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Initial casting has been announced for Steven Spielberg's forthcoming film adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's novel War Horse, according to a report on Empire.com.

As previously reported, Lee Hall and Richard Curtis will write the screenplay for the film, which is scheduled to reach theaters on August 11, 2011.

Set against the backdrop of World War I, the book follows the friendship between a boy and a horse who are separated but whose fates continue to intertwine over the course of the Great War.

The film will feature Jeremy Irvine, Benedict Cumberbatch, Robert Emms, Patrick Kennedy, Emily Watson, Peter Mullan, David Thewlis, Niels Arestrup, Celine Buckens, David Kross, Rainer Bock, Nicolas Bro, and Leonard Carow. Additional casting is still to be announced.

A stage adaptation of the work, by Nick Stafford, began a run at the National Theatre in London in 2007, and transferred to the West End in 2009, where it is still running. A production of the show will be presented by Lincoln Center Theatre at the Vivian Beaumont beginning in March 2011. .