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Based on Michael Morpurgo’s 1982 novel of the same name, Steven Spielberg’s 2011 film War Horse received widespread praise upon its release. However, one notable individual that the film failed to impress is the original author of the story, Morpurgo himself, who later said that the film adaptation could have been much better.

War Horse (2011) | Credit: IMDb

The English book author, known prominently for his children’s novels, has shared that he is not a big fan of his book adaptations, including Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated film while arguing that it’s challenging for him to fully embrace cinematic interpretations of his own stories.

Steven Spielberg’s War Horse Failed to Impress its Original Author

Starring an ensemble cast including Jeremy Irvine, Tom Hiddleston, and Benedict Cumberbatch, Steven Spielberg’s 2011 film War Horse centers around a boy, Albert, and his horse Joey. After Joey is sold to British cavalry during World War I,...

“The Last of Us” star Bella Ramsey will take on the role of one of the U.K.’s most mysterious and infamous modern day figures in “Girl Next Door” from writer/director Bruce Goodison (“Leave to Remain”).

The film — which Celsius Entertainment has acquired world sales rights to and will launch in Cannes — is set to tell the story of Samantha Lewthwaite, who became known as ‘The White Widow’ and one of the world’s most wanted women.

As per the plot details, “Girl Next Door” centres on Lewthwaite (Ramsey), who fell in love with Islam long before being Muslim was politicised and militarised and became known as ‘The White Widow’. What began as teenage curiosity about an “exotic” and welcoming faith as embodied by her neighbours and best friend, ended with Samantha being consumed by its more radical fringes. We follow Sam in the days following the 7/7 attacks...

The cast of After We Fell, the third and middle installment in the After series, includes original cast members alongside a few replacements. The film hit theaters in 2021, following After in 2019 and After We Collided. After We Fell was directed by Castille Landon and written by Sharon Soboil, and was based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Anna Todd. The After movie series follow an innocent young woman named Tessa Young who falls for bad boy Hardin Scott during her first year at college. In After We Collided, Tessa’s career goals clash with her relationship, and her mysteriously absent father is introduced.

Tessa and Hardin’s tumultuous romance has survived the first two After films, but their relationship is plagued by family drama in After We Fell. After We Fell was filmed at the same time as After Ever Happy, the fourth film in the series which released in 2022. Contradicting previous assumptions,...

George MacKay delivers a star-making performance in “1917.” After making his film debut at age 10 in the 2003 live-action “Peter Pan,” he played occasional film and TV roles and realized at age 19 “acting is what I wanted to do.” Since then, he’s appeared in an earlier WWI saga, “Private Peaceful,” and played Viggo Mortensen’s rebellious son in “Captain Fantastic” — and he has three more films coming up.

When you started acting, did you have any role models?

I liked performances that are commanding, brave and big, like John Leguizamo in Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet,” and I loved everyone in “Gladiator.” As I got older, I would hear actors talking about “smaller is better, less is more.” I understood that when I saw Al Pacino in the“Godfather” movies. He does nothing, but he does everything; it’s all going on with him.

What was your first reaction on reading the “1917” script?...

Simon Reade’s critically acclaimed Irish production of the one-man play Private Peaceful starring Shane O’Regan will make its New York debut Off Broadway in August, producers said today. Reade (screenwriter on 2017’s Journey’s End) adapted the play from the novel by War Horse author Michael Morpurgo.

Earlier productions of the play have been staged on London’s West End, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Bristol Old Vic. The current production starring O’Regan began touring Ireland last year.

Producers Pemberley Productions and Ireland’s Verdant Productions said today that Private Peaceful will play a limited six-week engagement at Manhattan’s Tbg Mainstage Theatre from August 28 through October 7, with the official opening set for Thursday, September 6.

Morpurgo’s young adult novel was first published in 2003, and Reade’s stage adaptation was first produced the following year at the Bristol Old Vic. Reade also adapted the novel into...

Exclusive: Lionsgate nabs UK rights to Saul Dibb feature.

Lionsgate UK has picked up rights to Sam Claflin war drama Journey’s End from Metro International.

The Hunger Games and Me Before You star Claflin plays the lead role in the adaptation of R.C. Sherriff’s 1928 classic stage play about trench warfare.

Co-starring are Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind), Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire) Asa Butterfield (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children), Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Tom Sturridge (Far From the Madding Crowd). Saul Dibb (The Duchess) directs.

Natalie Brenner, Metro International head of sales, negotiated the deal with Nick Manzi, head of production and acquisitions, Lionsgate UK.

The film, currently in post-production, is adapted for the screen by Simon Reade (Private Peaceful).

In Journey’s End, 18-year-old new recruit Lieutenant Raleigh (Butterfield) has pulled strings to join his childhood friend and hero Captain Stanhope (Claflin) on the front line. However, Stanhope...

