Galloway, Stephen (2 December 2011). " 'War Horse': The Making of Steven Spielberg's WWI Epic". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 18 August 2018 . Retrieved 18 August 2018. Cast Revealed For Spielberg's War Horse, Lead Role Goes Elsewhere". The Film Stage. 17 June 2010 . Retrieved 17 June 2010. Dartmoor News: War Horse at Ditsworthy". Dartmoor News Magazine. Archived from the original on 14 August 2011 . Retrieved 30 March 2011. Minow, Nell (7 February 2020). "Waiting for Anya movie review (2020)". RogerEbert.com . Retrieved 13 February 2020. Together with his wife Clare he founded Farms for City Children, an educational charity, in 1976. The organisation now runs three farms welcoming over 3,000 children a year. In 1999 he was awarded an MBE for services to youth, and in 2006 he was awarded an OBE.

War Horse was distributed in North America by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures through its Touchstone Pictures label on 25 December 2011, [111] [112] making it the first Spielberg-directed film to be distributed through Walt Disney Studios. The film's North American release date was originally set for 10 August 2011, but after a meeting in London between DreamWorks and Disney executives in early October 2010, when some footage was screened, the decision was taken to move its release to 28 December in the holiday period, [113] and in the United Kingdom on 13 January 2012. [114] DreamWorks executive Stacey Snider said, "The reaction to the footage—which [Spielberg] usually never shows—was that it feels like a big, holiday movie … It just became inevitable that we would move it. [Spielberg] feels great about it." [113] Morpurgo, Michael (31 March 2009). "Morpurgo: War Horse is a story I had to write". Evening Standard. London. Archived from the original on 10 January 2012 . Retrieved 8 March 2011. St Faith's Headmaster letter of recommendation". Archived from the original on 27 August 2018 . Retrieved 2 April 2020. a b c d Fergusson, Maggie (2012). Michael Morpurgo: War Child to War Horse. HarperCollins UK. ISBN 9780007387298. Hallett, Claire (16 March 2010). "A Week in the life of War Horse (or on the outskirts)". My Blog, Indi-pen.com. Archived from the original on 8 February 2012 . Retrieved 5 May 2011.

‘An Entertainment Phenomenon’

Morpurgo, Michael (2010). "An Interview with Michael Morpurgo". War Horse. Scholastic Inc. p.167. ISBN 9780545311854. Smallman, Etan (7 October 2015). "Penguin Books' defining cultural moment". The Independent. Archived from the original on 14 May 2022 . Retrieved 5 Janua a b c Williams, Matthew (16 October 2010). "On the hunt for Spielberg's War Horse in Surrey ..." Surrey Life. Surrey. Archived from the original on 9 March 2011 . Retrieved 27 February 2011. War Horse made several critics' lists of the best films of 2011. Richard Corliss of Time named it the fifth best film of 2011, saying. "Boldly emotional, nakedly heartfelt, War Horse will leave only the stoniest hearts untouched". [150] David Chen of /Film selected War Horse as 2011's best film. [151] Awards

Steven Spielberg was told about War Horse by several people, including Kennedy, his colleague at Amblin Entertainment. [20] [21] [22] After discussions with Revel Guest, on 16 December 2009, it was announced that DreamWorks Pictures had acquired the film rights to the book, with Spielberg stating: "From the moment I read Michael Morpurgo's novel War Horse, I knew this was a film I wanted DreamWorks to make … Its heart and its message provide a story that can be felt in every country." [23] [24] Spielberg saw the London production of the play on 1 February 2010, and met some of the cast afterwards. [25] [26] [27] He admitted to being moved to tears by the performance. [28]

The smash hit National Theatre production

a b Grundy, Eddie (26 July 2010). "Spielburg on Dartmoor? I join 1000+ hopefuls for extras casting". Okehampton People. Okehampton. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012 . Retrieved 27 February 2011. Conversely, Simon Winder of The Guardian wrote that the film, "despite twisting and turning to be even-handed, simply could not help itself and, like some faux-reformed alcoholic, gorged itself on an entire miniature liqueur selection of Anglo-German clichés". [148] David Denby of The New Yorker wrote that "The horses themselves are magnificent, and maybe that's reason enough to see the movie. But War Horse is a bland, bizarrely unimaginative piece of work". [149] Accolades [ edit ] The Making of Spielberg's War Horse". Horse Canada. 16 November 2011. Archived from the original on 30 April 2012 . Retrieved 5 September 2020. Denby, David (2 January 2012). "Battle Stations". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014 . Retrieved 4 May 2020. Bloxham, Andy (4 December 2011). "War Horse author Michael Morpurgo's chance meet with granddaughter of story's inspiration". Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 5 December 2011 . Retrieved 4 December 2011.