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War Horse (2011)
War Horse is a 2011 war drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, from a screenplay written by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis. It is based on Michael Morpurgo's 1982 novel and its 2007 stage adaptation. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Peter Mullan, Emily Watson, Niels Arestrup, Jeremy Irvine, David Thewlis, Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch. Set before and during World War I, its…
Directed by Steven Spielberg · Shot by Janusz Kamiński · Cut by Michael Kahn · Music by John Williams · Ratio 2.35:1 · 146 min
How it was made
- Filming operated under the codename Dartmoor to keep the production secret, running about 64 days in total.
- A cavalry charge involving 130 extras was filmed at Stratfield Saye House, the Duke of Wellington's estate, where Wellington's own war horse, Copenhagen, is buried.
- Screenwriter Richard Curtis produced more than a dozen drafts of the script over three months in close collaboration with Spielberg.
- After seeing photographs of locations scouted by producer Kathleen Kennedy, Spielberg expanded a planned four or five days of second-unit filming in Devon into two and a half weeks of extensive landscape photography, cutting other story elements to make room for it.
- The production used around 5,800 extras in total, with Ditsworthy Warren House, an isolated Grade II listed building near Sheepstor on Dartmoor, serving as the Narracott family farmhouse.
Behind the scenes
Elsewhere
More by Steven Spielberg
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