Summit Entertainment, the studio who brought the Twilight Saga to life on the big screen, is now set to adapt another popular book series – Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game.
With the Twilight films about to end, the studio is eager to grab up another franchise to sustain its momentum. According to Deadline, they’re on their way with Card’s highly-successful science fiction series. They’ve even gone so far as to attach X-Men: Origins: Wolverine director, Gavin Hood to the project to both write and direct.
Ender’s Game was first published as a novel in 1985 and has since expanded its universe to include eleven novels and ten short stories. It’s was even adapted into comic books by Marvel a few years ago (Something, like a film version, I thought was long overdue). The story centers around Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, an exceptional child sent to Battle School in order to defend the Earth from an alien race known at the Buggers.
According to the website, Warner Bros acquired the novel in 2002 and tried making the film director Wolfgang Petersen to no success. “I’d heard that the author, who long resisted selling the project to film, was a very hands-on presence and that complicated the movie transfer,” said the writer, “The studio’s option lapsed and Gigi Pritzker’s Odd Lot stepped in. Odd Lot hired Hood, who has spent the past year crafting a screenplay, in between directing TV pilots like Breakout Kings. While Hood was said to have had a difficult time making Wolverine at Fox, that film posted an $85 million opening weekend and grossed $375 million worldwide in 2009.”
Hood’s 2005 film Tsotsi won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. He’s currently finishing up an effects presentation with VFX house Digital Domain to promote the project at the Cannes film festival. Deadline says production could start as early as next year.
What do you think Blog@ readers? How long have you been waiting for Ender’s Game to be turned into a movie? Does it turn you off it’s being made by the same studio that did Twilight? They will certainly be shooting for a younger demographic with the casting but seeing as how most of the book’s fans are older now, it could cause a disconnect.
April 28th, 2011 at 4:40 pm
My understanding (based on an author’s foreword to the audiobook of “Ender’s Shadow”) was that Card insisted on putting into any option contracts that Ender be cast as a 12 year old (thus ruining it’s potential as a teen romance film by not allowing him a love interest.)
So while it may have taken a long damn time, hopefully it will be worth it.
Geek out…
April 28th, 2011 at 5:34 pm
I think the disconnect will be parents bringing little kids to the movie expecting it to be kid friendly, and being shocked by the level of violence and hardship the children warriors endure. This has always been a story for adults that just happens to feature genius kids, but Hollywood is kinda dumb about stuff like that…
April 28th, 2011 at 6:50 pm
I am curious as to how this film will turn out… Too bad Card is such an awful human being though. I stopped reading his books, and the jury’s out on this film. Maybe if the reviews are good.
April 29th, 2011 at 10:15 am
I’m excited. Afraid that they won’t do it justice, but excited nonetheless.
@Shaun: Just out of curiosity, why do you think Card is an awful human being? I don’t know much about his personal life, besides that he’s a Mormon and has some conservative political views.
April 29th, 2011 at 12:46 pm
Not sure why Card would want Ender cast as a 12 year old since in the first book he’s only 6 years old for much of the story.
May 17th, 2011 at 10:54 am
Its a studio that casts actors too old for their rolls, endorses less than exceptional acting – and they’ve brought a director on that’s best known for shooting a film adaptation that ‘bastardized’ the original comic material.
Summit is a studio entirely, indiscreetly in it for the money. If they’re trying to replace Twilight, I can see them targeting the same audiences as well. I’m seriously worried about this film, because I don’t have faith in the people behind it to retain the story for all of its original violence and raw beauty. I see them watering things down, over doing and underplaying parts, dropping scenes and reworking the storyline. I see teenager actors because toddlers are too hard to work with. I’m really worried
April 9th, 2013 at 9:13 pm
This is Awesome! Thank you so much.