Author Michael Morpurgo on War Horse and Hollywood, and how its sequel Farm Boy is hitting the Edinburgh stage.BBC News - Michael Morpurgo on War Horse and beyond British Broadcasting CorporationHome Accessibility links Mobile Skip to content Skip to local navigation Skip to bbc.co.uk navigation Skip to bbc.co.uk search Help Accessibility Help Entertainment Home UK Africa Asia-Pac Europe Latin America Mid-East South Asia US Canada Business Health Sci/Environment Tech Entertainment Video 29 July 2010 Last updated at 07:22 GMT Share this page Delicious Digg Facebook reddit StumbleUpon Twitter Email Print Michael Morpurgo on War Horse and beyond By Tim Masters Entertainment correspondent, BBC News Morpurgo has written more than 100 books With Steven Spielberg about to film War Horse and a stage production of Farm Boy opening in Edinburgh, things are looking good for the author Michael Morpurgo. The former childrens laureate is no stranger to stage or screen adaptations of his books, though few have had the galloping success of War Horse. The West End hit transfers to Broadway in March 2011, with Spielbergs movie version due out the following August. The cast includes Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Benedict Cumberbatch (currently in TVs Sherlock), Peter Mullan and Jeremy Irvine. The book tells the story of a farm horse, Joey, who gets separated from his owner and ends up in the trenches of World War I. Whats astonishing is that War Horse made it this far at all. Morpurgo, who wrote the book in 1982, admits it did nothing spectacular for years. It nearly won a prize but failed. It was translated into three or four languages. It was published in America and didnt succeed. It stayed in print - just about - for about 25 years. It simply was not a book that anyone really knew about or cared about. 'Spellbinding' Spielberg All that changed when it came to the attention of the National Theatre, which was on the look-out for an animal-centric drama. The show opened in 2007 to widespread acclaim. And then Hollywood came knockin...
