One of the big unanswered questions in Hollywood in 2010 has been that of Steven Spielberg’s next project. After his remake of “Harvey” fell apart when first choice Robert Downey Jr turned down the lead role, the most famous living director has been mulling up his options, which were thought to include the long-gestating “Lincoln,” a biopic of George Gershwin, and a fifth Indiana Jones movie.
Today’s brought the news that he’s finally picked a project, and fingers crossed, it should be a good one. Just before Christmas, it was reported that Spielberg would produce an adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s acclaimed children’s novel “War Horse,” and we speculated at the time that he may end up directing the project. As it turns out, he will be; Production Weekly revealed that the project is set for release on August 10th next year, while Variety confirmed that Spielberg will be directing.
The book follows a young man named Albert and his horse, Joey, and how their bond is broken when Joey is sold to the cavalry and sent to the trenches of World War One. Despite being too young to enlist, Albert heads to France to save his friend. As it might sound, the book’s a real tearjerker, and a stage version (which the film will also be based on) has been playing to full houses in London since 2007.
It’s a very Spielbergian concept, falling somewhere between one of his boy’s own adventures, and the more serious fare like “Schindler’s List” or, in particular, “Empire of the Sun.” We do still have concerns; Variety say that Richard Curtis will be writing the script, alongside “Billy Elliot” scribe Lee Hall (which we imagine means that Hall is off the project, and Curtis is rewriting), so we can already see it veering towards sentimentality. Similarly, the August release date seems a little odd — that time of year is normally given to dumb action fare and sub-par horror flicks. But we’re sure there’s a method to Dreamwork’s madness there.