Four films, including the latest projects from Amma Asante, Mike Leigh and Lynne Ramsay, were granted more than £1m in production funding in 2016.

Four films received more than £1m in production funding through the BFI Film Fund this year, with Mike Leigh’s anticipated Peterloo drama leading the way with an award of £1.46m.

The BFI backed around 30 projects with production funding up until December 15. Since launching the BFI Film Fund six years ago, the organisation’s biggest single production grant remains the £2m awarded to Aardman and Studiocanal’s animation Early Man in 2015.

The ten biggest awards of 2016:

1. Peterloo (£1,461,000)

Mike Leigh’s Peterloo massacre drama is set to depict the protest of more than 60,000 people for parliamentary reform in 1819 and the death of 15 protesters who were charged down by British cavalry troops. Dick Pope, the director’s frequent collaborator, will be the cinematographer for the film, while Georgina Lowe will be executive producer after performing...

Exclusive: Shoot underway on adaptation of Wwi classic; Asa Butterfield, Paul Bettany, Toby Jones co-star.

The BFI has boarded production finance on director Saul Dibb’s (Suite Française) adaptation of the classic British stage play Journey’s End.

Principal photography got underway earlier this month in Cardiff and Ipswich on the feature which stars Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games) in the lead role alongside Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind), Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire) Asa Butterfield (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children), Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Tom Sturridge (Far From the Madding Crowd).

Simon Reade’s adaptation of R.C. Sherriff’s 1928 play also draw’s on the latter’s novel co-written with author Vernon Bartlett. Guy de Beaujeu is producing with Reade through their production company, Fluidity Films (Private Peaceful).

#waiting for our #JourneysEnd pic.twitter.com/bh7yFjie3w

— Sam Claflin (@samclaflin) November 16, 2016

Sam Claflin tweets from the set of Journey's End.

[p...

Exclusive: Shoot underway on adaptation of Wwi classic; Asa Butterfield, Paul Bettany, Toby Jones co-star.

The BFI has boarded production finance on director Saul Dibb’s (Suite Française) adaptation of the classic British stage play Journey’s End.

Principal photography is underway in Cardiff and Ipswich on the feature which stars Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games) in the lead role alongside Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind), Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire) Asa Butterfield (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children), Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Tom Sturridge (Far From the Madding Crowd).

Simon Reade’s adaptation of R.C. Sherriff’s 1928 play also draw’s on the latter’s novel co-written with author Vernon Bartlett. Guy de Beaujeu is producing with Reade through their production company, Fluidity Films (Private Peaceful).

Director of photography is Laurie Rose whose most recent credits include Free Fire and High Rise. The creative team includes editor Tania Reddin, production Designer...

Exclusive: The Riot Club duo join Charlotte Rampling in upcoming comedy sold by Goldcrest.

Holliday Grainger (Cinderella) and Max Irons (Woman In Gold) are to join Charlotte Rampling (45 Years) in Jane Austen adaptation Sanditon, which is due to shoot in the UK in June.

The adaptation of Jane Austen’s never-before dramatised final novel will be directed by Jim O’Hanlon (A Hundred Streets), director of the 2009 BBC TV adaptation of Austen’s Emma.

Script comes from British playwright Simon Reade who produces with Guy de Beaujeu for Fluidity Films (Private Peaceful). Goldcrest Films will finance and handle sales.

In Sanditon, when Charlotte Heywood (Holliday Grainger) is invited by eternal optimist and entrepreneur Tom Parker to spend the summer season at Sanditon she accepts immediately, intrigued to see (not so) polite society at play in the newly fashionable sea bathing resort.

There she meets a host of classic Austen characters from the imperious nouveau-riche Lady Denham (Rampling...

After four-and-a-half years of marriage Catt Sadler has filed for divorce from British film producer Rhys David Thomas.

The E! News correspondent filed papers today in Los Angeles.

Sadler and Thomas, who produced Offender, and Private Peaceful, eloped in December 2011. Sadler, the international spokesperson for the Women Like Us Foundation, has two sons from a previous marriage.

In a statement released through a representative exclusively to People, the popular E! News Weekend co-host is hopeful, insisting that she and Thomas will remain friends throughout this amicable split.

"I'm excited about this next chapter of my life," Sadler says. "Change is never easy,...

After four-and-a-half years of marriage Catt Sadler has filed for divorce from British film producer Rhys David Thomas. The E! News correspondent filed papers today in Los Angeles. Sadler and Thomas, who produced Offender, and Private Peaceful, eloped in December 2011. Sadler, the international spokesperson for the Women Like Us Foundation, has two sons from a previous marriage. In a statement released through a representative exclusively to People, the popular E! News Weekend co-host is hopeful, insisting that she and Thomas will remain friends throughout this amicable split. "I'm excited about this next chapter of my life," Sadler says. "Change is never easy,...

