Official plot synopsis for Spielberg's Devon-based War Horse

Steven Spielberg fell for Devon in a big way, according to Michael Morpugo. The director was shooting his adaptation of Devon writer Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse on Dartmoor.

DreamWorks have released the official synopsis to Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, which was shot in Devon last summer.

Regular readers will remember that the Hollywood ledge filmed the big-screen adap of Devon writer Michael Morpurgo’s tome at Ringmore Down, on the outskirts of the moorland village of Meavy, back in August.

According to Morpurgo, Spielberg ‘was clearly enthralled by the countryside. He fell for Devon in a big way’.

Of course, the synopsis isn’t all that revealing -the film is based on a play that was, in turn, adapted from a children’s book so there aren’t many surprises to be had. Still, there are a coupla new details.

From director Steven Spielberg comes War Horse, an epic adventure for audiences of all ages.

Set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War, War Horse begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him.

When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets -British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter -before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man’s Land.

The First World War is experienced through the journey of this horse -an odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure.

War Horse is one of the great stories of friendship and war -a successful book, it was turned into a hugely successful international theatrical hit that is arriving on Broadway next year. It now comes to screen in an epic adaptation by one of the great directors in film history.

That would be Steven Spielberg, then -though you wouldn’t know it, judging by his recent projects. Yes, we’re talking Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and The Lovely Bones.

Still, he did produce the Coens’ critically acclaimed True Grit (lensed, of course, by Torquay’s Roger Deakins) and HBO’s The Pacific mini-series, and had a hand in forthcoming sci-fi flicks Super 8 and Cowboys And Aliens so we guess it all kinda evens out.

What’s more interesting is that the main competition for Spielberg’s War Horse next Christmas will be, erm, Spielberg’s Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn.

The Tintin flick (for Sony/Paramount) opens in the States on December 23 and War Horse (for Disney/DreamWorks) opens just five days later on December 28 (looking for that all-important Oscars buzz).

It’s much the same situation in the UK, but we get to see both movies before the Yanks. War Horse is released on September 9 while Tintin is released on October 26.