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. Tony Award winner Lee Hall and Richard Curtis have written the screenplay for the film.

The film features 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.

The stage adaptation of the work, by Nick Stafford, which began at the National Theatre in London in 2007, continues to run at the West End's New London Theatre, and on Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater's Vivian Beaumont Theater, where it won several 2011 Tony Awards including Best New Play. As previously announced, a U.S. tour of the play is scheduled to launch in June 2012 with an engagement at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.