While Charlotte Rampling may have scuttled her Oscar chances because of her recent remarks about the diversity controversy in Hollywood (which she later clarified), the "45 Years" actress is soldiering on with a Jane Austen adaptation that is not "Sense And Sensibility," "Pride And Prejudice," "Mansfield Park," "Emma" or "Persuasion." Read More: Review: Andrew Haigh's Elegant And Empathetic '45 Years' Starring Charlotte Rampling & Tom Courtenay Screen Daily reports that Rampling will star in "Sanditon," an unfinished Austen novel that has never seen a big-screen version. Jim O’Hanlon, who directed a 2009 BBC TV version of "Emma," will be behind the camera of this Simon Reade ("Private Peaceful")-penned story that follows a young woman who summers at Sanditon, looking for love. Here's the book synopsis: Charlotte the Heywood, captivating heroine of Sanditon, is smart,...

Exclusive: Goldcrest boards sales on adaptation of Austen’s final novel.

Oscar-nominee Charlotte Rampling (45 Years) is to star in a film adaptation of Jane Austen’s never-before dramatised final novel Sanditon.

Jim O’Hanlon (A Hundred Streets), director of the 2009 BBC TV adaptation of Austen’s Emma, will direct from a script by British playwright Simon Reade who produces with Guy de Beaujeu for Fluidity Films (Private Peaceful).

Goldcrest Film has boarded sales and finance on the project on the verge of the Efm. Goldcrest’s Nick Quested and Pascal Degove will serve as executive producers.

Production is anticipated to begin in summer 2016 in the UK with additional casting underway.

Austen died in July, 1817 having written the first eleven chapters of Sanditon. The unfinished manuscript, which blends the writer’s hallmark coruscating satire and romantic comedy, was bequeathed to her niece.

Rampling is due to play the imperious nouveau-riche Lady Denham in the feature which charts the story...

Exclusive: Claflin, Freddie Highmore, Paul Bettany attached to feature adaptation.

The Hunger Games’ Sam Claflin is attached to star as Captain Stanhope in the screen adaptation of R.C. Sheriff’s Wwi classic play Journey’s End.

Freddie Highmore (Bates Motel) is due to co-star as Raleigh while Paul Bettany (Margin Call) and Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) are also attached in leading roles.

Set in the trenches over four days in 1918, Journey’s End follows a group of soldiers as they prepare for an enemy attack with new recruit Raleigh joining the company commanded by 20 year old Captain Stanhope, his former childhood friend and hero, who has changed almost beyond recognition following harrowing service at the front.

The film will be produced by Guy de Beaujeu and Simon Reade (Private Peaceful), from the latter’s screenplay adaptation.

UK sales outfit Metro International will be selling the project at the Afm and is understood to be in...

Exclusive: Claflin, Freddie Highmore, Paul Bettany attached to feature adaptation.

The Hunger Games’ Sam Claflin is attached to star as Captain Stanhope in the screen adaptation of R.C. Sheriff’s Wwi classic play Journey’s End.

Freddie Highmore (Bates Motel) is due to co-star as Raleigh while Paul Bettany (Margin Call) and Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) are also attached in leading roles.

Set in the trenches over four days in 1918, Journey’s End follows a group of soldiers as they prepare for an enemy attack with new recruit Raleigh joining the company commanded by 20 year old Captain Stanhope, his former childhood friend and hero, who has changed almost beyond recognition following harrowing service at the front.

The film will be produced by Guy de Beaujeu and Simon Reade (Private Peaceful), from the latter’s screenplay adaptation.

UK sales outfit Metro International will be selling the project at the Afm and is understood to be in...

Brother to Brother: O’Connor’s Rudimentary Look at Familial Ravages in WWII

His first film since that ill-advised 2001 remake of Sweet November, which sought to rekindle interest in possible on-screen chemistry between Charlize Theron and Keanu Reeves, Irish director Pat O’Connor revisits darker, historical themes with Private Peaceful, a WWII tale as told through the eyes of two brothers from Devon. It’s perhaps the most serious subject O’Connor has tackled since some of his more celebrated 80s titles, like the Ira romance thriller Cal (1984) which nabbed Helen Mirren one of her two Best Actress wins at Cannes. And yet, while it’s great to find O’Connor avoiding the type of soapy schmaltz he careened into during his last several features, his dip into the over explored WWII era never manages to register as emotionally, thematically, or narratively resonant.

Private Tommo (George MacKay) sits in a British army cell,...

