Steven Spielberg's "War Horse" - First Look

"War Horse" tells the story of a young man named Albert 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 One. Despite being too young to enlist, Albert heads to France to save his friend.

Filmed entirely in England the film stars Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock), Eddie Marsan (Dissapearance of Alice Creed, Little Dorrit) and David Thewlis (Black Beauty, Dragonheart) and is based on the children's book of the same name by Michael Morpurgo and the stage adaptation by Nick Stafford.

The screen adaptation is written by Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Blackadder, Nottinghill) and Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) and is produced by Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, directed by Steven Spielberg with music by John Williams.

The trailer looks beautiful and from what I have heard about the book and stage show, you may need to bring some tissues to the theatre for this one !

Sherlock to become a Dragon !

It was revealed yesterday that Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch will be joining the cast of "The Hobbit" to play Smaug the Dragon via motion capture and also to voice the Necromancer.

Benedict's "Sherlock" co-star Martin Freeman, who himself is playing Bilbo Baggins, revealed that Benedict was joining the cast at the Bafta's last month so it's good to confirm the roles he is playing.

This is of course not the first time an actor has played two roles in a Middle Earth film. John Rhys Davies played both Gimli and voiced Treebeard in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Strangely enough, in a rather odd coincidence John recently voiced the role of Dr Watson in "Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes" ????

It's no surprise really that Benedict has been cast in Peter Jackson's two part epic tale. In the incestuous world of film making its always been a case of six degrees of separation...........or more a case of six degrees of Kevin Bacon.......

Basically.....Peter Jackson is producing and directing the two Hobbit films. He is also producing the Tin Tin films which star Andy Serkis (Gollum) as Captain Haddock. They are being co-written by Steven Moffat and he writes Sherlock, which stars Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch. Its a case of scratch my back and I will scratch yours I guess. In fact , don't be surprised if you see some Hobbit cameos in the second series of Sherlock.