Ender's Game

[terry78]

Was the author a pedophile or were there good reasons for having naked kids in his story?

Orson Scott Card, man. One of the masters of sci-fi. It was probably more symbolic than anything.

 

[Figs]

Orson Scott Card, man. One of the masters of sci-fi. It was probably more symbolic than anything.

Wasn't trying to make fun, just was curious if any fans knew of 'something'.

 

[Rocker22]

Yeah it was mainly because of the conditions the kids were put in, in the story.

 

[danoyse]

Wasn't trying to make fun, just was curious if any fans knew of 'something'.

Oy. No, he's not a pedophile.

Battle School is just such a cruel and intense place (it's definitely not Hogwarts for space kids) that everything is army and training. There are no toys and the only "game" is really psych test. They aren't given anything to wear other than their uniforms, so when they're back in their barracks, they either wear the uniforms or nothing at all. No one cares.

It's not like the whole place is filled with naked kids, it's just not unusual to find kids without their clothes in the barracks scenes. The place doesn't let the kids waste time over finding other clothes to wear other than their uniforms.

There's also a very important fight scene that takes place in the showers, that would have to be in the movie if they're going to do it right.

 

[wellsy]

I can see a simple way around that then; just have them wear their uniforms all the time in any of those scenes (and minimise them too, although if that shower scene is as necessary as you claim, then they'd have to work on that too).

As for the book itself, I haven't read it yet, but I've heard of it. No time like the present to correct the situation eh?

 

[Ender Durden]

ok who would you like to see in the role of Ender?
maybe someone like Freddie Highmore as the young version? Ender is an intense little kid who has some major psychological issues that get more intense as the story goes on, at the very beginning of the book he nearly beats another kid into submission and he is only 6 years old. im sure they will end up increasing their age somewhat.

how about as Ender gets older?

 

[danoyse]

Freddie Highmore is almost 16 (although he doesn't look it), so he's getting too old to play Ender. I think he's only 12 at the end of the book. He might be better to play his brother Peter.

And he doesn't "nearly beat another kid into submission," he kills him. He kills another boy at the Battle School too.

 

[Galactus]

Petersen Off "Ender's Game" Film
By Garth Franklin
Tuesday, April 22nd 2008 12:52am
Wolfgang Petersen ("Air Force One," "Troy," "The Perfect Storm") is no longer attached to direct "Ender's Game" reports io9.com.

An adaptation of Orson Scott Card's acclaimed sci-fi novel about a child super soldier who plays a long simulation of Earth's fight against the 'bugger' race of alien insects. As the 'game' wears on, he begins to lose his sanity and makes a final and devastating decision that has real world consequences.

No word as to why he's left the project, but Chartoff Productions is said to be busy meeting with a slew of potential directors to replace him for a shoot starting in early 2009.

Author Card has apparently finished a draft of the script and is "already working to make it even better."

 

[Gotham]

Didn't seem like much was happening when Petersen was on the film.

I'd like to see who they choose to replace him, though.

 

[Rocker22]

Yeah I think I am happy with him off it. I am also looking forward to who they get for it.

 

[Cinemaman]

Damn, it has been taking decades to make the movie, and still there's nothing! Only illiogical rewrites and changes in director's position

 

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/36504

It's (ENDER'S) GAME Over For Petersen!!



Merrick here...

io9 reports that Wolfgang Petersen...who has been attached to the endlessly-in-development film adaptation of the Orson Scott Card book ENDER'S GAME...is no longer on the project.

Director Wolfgang Petersen, previously attached to the project, has moved on, producers tell io9. Chartoff Productions is busy meeting with a slew of potential directors for the Ender's movie,

...says THIS ARTICLE at io9.
Given the nature of the development process, Petersen's departure doesn't necessarily mean the project will suddenly catapult forward. Depending on who they find to replace Petersen, GAME may have to be re-worked from square one (presumably The Powers That Be will strive to avoid this potentiality when evaluating new directors).

 

[Cinemaman]

^^^

Heh, hunter, we already know this

 

[Rocker22]

Apparently it hadn't happened yet:

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=51720

 

[The Guard]

Jes!

 

[:eek:]

24 Frames is reporting that X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Tsotsi director Gavin Hood has rewritten the script for Ender's Game, based on Orson Scott Card's science fiction novel. Hood is developing the project as a director.

The book is described as follows:

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.

Independent production company Odd Lot Entertainment is behind the adaptation of the novel, a Nebula and Hugo Award winner.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

Kurtzman and Orci Involved With 'Ender's Game'?

Ender's Game! Us(K/O), Oddlot, and Gavin Hood taking his amazing script to the town! Who wants some?