Two British privates named Peaceful fight side by side in the trenches of World War I, and both face the wrath of their superior officers in a court-martial. Director Pat O'Connor constructs Private Peaceful as a mystery, using flashbacks to reveal the intertwined lives of brothers Charlie (Jack O'Connell) and Tommo (George MacKay) as one of them awaits the firing squad. Both the young-adult novel by Michael Morpurgo (War Horse) and screenwriter Simon Reade's 2004 stage adaptation employ the first-person narrative of teenage Tommo, and the director's decision to open up the story to other perspectives makes this Private Peaceful feel more shaded and mature, with echoes of O'Connor's wistful A Month in the Country and haunting Cal (whose John L...

Filming is underway in Stroud, Gloucestershire and surrounding villages, on The Casual Vacancy, the BBC One/HBO adaptation of Jk Rowling’s global bestseller.

The confirmed ensemble cast includes Michael Gambon, Keeley Hawes, Rory Kinnear, Monica Dolan, Rufus Jones, Michele Austin, Julia McKenzie, Keeley Forsyth, Lolita Chakrabarti, and Richard Glover, alongside whom casting director Lucy Bevan has assembled a cast of newcomers for the younger stars.

Abigail Lawrie (represented by Gordon & French) stars as Krystal Weedon. 18 year old Abigail, was a pupil at Harrodian School, the same school as Ee BAFTA Rising Star nominee George Mackay.

Simona Brown (represented by Iag) plays Gaia Bawden. Simona appeared as Kim in acclaimed BBC Three docudrama Murdered By My Boyfriend, played Jazz in Cbbc series Wizards vs Aliens, and earlier this year filmed on Big Talk feature film Man Up.

15 year old Welsh actor Joe Hurst (represented by On It Artists) plays Andrew 'Arf' Price.

A visceral, swaggering performance in the prison drama is set to help propel the former Skins star to stardom. He reveals why 2014 is lining up to be his big year – and why he's ready for it

Jack O'Connell is not pissing about. These are his words. He has just put in the performance of his career in prison drama Starred Up, he's shooting Angelina Jolie's Unbroken – an account of the life of Olympic runner and second-world-war hero Louis Zamperini – in which he again takes the lead, and he's about to tackle a blockbuster with Zack Snyder in 300: Rise of an Empire. He has been acting for 10 years. He's done with partying – he's ready to justify himself. He's intense and focused, older and wiser than the kid who came up through the ranks of the E4 teen drama Skins. He's 23 years old.

I meet O'Connell at the tail end...

Handsome, soulful and sensitive, George MacKay – one of the stars of the Proclaimers musical Sunshine on Leith – has all the makings of a leading man. And he's only 21

Every actor knows the perils of overexposure. Flavour of the month is fine; a glut is not so good. At the 2005 Oscars, Chris Rock ribbed Jude Law about his roles "in every movie I have seen in the last four years". Last year, Jessica Chastain pre-empted the backlash, calling herself "the unknown everyone's already sick of". George MacKay is not yet in danger of wearing out his welcome. But it would take a dedicated enthusiast indeed to catch all of his movies that open in the UK today.

In two of them, the soft-spoken Londoner offers two distinct Scottish accents: as a former squaddie in the Proclaimers musical Sunshine on Leith, and as the tortured survivor of a fishing accident in low-budget drama For Those in Peril.

British stage, film and television actor Richard Griffiths died yesterday due to complications in the aftermath of heart surgery at Coventry hospital. He was 65 years old. Though best remembered for his performance as Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter flicks, Griffiths was a well-respected name on the British stage, having won a number of awards ( Tony. Laurence Olivier, and Drama Desk awards.) for playing a free-spirited gay teacher -- who likes his male teenage students a tad too much -- in Alan Bennett's play The History Boys. (Pictured above: Griffiths in the film version of The History Boys, co-starring Dominic Cooper.) Griffiths was also a well-regarded movie actor -- though not as a result of his work on the Harry Potter movies. His prestige lay on his work on low-budget, independently made British efforts such as Nicholas Hytner's outstanding film adapation of The History Boys (released in 2006) and...

As 007's latest outing goes from strength to strength, the arrival of the final Twilight film will do nothing to help the chasing pack

The winner

A week ago, Skyfall was already the 13th biggest hit of all time at the UK box-office, with £53.4m earned in just 10 days. Seven days later, and it's jumped to the fifth biggest film of all time, overtaking big hitters including Mamma Mia!, all three entries in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the first two Harry Potter flicks. After 17 days, it's earned an astonishing £72m, and in the all-time rankings is beaten only by Avatar (£94m), Titanic (£80.1m, including this year's 3D rerelease), Toy Story 3 (£73.8m), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (£73.1m). It should overtake the last two on that list in a couple of days.

