over the last few years, and now Michael Morpurgo's War Horse has been optioned for the big screen by DreamWorks, with Billy Elliot's Lee Hall set to write the screenplay.
Definitely one for the horsey set, this sees a farm horse called Joey sold to the British cavalry early in World War I and shipped off to the battlefields, much against the wishes of his young owner Albert. Joey is captured by the Germans and used by them as well, seeing the War from both sides but unaffected by nationalism, while Albert - too young to enlist - sets off on a rescue mission.
The film will be produced by the all-star team of Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Revel Guest, which has got to be a good sign for War Horse. It's a heck of a children's novel and a hell of a play, although this film will be an adaptation of the former rather than the latter. Also, they probably won't use giant bamboo puppets for horses, since we hear they can do amazing things with actual animals these days. That, or Andy Serkis on all fours covered in ping-pong balls.