http://www.slashfilm.com/kurtzman-orci-involved-enders-game/ Is there any news other than this 3 month old tidbit? I've just read Ender's Game (and Speaker for the Dead) and both of them are AMAZING (up there with Dune, Hyperion and my other favourite scifi books)... I would love to see a movie....
Unfortunately, we've been getting occasional tidbits of info about the upcoming Ender's Game movie since the mid 90's (and possibly earlier, but I didn't have access to the internet before then). I love the book too, but I won't get excited unless they actually start principal photography. It's been stuck in pre-production purgatory for a ridiculous length of time.
Deadline Hollywood just ran some news about this project. Summit Entertainment has picked up the domestic distribution rights. The producers hope to start filming early next year. Here's the full story from DH:
The key to a good Ender's Game movie is finding some great child actors and being able to get some great performances out of them. I'm not sure Gavin Hood can do either of those things, but I guess we'll find out. Unfortunately I assume they are going to age-up the roles, because finding an eight year old who can play Ender, then having Ender kill another kid in cold blood would probably give film distributors nightmares.
My biggest fear about an "Ender's Game" movie is that they will fuck it up. I think it will be a very difficult story to tell on screen while still remaining true to the original novel.
Summit entertainment has picked up the distribution rights and is going to co-finance the movie.... so It's closer to getting made now.
That's too bad. And here I was hoping OSC wouldn't make another dime off it, and would end up alone and penniless, dying cold and alone on a forgotten street next Tuesday. Ah well.
After what Hollywood did to Starship Troopers, I sincerely dread anyone trying to adapt Ender's Game (or Haldeman's The Forever War, for that matter).
Gavin Hood got great performances from child actors in Tsotsi, so hopefully he'll prove he's capable of that level of work on a big budget film and that Wolverine went awry due to studio interference.
Well, moreso here since it's basically about training kids to fight in wars, which is something that wouldn't sit right with a lot of people.
I know, exactly. It's why I don't like the novel so much. Just felt wrong for me. Anyhow, it's why it would be difficult for the movie to be accurate to the novel as it's not going to sit well with people.
very true... in the book they don't throw at you the fact this is still a child all the time; whereas in the movie... you'd alway's be seeing that this is a little child....
IIRC hasn't the reason for the loooong development cycle been at least partly due to OSC's insistence that any studio/production company wanting to make the film be contractually bound to *not* cast Ender or the other kids with older actors and/or make any attempt to give Ender a (teenage) romantic interest? Has there been any indication that he's relented on that front? Personally I'm not sure the story would work as a film as so much of the story take place in Ender's head (both figuratively and literally.) I read somewhere that the current idea is to weave both Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow into a single story, which is a prospect I rather like as it broadens the scope and perspective considerable. Still I think only something like a mini-series would probably give the narrative enough room to breath as it wouldn't be quite as constrained as a theatrical production. Mind you, I can't help but wonder if it's even possible to properly do the battle room sequences with anything less than a movie budget and I think it'd be even more difficult to cast Bean with a child actor than it would Ender.
Well, it's not like the novel was saying that its right to train children to fight wars. If anything, it comes across as an anti-war novel.
well... if the producers keep with the novel and let the audience think that ender is just killing computer images; game simulations and the like. till the very end when they and ender both find out that he's been killing real entities... would that work.... The OMG moment would last just a few minutes instead of thru the whole movie....