With £10.45m over the 9-11 November period, Skyfall has comfortably achieved...

Sunshine on Leith, a film adapted by Stephen Greenhorn from his hit stage musical featuring the music of The Proclaimers, is currently shooting for six weeks in and around Edinburgh and Glasgow, and stars Peter Mullan and Jane Horrocks.

Directed by Dexter Fletcher – who helmed this year’s critically acclaimed Wild Bill – it tells the story of two army friends who return home to Leith from Afghanistan. One of them finds the love of his life, while the other loses the girl he left behind.

The two soldiers are played by 20 year old George MacKay (represented by Gordon and French) most recently seen in Private Peaceful and soon to be seen in How I Live Now opposite Saoirse Ronan, and 24 year old Scottish actor Kevin Guthrie who trained at Rcs, in his first film role.

Skins star Freya Mavor (represented by Hamilton Hodell), who recently filmed on another Glasgow-based film Not Another Happy Ending,...

As announced back in March, Skins is set to return for a final time next year, and E4 and Company Pictures today announced the details of the new series.

It will mark a departure in style and will see three former stars returning to the roles which shaped their careers in three individual stories, each one broadcast in two, one hour parts.

Written by series creators Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain with Jess Brittain, the stories go into new territory; more adult, more uncompromising. Each two part story centres on the characters now in their early twenties, the party's over and they're starting out as young adults, struggling to find a direction and a focus in unforgiving times.

Kaya Scodelario, the only cast member to appear in all previous six series of Skins, returns in Fire, written by Jess Brittain.

Effy has a dead end job as a receptionist for a leading London Hedge Fund.

You’d be forgiven for confusing Private Peaceful with one of this year’s Best Picture nominees at the Academy Awards. Both are based on a Michael Morpurgo novel that was adapted into a successful stage play. Both feature sun-dappled depictions of rural England, decidedly dodgy ’Westcountry’ accents and a sentimental, yet powerful take on the horrors of the First World War. Both include talented young British actors alongside solid veterans.

But – and here’s the rub – only War Horse had Steven Spielberg in the director’s chair. Pat O’Connor (Circle of Friends, Dancing at Lughnasa) is a reliable pair of hands, but his first film in 11 years has more in common with the gentle, Goodnight Mister Tom school of period dramas than big-budget, Oscar-bait epics.

On the eve of a court martial and possible death sentence on the Western Front, Tommo Peaceful (George Mackay) looks back on his life – a bucolic,...

On The Road (15)

(Walter Salles, 2012, Fra/UK/Us/Bra) Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Kirsten Dunst, Tom Sturridge. 124 mins

It was the book that defined a generation, but On The Road has taken several more generations to get to the screen, which dissipates the energy somewhat. Added to which, Jack Kerouac's hip prose was never exactly movie-friendly. This is appropriately scenic, sweaty, druggy and ambisexual, but for all the forced bohemian zeal, the road feels rather long and flat. And what once passed for creative hedonism now looks more like male self-indulgence, which is never much fun to watch.

Ruby Sparks (15)

(Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris, 2012, Us) Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, Annette Bening. 104 mins

A dream girl leaps off a blocked writer's pages and into his life in this playful romcom, which takes its Pygmalion-meets-Charlie Kaufman premise into deeper realms than you'd expect. The facts that Kazan wrote the script,...

Another heartfelt Michael Morpurgo tale about the first world war, Private Peaceful is like War Horse on a smaller scale

The colossal success of Michael Morpurgo's War Horse in its stage adaptation – and then the bizarrely sugary big-screen version – must have helped to make possible this modest, heartfelt movie. Morpurgo's 2003 novel Private Peaceful has been brought to the screen, a first world war tale that is similar in many ways to War Horse but without the killer emotional punch of having an animal hero. This film looks a bit like teatime telly at some moments, and a bit People's Friend at others; there is some pretty broad character acting going on. But director Pat O'Connor has got a more genuine feel for the subject than Steven Spielberg ever showed in his own glossy production. It's the story of two brothers, Tommo and Charlie Peaceful, played by George MacKay and Jack O'Connell.

★★★☆☆ Pat O'Connor's Private Peaceful (2012) is a finely-told story of two young brothers, battling the ups n downs of childhood, the confusion and difficulties in adolescence and two of the more troubling things that could happen during the life of a young man: fighting a war for your country and falling in love. With some seriously fine performances and a simple but effective visual style that helps establish the film as a believable period piece, O'Connor's film is a solid adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's novel.

Read more »...

Liberal Arts (12A)

(Josh Radnor, 2012, Us) Josh Radnor, Elizabeth Olsen, Richard Jenkins, 97 mins

University applications could well go into terminal decline as a result of this irritatingly winsome comedy, in which an archetypal New York slacker returns to his alma mater, meets an archetypal free-spirited young student (Olsen) and relives his lost youth of music, books and self-absorbed pseudo-intellectual chit chat. It's like Woody Allen without the wit.

