Ender's Game

[Landatauron]

I've heard through the grapevine that Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty (X-Men 2) will adapt the Orson Scott Card books Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow for Wolfgang Petersen to direct.

Sounds good to me so far. Then again all they have are writers and directors. They could always screw up casting. For example, if I see Haley Joel Osment or Jake Lloyd's names anywhere near this. I won't be held responsible for what I'm gonna do.

movies.go.com/movies/E/endersgame_2003/

[bladestarr]

An interesting side note: In beginning the book, Ender was a hyper-intelligent 6 year old. I would hope that they would get neither of those boys to play him, since they are twice to three times Ender's age. Then again, it would be very difficult to find an intelligent looking and acting 6 year old that could pull it off, so maybe they'll just make him a tad older. Oh well.

I am quite looking forward to this, as if anyone has read the "Where everyone knows your avatar" Thread in the General Board knows, I am a huge OSC fan. (OSC, hmmm sounds like it could be a band name! ;D). Since OSC has signed contracts giving him final say in all things, I know it will be done right - even if it takes another 10 years.

[DarthToad]

I have a feeling this will keep getting put off like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie was. They're going to get bad screenplays, they're going to have trouble finding actors, etc. Oh, and I think I remember hearing somewhere a while ago that they're trying to get Jake Lloyd to play Ender. Oh well.

[bladestarr]

Are you talking about the 1981 BBC miniseries that got condensed into a 4 hour "movie", or of the actually proposed movie that Adams was discussing with Spyglass Entertainment until his unfortunate death in 2001?

[Magill]

It's not gonna work. Mostly because of the limitations of film.

-All of the main characters are children or adolescents. There's no way they will be able to hire enough good child/adolescent actors to fill all the spots

-Most of it is also the internal thoughts of Ender. That won't translate well on screen.

-The Battle Room scenes. First, I have a hard enough time picturing them when I read the book. I seriously doubt that a director will be able to do anything with those scenes, and even if he/she did, that it would make any sense to the average, non Orson Scott Card reading filmgoer.

Yeah, call me a big ol' pessismist. In a somewhat coincidental note, I happen to be rereading this book right now. I also got it for my brother's birthday (he just turned 13 on the 13th).

A bit off topic--I actually like the sequels way better than Ender's Game. They seem more mature and to raise more serious issues. Whereas Ender's Game is basically an adventure story (not that there's anything wrong with that). Am I alone on this?

[duckie]

Magill said:

A bit off topic--I actually like the sequels way better than Ender's Game. They seem more mature and to raise more serious issues. Whereas Ender's Game is basically an adventure story (not that there's anything wrong with that). Am I alone on this?

I think I liked Ender's Shadow the best, but I really, really enjoyed Ender's Game as well. I agree with you that they were quite different (adventure story vs investigation of more serious issues), but also thought that Ender's Game was a great story in itself. It definitely kept my interest throughout.

It was Ender's Game set up the fictional world; but it was the sequels that really allowed us to get to know it in depth. I'm soooo glad OSC decided to rework it, so that he could set up the sequels. It's such a great series!


- Duckie (who is about a third of the way through through Maps in a Mirror, and just read the short-story version of Ender's Game).

[bladestarr]

It's not gonna work. Mostly because of the limitations of film.

Call me an optimist, or call me a fool with way too much hope, but I REALLY want them to pull this off. This book has a powerful meaning to me and to anyone else that was/is wise beyond their years. I wasn't a genius at such an extreme early age as Ender was, but I had the intelligence of an adult and the emotions of a child, and that is the key to the whole book. If they can convey that message, then the filmmmakers would have succeeded and told our story. The story of those who internalized everything because they were patronized whenever they tried to express themselves. The story of child-adults who have to wait for everyone else to grow up to earn the respect they deserve.

A bit off topic--I actually like the sequels way better than Ender's Game ...Am I alone on this?

No, not at all, while I've already stated that Ender's Game has a powerful meaning to me, I've found that the Speaker for the Dead series is actually the more powerful overall of the Ender books. The Speaker series deals with a much more compassionate Ender who is finally away from the military and ends up being the man he should be, a humanitarian. At the same time, however, he still carries this burden of guilt for the death of an entire species of sentient creatures, so he is in the same position of Wolverine from the X-Men: he has this view of the man he should be, and he IS that man already, but his guilt makes it impossible for him to see this within himself. Also, the series treats beings as people, no matter the race/religion/species, and that is the most powerful message of all and most important in our modern world. While the Shadow series is a good follow-up to Ender's Game, I've found that we have to go 3,000 years into the future to find the true source of Card's storytelling mastery.

---

Hopes that OSC actually writes The Hive Queen and the Hegemon, and The Life of Human.... cried when Human died.

[Magill]

duckie said:

I think I liked Ender's Shadow the best, but I really, really enjoyed Ender's Game as well. I agree with you that they were quite different (adventure story vs investigation of more serious issues), but also thought that Ender's Game was a great story in itself. It definitely kept my interest throughout.

It was Ender's Game set up the fictional world; but it was the sequels that really allowed us to get to know it in depth. I'm soooo glad OSC decided to rework it, so that he could set up the sequels. It's such a great series!

I just wanted to clarify that I meant the Speaker for the Dead sequels, not the Shadow stuff. Of those, I liked the first 2 well enough, but Shadow Puppets had such dramatic changes in the characters (particularly Bean and Petra) that I wanted to throw it across the room at times.

[DarthToad]

BladeStarr said:

Are you talking about the 1981 BBC miniseries that got condensed into a 4 hour "movie", or of the actually proposed movie that Adams was discussing with Spyglass Entertainment until his unfortunate death in 2001?

I was talking about the latter.

Oh, and more things about the Ender movie: if it goes LotR then it will become one of the best series ever. If it goes SW prequals then Ender's name will be tarnished and I'll be really upset.

Though I always got the feeling that an Ender's Game movie should've been done in the 1980's. It would've had this feel to it that would've really captured the spirit of the film, and I don't know if a modern director could get that. Also, look at what you have to deal with. You have to have at least decent special effects, but the characters and the plot are so deep that it would be really hard to get that good balance. As long as a Lucas type isn't running it i'll be fine.