It's not out until Christmas, but Steven Spielberg's War Horse already looks like classic Oscar bait for next year's ceremony. The first trailer for the movie, just live online, suggests a sweeping epic of the great war, replete with a veritable who's who of established and up-and-coming Brit thesp talent and backed with a stirring, grandiose score from the unmistakable John Williams.

Blink and you'll miss Sherlock Holmes's Benedict Cumberbatch, Thor's Tom Hiddleston, David Thewlis, Eddie Marsan and Emily Watson. The familiar fellow with the narrator's job is Jacques Audiard favourite Niels Arestrup, who plays a French farmer. Newcomer Jeremy Irvine stars as Devon farmhand Albert, who braves the trenches of the first world war in an effort to find his beloved colt, Joey.

Each of Spielberg's three Academy awards (best film and director for Schindler's List and best director for Saving Private Ryan) has been won for a film about war, and the Academy loves a bit of historical drama. If War Horse does turn out to be 2012's big Oscars winner, that could bode pretty well for some of its British cast members.