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (12A)

(Stephen Chbosky, 2012, Us) Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller. 103 mins

Life as a high-school outsider never looked so appealing as in this well-intentioned coming-of-ager, in which Lerman's loner is adopted by a band of bohemian outcasts. Watson's post-Potter moment is somewhat overshadowed by the flamboyant Miller.

Sinister (15)

(Scott Derrickson, 2012, Us) Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, James Ransone. 110 mins

Despite the old "just moved into a house with a terrible history" storyline, and a found-footage element, there's...

Two top young British actors, Misfits' star Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and fast-rising Welsh actress Alexandra Roach headline the cast in Utopia, a brand new six-part drama series for Channel 4 which is currently filming in Liverpool. They star alongside Paul Higgins, Neil Maskell, James Fox and Geraldine James in the conspiracy drama.

Nathan (now represented by Curtis Brown) is a Central drama school graduate and plays Curtis in E4's BAFTA-winning drama Misfits; he is the sole-surviving original cast member to appear in the up-coming 4th series. He will play Ian in Utopia, one of a group of previously unconnected people who end up in possession of a manuscript of cult graphic novel Utopia which knocks their lives out of kilter by explosive events.

Alexandra Roach (represented by Troika), who plays Becky in Utopia, was one of Screen International Stars of Tomorrow from 2011. She is a graduate of Rada drama...

Check out the new poster for Private Peaceful, a feature film based on the 2003 novel by the award-winning children’s author, Michael Morpurgo.

The story follows the journey of two brothers from childhood growing up in a rural English village, all the way to fighting in France during WW1 – a tragic, surprising and moving tale.

George MacKay (represented by Gordon and French) stars as Tommo, Alexandra Roach (represented by Troika) as Molly, and Jack O'Connell (represented by Conway Van Gelder) as Charlie.

Private Peaceful is due to be released in the UK in October 2012.

Back in December, it was announced that 18 year old Irish actress Saoirse Ronan (represented by MacFarlane Chard in the UK) had been cast in the lead role of New Yorker Daisy in the up-coming film adaptation of Meg Rosoff's best-selling young adult novel How I Live Now.

The film directed by Kevin McDonald, who helmed the BAFTA and Oscar-winning Last King of Scotland, from a screenplay by Jeremy Brock and Toni Grisoni is set to start shooting in Wales at the end of this month.

20 year old George Mackay will star opposite Saoirse as her cousin Edmond (known as Eddie in the film) with whom Daisy forms a close bond when she is sent to stay in the English countryside. George (represented by Gordon and French) started acting when he was 10 and landed the role of Curly, one of the Lost Boys in the 2003 feature Peter Pan. He has worked steadily since,...

Skins bad-boy Jack O'Connell has replaced Jamie Blackley in the role of the young hero Calisto in the 300 prequel, provisionally titled 300: Battle of Artemisia, which is set to start shooting in Bulgaria later this month.

300 was the hugely successful adaptation of the cult graphic novel series by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley set in ancient Greece, featuring an epic array of Persians, Spartans and Greeks.

300: Battle of Artemisia is a prequel centred around the Persian King, Xerxes.

Calisto,  a 16 year old whose desire to become the heroic man/soldier his father was, leads him to become the leader of a small band of soldiers. The film will also star Eva Green as Artemisia, and Australian actor Sullivan Stapleton as Themistocles.

Jack himself recently had to drop out of a role in Beautiful Creatures filming in the Us due to visa issues, which may well have made him once...

A musical feature film set in Wales, Hunky Dory was a long time coming as it struggled for funding, with open castings held for 16 to 20 year old singers in London, Manchester and Swansea back in 2009.

Filming wrapped in September 2010 and the film is finally getting its UK release in cinemas on March 2nd.

The film stars Hollywood actress Minnie Driver, whose father originally hails from Swansea, alongside an ensemble of young British talent including Aneurin Barnard (represented by Ken McReddie Associates), winner of the 2010 Olivier award for best actor in a musical for the West End musical Spring Awakening, newcomer Danielle Branch (represented by Regan Rimmer), with Fresh Meat star Kimberley Nixon (also Ken McReddie), and George Mackay (soon to be seen in upcoming feature Private Peaceful).

Hunky Dory is an engaging British twist on the heartache and heartbreak of putting on a show. In the sweltering summer of 1976 in Swansea,...

Skins star Jack O'Connell has landed the lead role in a new supernatural love story feature film ''Beautiful Creatures.''

