Card to Meet with Petersen to Decide Fate of Ender's Game Movie

According to a scooper for AICN, Orson Scott Card confirmed the rumored expiration date for the deal with Warner Bros for the rights to Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow and said he'd have another meeting with director Wolfgang Petersen to decide if the movie is going to be made at all:

I sat in on an Orson Scott Card lecture this evening at the University of Missouri in Columbia. While he spent most of the lecture speaking on his theory that the stories passed down through generations has shaped our culture - which was interesting, he did manage to talk a lot about the status of the Ender's Game movie.

Apparently the studio option on the book runs out on December 7th and he has, what I would characterize as, a moderate hope that the movie will become a reality. He plans to sit down with Wolfgang Peterson after he squares away the Posideon Adventure and give his latest script idea, which he described as a combination of Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow, one final try. He said that if the deadline comes and goes then he will most likely end the attempt to bring the book to the big screen. Card was hopeful that the combination of the two books will work out the script problems in that the "buddy" movie approach would open up a practical way to reveal Ender's thoughts without any dreaded internal dialouge.

He sincierly seemed commited to coming up with a script that remained faithful to the original material - even if he doesn't write the script personally. Card said that the special effects would be revolutionary, ruling out wires or the Apollo 13 diving airplane technique, and that effects houses are lining up to get involved should the movie recieve the green light.

R-Rated Ender's Game?

Is it possible that Wolfgang Petersen is planning for an r-rated Ender's Game movie? It looks that way, according to MTV.com:

Now that he's done treading water with "Poseidon," director Wolfgang Petersen is turning his attention to "Ender's Game," a passion project he envisions as an R-rated version of one of Hollywood's most successful franchises. "I think 'Harry Potter' was inspired by 'Ender's Game,' " Petersen insisted, citing the 1985 sci-fi novel he's adapting.

Petersen cites "Potter" and the ultraviolent Japanese cult flick "Battle Royale" to give an idea of the tone he's leaning toward. "It's one of the projects at the top of my list of what I want to do next. I've been involved with it for quite a while," Petersen said, crossing his fingers. "We're getting another script for it in a few weeks, and then we'll see what we can do with that." ...

Will Poseidon Impact Ender's Game?

Wolfgang Petersen's Poseidon opened last weekend to a lower than expected .2 Million dollar opening in the US and less-than-stellar reviews. The film, which costs more than 0 million dollars to make, is currently 29% Rotten at RottenTomatoes, which critics blasting the cardboard characters, cheesy dialogue, and un-inspired directing by Petersen.

Warner Bros is the studio behind both films, along with Petersen's last effort, Troy, which made up for it's disappointing US box office results by doing well overseas. Studios frequently reward directors of their successful films by allowing them to make riskier movies. But will that happen with the Ender's Game movie?

Will the failure of a popcorn flick like Poseidon finally send a message to Hollywood that movie goers want more than mindless action and special effects? Or will Ender's Game seem to risky for Warner Bros after costly flop like Poseidon?

Petersen Still Wants to Direct Ender's Game

Despite all of the problems facing the Ender's Game movie, Wolfgang Petersen is still interesting in directing it and told IGN that he believes that the movie will be made.

Last spring, Warner Bros placed the film into turnaround, essentially giving up on the project. Orson Scott Card said that he and the producers were shopping the script to other studios and that a director could not be hired until the financing had been arranged.

But now it looks like Petersen is still involved in the project.

He told IGN that he is working on developing three films, including Ender's Game, and that he had met with Orson Scott Card recently about it. He called it "a very, very tricky adaptation and an incredibly fascinating concept" and believes that he will some day make the film.

Ender's Game Movie Searching for New Director

io9 reports that Wolfgang Peterson is no longer directing the Ender's Game movie and producers are currently meeting with candidates to find a replacement.

Peterson's involvement in Ender's Game has been in doubt since last month when it was announced he would be directing the scifi movie Uprising.

EG Producer Lynn Hendee also gave a number of updates on the current status of the film:

• Orson Scott Card is currently working on revisions to his latest draft of the script.
• Casting will not begin until a director is chosen, so it's too early to speculate on who might be cast to play Ender Wiggin.

In other news, Marvel Comics announced today that there will be an Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow comic book series, written by Chris Yost (New X-Men, X-Force), with art by Pasqual Ferry (Ultimate Iron Man) and overseen by OSC.

This could be a warm-up for the Ender's Game movie, since Card explains that, "I'm hoping Marvel will show [Hollywood] how it's done, because you guys know how to put the story down in a visual way so that it comes to life."

Ender's Game Comic from Marvel

There hasn't been any news on the movie recently. However, it has been announced that there will be a comic book based on Ender's Game, published by Marvel comics, that will be released this fall.

