Empire is claiming the exclusive on the official cast list for Steven Spielberg’s new film, an adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse (the mag don’t say where they got the info, but they’re presenting it as 100% legit). It seems reports that Eddie Redmayne had scored the main role of farm boy Albert were premature, as it appears little known actor Jeremy Irvine, whose only IMDB credit is the UK Disney Channel series Life Bites, but who’s had stage roles with both the National Youth Theatre and the RSC, has scored the central role.
War Horse in the dramatic tale of a boy, Albert, and his horse, Joey, who are separated when the animal is sold off to go to war in 1914. However their fates are intertwined and while the horse faces increasing horrors, seeing the front line from both the British and German sides, he is eventually reunited with his former owner, who by that point is old enough to have joined the war effort himself.
Other people who’ve signed up or are in talks for the film include Peter Mullan and Emily Watson, as Albert’s mum and dad, as well as David Thewlis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephen Graham, Tom Hiddleston (an actor for whom the rumours have proved more accurate than with Redmayne), Niels Arestrup, Celine Bucken, David Kross, Patrick Kennedy, Rainer Bock, Nicolas Bro, Leonard Carow.
The film, scripted by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) and Richard Curtis, will start shooting in August, and as Empire notes, it’s the first time Spielberg has filmed in England since Saving Private Ryan. However with the director casting an Irish actress as the mother and a Scottish actor as the father, it’ll be interesting to see if they’re keeping the Devon origins of the family, or if westcountry accents were a bit much the great bearded one. The film will his cinemas August 10th, 2011.