Based on the first novel in a series known as the Caister Chronicles, it could be the start of a new Twilight-esque franchise, with Beautiful Creatures being followed by the subsequent books in the series Beautiful Darkness and Beautiful Chaos.

Jack will star alongside New Zealander Alice Englert  as the two teenage lovers - Ethan, a local boy who meets and becomes bewitched by Lena Duchannes, a 16-year-old whose family has moved to his small South Carolina town. The two must confront a curse that's haunted her family for generations as they uncover dark secrets about their families, their history and their town, and Lena  has to come to grips with her powers.

Jack (represented by Conway Van Gelder) will be seen this year in the Michael Morpugo adaptation Private Peaceful,...

With the feature film version of Great Expectations currently filming, the BBC TV version will be hitting our screens this Christmas and here's a first look at some stills of the young cast:

Oscar Kennedy (represented by Curtis Brown) who played the young Nigel Slater in last year's acclaimed TV adaptation of the TV chef's memoir Toast, takes on the role of Young Pip. He shares the role with Douglas Booth (also represented by Curtis Brown), who appeared as one of Screen International's Stars of Tomorrow 2011.

15 year old Izzy Meikle-Small (represented by United Agents) who starred as Young Cathy in Never Let Me Go, and recently filmed Young Molly in Private Peaceful, and 24 year old Vanessa Kirby (represented by Ken McReddie), who also made Screen International's Stars of Tomorrow 2011 list, share the role of Estella.

The all-star cast includes Gillian Anderson as Miss Haversham, Ray Winstone as Magwitch, and David Suchet as Mr Jaggers,...

24 year Welsh actress Alexandra Roach will be joining Dakota Fanning in Girl's Night Out.

She is to play a young Princess Elizabeth in Michael Hoffman's planned film about the future queen and her sister, Princess Margaret, being allowed out of Buckingham Palace to celebrate the end of the second world war in 1945.

Dakota Fanning became attached to the project to play a young Princess Margaret back in February as reported on Screenterrier.

Alexandra (represented by Troika) has been cast in five leading productions just a year after leaving drama school (Rada). We first saw her in Being Human, and she has since filmed The Iron Lady, Trap for Cinderella, Private Peaceful and is currently filming the role Countess Nordston opposite Keira Knightley, Jude Law and Aaron Johnson in Joe Wright's Anna Karenina.

In her first newspaper interview, she told the Observer that she was pinching herself in disbelief: "I know it sounds corny,...

Alexandra Roach left Rada only last year but the young Welsh actress has had five big parts opposite Hollywood names

Being chosen to appear in a film months after leaving drama college is the dream of every aspiring actor. For Welsh actress Alexandra Roach it is a reality. She is on the brink of international stardom, having been cast in five leading productions just a year after leaving the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada).

Aged 24, Roach's potential has been recognised by some of the industry's foremost directors and producers. She has lead roles in four forthcoming films, and a supporting role in another.

Her break came after she was spotted by Nina Gold, a casting director, in a Rada production, leading to an invitation to audition for one of the most sought-after roles for a young actress – playing the young Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, the much anticipated...

First look at Skins alumni Jack O'Connell as Charlie in the latest Michael Morpurgo film adaptation, Private Peaceful, which has been filming in Norfolk.

He's seen here with co-star Alexandra Roach as Molly, the girl that both he and his brother Tommo, (played by George McKay), fall in love with.

Private Peaceful details the gritty rural lives and loves of Tommo and Charlie – two young brothers – and their poor Devonshire family from 1909 until 1916, when the outbreak of war destroys their country idyll. Both join up (one under age) leaving behind the beautiful Molly who is the love of both their lives.

The young men survive gas attacks, shelling, German troops and the appalling deaths of their close friends. But one thing they cannot escape is summary military justice.

The film is being produced by Guy De Beaujeu and Simon Reade (also the screenwriter), and directed by Pat O’Connor, with...

Michael Morpurgo's classic is the basis of a National Army Museum exhibition tracing the history of the real war horses

Of more than 120 books Michael Morpurgo has written, War Horse is not his favourite – though he concedes his epitaph will read: "Michael Morpurgo wrote Steven Spielberg's War Horse."

His story of the horse commandeered from a Devon farm and shipped to the great war, followed by the boy who loved him, has become a phenomenon, dwarfing the rest of his works: a bestselling children's book now bought by adults, a box office smash hit play for the National Theatre in London and on Broadway, the Spielberg movie due for release within few months, and now an exhibition at the National Army Museum in London.

"I'm very fond of the book, and it is my wife's favourite – she really loves horses, and she likes the fact that its origins lie in Devon,...

Skins star Jack O'Connell joins Tim Roth, Talulah Riley and Peter Mullan in The Liability, a darkly comic thriller.

