War Horse heads to Hollywood as Spielberg buys film rights

It has enraptured both young and old, who have been left tear-stained but uplifted by the epic story of a boy and his horse amid the battlefields of the First World War. The book has become a children's classic and tickets for the National Theatre stage version were like gold dust.

Now Michael Morpurgo's War Horse is to become a Hollywood blockbuster after Steven Spielberg announced he had bought the film rights.

Spielberg has said that from the moment he read the book, he knew this was a film he wanted to make. "Its heart and its message provide a story that can be felt in every country," he said.

Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Revel Guest are to produce the project.

Stage to screen: Michael Morpurgo's War Horse, which has enjoyed huge success with the National Theatre's production, above, is set to entrance a whole new audience as a big-budget Hollywood film

War Horse tells the story of a young Devon farmhand who signs up for the army to search for his beloved horse among the trenches of war-torn France.

"A film I knew I wanted to make": Steven Spielberg

Spielberg's production company DreamWorks said Lee Hall, nominated for an Oscar for Billy Elliot, will write the screenplay. However, it is not known whether the Oscar-winning director himself will be behind the camera. Fans of both the book and the play will consider Spielberg likely to be able to do the story justice, although the final choice of director is crucial.

In ET, Spielberg showed an empathy with children, while in Schindler's List and the television series Band of Brothers he demonstrated his ability to mix the widescreen drama of war with intimate human stories.

What is not certain is whether Spielberg will use the full-size puppet horses which have been so central to the success of the National's production — it is more likely that computer-generated special effects will bring the animals and the battlefields to life.

Morpurgo told the Standard today: "It is so exciting that Steven Spielberg has bought the rights to War Horse. I only just learnt this in the last two days. I can think of no one better to do this. After such a fantastic success with the play it needs someone of his imagination and skill at turning books into great visual experiences for the film version."

Speaking recently at a charity fair in Oxford, Morpurgo told how he started telling stories to children when he was a teacher. "The golden rule about children is never, never bore them," he said.

The book, published in 1982, was a runner-up in the Whitbread Awards. Morpurgo wrote it after learning that more than eight million horses died in the First World War, including almost a million from Britain which had been bought from hunts and farms.

The National Theatre production, which opened in October 2007, has been a massive critical and commercial success, winning an Evening Standard Theatre Award, as well as Olivier and Critics' Circle Awards. It transferred to the New London Theatre earlier this year and is expected to go on tour.

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