Source

 

[:eek:]

Summit in Talks to Distribute Ender's Game

Source: Summit Entertainment
April 28, 2011


Summit Entertainment is in talks to co-finance and handle U.S. distribution rights for Ender's Game.

Sierra / Affinity will launch international sales of the live action, science-fiction Ender's Game at this year's Cannes Film Market.

The movie is based on the award-winning novel written by Orson Scott Card with the filmed adaptation directed by Gavin Hood. K/O Paper Products, OddLot Entertainment and Digital Domain are production partners on the film, with Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman producing via their K/O Paper Products banner, Gigi Pritzker and Linda McDonough producing via OddLot Entertainment, along with Orson Scott Card and Lynn Hendee.

The film will be executive produced by OddLot's Bill Lischak, K/O's Mandy Safavi, and Digital Domain's Cliff Plumer and Ed Ulbrich.

Set in Earth’s utopian future, Ender's Game is the story of a young boy, a genius strategist, who is drafted by the International Fleet to destroy the alien Formic race.




​

 

[GhostPoet]

Oy. No, he's not a pedophile.

Battle School is just such a cruel and intense place (it's definitely not Hogwarts for space kids) that everything is army and training. There are no toys and the only "game" is really psych test. They aren't given anything to wear other than their uniforms, so when they're back in their barracks, they either wear the uniforms or nothing at all. No one cares.

It's not like the whole place is filled with naked kids, it's just not unusual to find kids without their clothes in the barracks scenes. The place doesn't let the kids waste time over finding other clothes to wear other than their uniforms.

There's also a very important fight scene that takes place in the showers, that would have to be in the movie if they're going to do it right.

I'm sure they could keep it PG-13 and still include the fight scene. Just keep it above the waist.

 

[Spider-Who?]

I've got a bad feeling that this will end up being a lot like Star Troopers....

 

[Lencho01]

http://io9.com/5844789/the-enders-g...ting-calls-for-10-characters--including-ender

The Enders Game movie puts out casting calls for 10 characters — including Ender!

By Charlie Jane AndersSep 28, 2011 12:44 PM

It looks like the Ender's Game movie is really moving forward, with Gavin Hood (Wolverine) as director. The film put out a ton of casting calls a couple weeks ago, including all the major characters.
The casting calls appear to be from a draft of the script, written by Star Trek's Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, and they give a pretty good idea of just how closely this film will stick to the book's story. Here's our exclusive look at the Ender's Game casting calls.
Spoilers ahead...

Full size

So there are ten characters being cast in all, and the script pages we read seemed pretty solid. All of the book's themes, including the brutality of warfare and the need to understand your enemy, remain intact. And the "feel" seems pretty right. (Disclaimer: these may not be pages from the actual shooting script, since sometimes casting calls use earlier script drafts. And a lot can change during filming, too.)

We read casting calls for:

Ender Wiggin: He's depicted as smart and sensitive, but also incredibly ruthless. There are a few scenes where he worries about being like his cut-throat brother Peter, and confides in his sister Valentine. Just like in the book, he dishes out a rough treatment to Bonzo Madrid, his former platoon leader, when Bonzo tries to bully him too much. And then he feels bad about it. The screenplay also includes some scenes where Ender has weird nightmares about the buggers — and he tries to understand where the buggers are coming from, and what their children are like. Ender is pissed at Graff because he keeps changing the rules in the war "exercises."

The scene where Ender finds out that his final victory was not, in fact, a game is pretty intense, and features Ender and Graff both trying to talk at the same time. Ender is saying "They came to establish a colony, we chased them away... in fifty years they have never returned," while Graff is saying, "It makes no difference now," and then Ender is saying "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds," at the same time as Graff is saying "What are you talking about?" Finally, Ender is saying "I will bear the shame of this xenocide forever," at the same moment as Graff is saying, "You will be remembered as a hero." It ends with Ender getting an injection, knocking him out.

Bean: We get to see Bean watching a heavily edited video of Mazer Rackham's famous victory over the formics, in which Mazer fires his nuclear warhead into the formics' exhaust system. And Bean is so thrilled he throws his hands in the air and shouts with joy — until Ender bursts his bubble, explaining that the video is edited so we don't see Mazer die. (And later, Ender also hints that Mazer's victory might have had a darker side, that's also edited out.) In another scene, Graff shows Bean and Ender to the famous zero-gravity training room, where they float around with a bunch of other kids. Ender explains to Bean that there's no "up or down" in zero-G, and then they discover their weapons actually freeze anyone they shoot at, by causing the spacesuits to swell up. They team up to go freeze some of the other kids.

Peter Wiggin: Ender's brother is fully a psychopath in this version of the screenplay. He's insanely jealous that Ender was chosen for the battle school, and completely enraged when it seems like Ender has washed out of the program. At one point, he locks their sister, Valentine, out of the room and forces Ender to put on a Formic mask so they can play Formics and Astronauts, which basically consists of Peter beating the crap out of Ender.

