Get ready, because the Oscar campaign and marketing push for Steven Spielberg‘s “War Horse” is about to begin. While we got a teaser trailer for the film this summer, “War Horse” is one of the small handful of awards season pics that has yet to be screened for anybody at all. Spielberg doesn’t need the reassurance of the fall festival circuit or any early thumbs up from critics because his track record stands on its own. But will audiences want to deal with a WWI movie during the holiday season? We’re betting that since it’s coming from Spielberg, they won’t mind one bit.
Based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo, which has also been turned into an acclaimed stage play, the film follows a young man named Albert (Jeremy Irvine) 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 I. Despite being too young to enlist, Albert heads to France to save his friend. It’s not surprising that Spielberg was able to line up a formidable cast with Emily Watson, Peter Mullan, David Thewlis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Niels Arestrup, Nicolas Bro, David Kross, Leonard Carow, Rainer Bock, Robert Emms and Patrick Kennedy all on board. The first poster unveiled by EW pretty much says it all and promises a grand, old-fashioned, amber-toned drama with the Spielberg touch. That’s just fine by us.
“War Horse” will hit theaters on December 28th. Full one sheet below.