He plays Adam, a young guy who only wants to be a hitman, who is brought together by a female vigilante with an old hitman who only wants to retire.

Written by John Wrathall, the film will be directed by exciting Brit newcomer Craig Viveiros, who made his debut feature with Ghosted earlier this year, and produced by Corona Pictures.

Jack has recently completed filming on Private Peaceful.

Shooting on Liability is due to begin on Nov 21 in Northumberland, UK.

Back in May, Olly Alexander and Jack O'Connell were attached to play the leads in uwantme2killhim?, a new British film inspired by a real-life story, written by Mike Walden, and directed by Andrew Douglas.

But the delays in the start of filming have resulted in a change of cast, with 20 year old Jamie Blackley (represented by United Agents) now playing Mark.

16-year-old Mark meets local girl Rachel on the internet, he begins an intense online relationship. He quickly finds that he’s besotted, that he’ll do anything for her, even befriend her awkward, loner brother, John. When Rachel, who is trapped within the grips of a possessive boyfriend, is murdered, Mark and John make plans to avenge her death. Their actions draw the attention of a secret government department as they unwittingly stumble upon an ongoing operation. Soon Mark is recruited to commit a crime that made British legal history.

Jack O’Connell, Alexandra Roach, George Mackay, Richard Griffiths and Frances De La Tour have all joined the cast of "Private Peaceful" for Fluidity Films, Poonamallee Productions and Peppermint Pictures says Screen Daily.

Based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo ("War Horse"), the story follows the life of Tommo Peaceful from rural Devon to the front line of the trenches in World War I.

Pat O’Connor is directing from a script by Simon Reade. Shooting kicks off this week in Ipswich and Suffolk in the UK.

Michael Morpurgo, despite being an acclaimed author hasn’t found many of his novels being requested to receive the transition from book to movie. However, with Steven Spielberg having taken on the adaptation of his much celebrated novel War Horse, set to release this Christmas, it seems developers are starting to take a more in depth look at his portfolio.

The Playlist reports that his 2003 book Private Peaceful, is going to be transferred to the big screen and it seems almost everyone involved aren’t particularly well known, (excluding the author himself – no news on whether he will decide to play a part in the movie’s production himself) although lots of the names involved may ring a bell for you.

Helmed by Pat O’Connor (Sweet November, Circle of Friends) and written by Simon Reade, it shall feature Jack O’Connell, George Mackay and Alexandra Roach in the starring roles.

Shooting is due to start at the end of August on Private Peaceful, a feature film based on the 2003 novel by the award-winning children’s author, Michael Morpurgo. The story follows the journey of two brothers from childhood growing up in a rural English village, all the way to fighting in France during WW1 – a tragic, surprising and moving tale.

19 year old George MacKay (represented by Gordon and French) will star as Tommo. George started acting when he was 10 and landed the role of Curly, one of the Lost Boys in the 2003 feature Peter Pan. He has worked steadily since, and more recently he appeared in Defiance and The Boys Are Back.

Skins alumni Jack O'Connell (represented by Conway Van Gelder) will play his brother Charlie. Jack, from Derby, has worked consistently since leaving Skins starring in Dive and most recently Sky 1's The Runaway and as a young Bobby Charlton in United.

While Empire's planned War Horse follow-up, 'War Badger', shuffles around awaiting a green light, the author of the original story has stolen a march on the lot of us. Michael Morpurgo's follow-up to his wartime tale with a tail, Private Peaceful, is gearing up for the big-screen treatment too.Private Peaceful is cut from the same cloth as War Horse. Like that novel, stage play and soon-to-be Spielberg movie, it's set in Devon and the trenches of the Western Front during World War One. The story revolves around young Tommo Peaceful's journey from his Devon home to the carnage of Flanders, via some sticky formative experiences; the death of his father (Stephen Kennedy) and the malign influence of his grandmother (Frances de la Tour) among them.Tommo will be played by Tyrannosaur's Samuel Bottomley as a nipper and George MacKay as a teenager. His older brother Charlie (Hero Fiennes-Tiffin...

Horses as life-size puppets? The wrong soldier executed? Michael Morpurgo has had to challenge his own preconceptions when seeing his books adapted for stage or screen. But with Spielberg's War Horse film forthcoming and The Rainbow Bear a ballet, he's getting used to good surprises

To me it's all storytelling. After centuries of stories dominated by the written word, we may sometimes forget that, for many generations before, the telling of stories was almost entirely an oral tradition, with a little help from travelling players and singers and bands. These storytellers adapted, reinvented and recreated all the time, to reflect changing times and tastes.

As a maker of stories, originally written for the readers of books, I am always alert to the possibilities of finding new and inventive ways of telling them, of bringing them to a wider audience. To begin with, I never imagined anyone would think of adapting...