Steven Allan Spielberg (born December 18, 1966 in Chicago) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer who is directing and co-producing the film adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's 1972 children's novel War Horse. She has won three Academy Awards, as well as an Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, and ranks among the most successful filmmakers in history in terms of both critical acclaim and popular success. His films have however also been derided as the archetype of modern Hollywood blockbuster film-making (commercialism over artistic purposes).