It seems like these comics will be a sign of what's to come in the movie. Orson Scott Card said at the San Diego Comic-Con that the look of the Battle Suits and character design will be the same in the movie and video game.

You can view the designs for Ender Wiggin and the Battle Suits here.

Orson Scott Card will not be writing the series. Instead, veteran comic and animation writer Christopher Yost will be writing it. Card has had high praise for Yost saying, "What he came back with was so powerful that it made me feel like I was reading the story for the first time. It came totally alive."

Yost has previously written X-Men: Emperor Vulcan, a story that featured alien invaders that drew comparisons to the Buggers.

Also, Yost has written several direct-to-video animated features for Marvel Studios. Many EG fans have wondered if animation would be the best way to make an Ender's Game movie. Perhaps, Marvel Studios might consider a big screen animated feature of Ender's Game? Just some food for thought....

Marvel's Ender's Game Comic Books

The Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow comics have started at Marvel comics, and overall both has been met with praise from both critics and fans alike. I’ve been rather impressed by the quality and how well both novels translate to comic book format.

I believe the Ender’s comics are only available in specialty comic book stores. All five issues of each of the limited series will eventually be collected into a hardcover edition that will be available at bookstore as well, but that will likely be in nearly a year.

Like with most comics, there have been delays. The third issue of Ender’s Game: Battle School will be out in late January, and a release date hasn’t been set for the fourth issue. It might be best to wait for all the issues to be collected, than to read both of the series serial style.


Ender’s Game: Battle School

Script: Christopher Yost
Pencils: Pasqual Ferry

Issue #1: October 8, 2008
Issue #2: November 19, 2008
Issue #3: January 28, 2009
Issue #4: March 2009
Issue #5: April 2009



Ender’s Shadow: Battle School

Script: Mike Carey
Pencils: Sebastian Fiumara

Issue #1: Dec 3, 2008
Issue #2: January 7, 2009
Issue #3: February 25, 2009
Issue #4: March 2009
Issue #5: April 2009

Is the Ender's Game Move Dead?

I keep getting asked this question, so I figured I should put up a post about it.

Is the Ender's Game Movie dead? Well, not completely. It currently is not in pre-production at any studio. There isn't a director attached. So, don't go lining up for tickets any time soon. It's going to be years before its in theaters.

However, Orson Scott Card is still working on the script and hasn't given up wanting Ender on the big screen.

On his blog at Hatrack, OSC said in February of 2009:

I'm finishing up the screenplay for the Ender's Game movie.

The Ender's Game comics continue to be published by Marvel, and the success of these could be key to the movie eventually being made. The problem is that a movie with the number of special effects that Ender's Game would need would make it expensive. And movie studios won't give out that amount of money without knowing that the finished product is going to be profitable. Seeing the movie visually is important, especially since so much of the book is dependent on what Ender is thinking and feeling.

In 2008, OSC said in an interview to Marvel.com, "I'm hoping Marvel will show [Hollywood] how it's done, because you guys know how to put the story down in a visual way so that it comes to life."

The Ender's Game comic is being written by Marvel Animation producer & writer Christopher Yost.

Many fans have been wanting an animated Ender's Game film, rather than live action. Perhaps this be something Marvel Animation might be interested in?

As a sidenote, Disney acquired Marvel last year, but no word yet on how this could impact Ender's Game. OSC has been closely associated with Marvel Comics, and other than the Ender's Game and Alvin Makercomics, he has written Ultimate Iron Man.

So, in short, the movie isn't quite dead. It's just a matter of getting a studio interested in making it again. The comics will wrap up this spring, and hopefully that will attract some interest.

Summit Entertainment Acquires Rights for Ender's Games Movie

Deadline reports that Summit Entertainment, the folks who bought us the Twilight films, have acquired the US rights for Ender's Games. Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) is set to direct his script.

According to Deadline:

The film will be shopped at the upcoming 2011 Cannes Film Festival, with Nick Meyer's Sierra/Affinity brokering offshore deals. The plan is to put the film into production by early next year.

I'm glad to see that the movie is moving forward, but I'm a little hesitant to be enthusiastic at this point with the personnel involved. I want to see Ender's Game done well. So, I hope that this is the right team to make the movie that deserves to be made, not a movie company desperately searching for some Harry Potter/Twilight property to make money off of.

I wasn't impressed with what Gavin Hood did with the Wolverine movie, so I have reservations about how he will be able to transfer something like Ender's Game to the big screen, especially since the darkness of Wolverine' character was whitewashed in the Origins movie and it had a sort of "this is a stupid comic book movie" attitude that implied that it wasn't being taken seriously.

Deadline refers to Ender's Game as "youth-driven series", so hopefully the potential of Summit wanting to turn Ender's Game into a teen Twilight series aging up the characters to teens played by 20-somethings won't happy. But you wonder if Summit is the type of company willing to make a movie with young kids involved in extreme violence.