Valentine Wiggin: She's the gentler, sweeter member of the Wiggin family, who's always there for Ender — except for when the people in charge of the school won't let Ender communicate with her. She tries to protect Ender from Peter, but mostly fails — and just like in the book, she convinces Ender to return to the school when he tries to drop out after he hurts Bonzo Madrid. She explains to Ender that what makes us human is our brains, and we didn't evolve those brains so that we can lie around lakes — we evolved them for killing, or else we wouldn't still be around. We'd have been killed by wild animals. She alone grasps that Ender has to understand his enemy to defeat them, and in understanding the enemy, he grows to love the enemy — right before he destroys it.

Bonzo Madrid: Just like in the book, he's a swaggering idiot whose platoon has won most of its most recent battles, and he resents being saddled with a useless, untrained snot like Ender. He orders Ender to stay out of the way during battles, and not even use his weapon. Later, he takes a group of his homies to try and ambush Ender in the shower.

Rose the Nose: The commander of Rat Army, where Ender gets traded after he leaves Bonzo's toon. Rose has a high opinion of his own leadership skills, even though he knows that his platoon leader, Dink, is "God." Rose has a terrible fear of losing, but can't face the fact that he's winning thanks to Dink and Ender.

Full size

Dink Meeker: In the script pages we read, Dink is one of the characers who befriends Ender in the Rat Army, helping to protect him a bit and showing him how to go float in the zero-G chamber to relax.

Petra Arkanian: The only girl in Ender's first toon, she also befriends Ender and tries to protect him — and when Bonzo decides to keep Ender out of combat, Petra offers to help him train in their spare time. Later, she and Dink are both in Ender's Jeesh, and she's a key part of the final assault on the bugger planet.

Alai: Just like in the book, he's a gentle Muslim boy who moves Ender with his friendship and his professions of peace.

Mick: He's a heavyset boy who just wants to make it through this school in one piece and get home — and he's happy to help himself to other people's desserts.

All in all, it's a good sign — the script pages we read felt pretty solid and pretty true to what we remember of the book. Let's hope this movie actually starts shooting soon!

 

[Project862006]

too bad Dakota Goyo(Thor,Real Steel) is 12(even tho script made him 10) he would be a great Ender Wiggin

 

[Crockett]

Man I'm excited and anxious of this, I'm not liking that Hood is the director but if OSC is ok with him, he must be doing something right. It's reallly crucial for them to get good child actors in this, especially Ender, his journey in the book is fantastic and if they can find one that can pull it off, that'd be great.

 

[TruerToTheCore]

Wasn't trying to make fun, just was curious if any fans knew of 'something'.

lol

 

[Crockett]

The release date is set: March 15th 2013.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/schedule/?view=changes&p=.htm

Orson Scott Card sent a letter to Geektyrant, talking about the adaptation. Spoiler of course for those who haven't read the first book.

Spoiler

A friend forwarded me your very thoughtful diatribe (since I write diatribes myself, I don't regard it as a negative term) about the EG movie. While I can't join you in wishing for the book to be the script, I am grateful for the impulse!

The problem with the book, as a movie, is that all the important information about ender's motives comes from internal monologue - his thoughts. Since voiceovers are loathsome, Ender's actions would remain unexplained, and he would appear to be little more than a violent kid.

Also, the book would make a movie that was at least four hours long. Much has to be cut - including all of Peter's and Valentine's online exploits, the mind game, and much of the incidental material before Ender gets into Bonzo's army.

In short, much will be omitted. But I remain confident that as long as the character of Ender himself, with his relationships with other kids, is in the movie, it will still be Ender's Game to my own satisfaction and the satisfaction of the fans.

As to the kid from Super 8 playing Ender: Alas, Ender and Bean must be the two youngest and smallest kids in the movie, and NONE of the kids should have reached puberty. This means that the actor you refer to is already too old for the part. But he is talented! Whoever plays Ender will almost certainly be an actor you haven't seen before, and with any luck, a child who has not gone through the soul-numbing process of being cute on camera. In other words, I hope it is a child who never had an agent, but who is very, very intelligent and therefore can take direction.

Again, thanks for your interest in EG and for caring that the film be done well. But here is my own source of greatest confidence: The movie will not erase a single word of the book! That's how I endure knowing that Peter Jackson committed the repulsive crime of removing the Scouring of the Shire from the Lord of the Rings movie, which is akin to removing the last chapter from EG. THAT, at least, I know will not happen in the EG movie - all the producers understand that the point of the story is finding out that the very thing that allowed Ender to defeat the formics (loving his enemy in order to defeat them) makes his discovery all the more galling to him.

Best,
osc