SiberianLlama

Got this over at newsarama.com :

"SINGER TO WRITE ULTIMATE X-MEN
While details on Marvel’s Reloaded X-Men event are still trickling out at the pace of molasses, Variety revealed that X-Men movie director Bryan Singer would take a swing at a year’s worth of Ultimate X-Men along with screenwriters Dan Harris and Mike Dougherty.

According to the trade, the three will write a year’s worth of the series, before writing X3. Before UXM however, Doughtery and Harris will adapt Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game for film, with Wolfgang Petersen attached to direct."

All I can say is awesome! Ender's Game is one of my favorite books of all time and would make a great movie, if done right.

chente

I remember really liking this book when I read it in High School but frankly it has been so long (20+ years) that I don't remember what it was about.

island007

I liked the book too. We just have to see wath the movie looks like when it is finished.

beefjerky

This movie's been in development forever. I hope now with more writers on board, it's on the fast track to getting made. Here's a story from Card's own Fresco Pictures: http://www.frescopictures.com/movies...me_update.html

SiberianLlama

I wonder what elements of the novel they would have to cut out, or at least minimize in order to transmform the book into a movie.

If I were to guess, as much as I'd hate to see it go, I think the whole Demosthenes and Locke subplot wouldn't make it into the movie.

beefjerky

Card has always said that the Demosthenes and Locke would not be in the movie. He felt that watching to kids write on the net wouldn't be very exciting on screen. In his latest draft, Peter is only in it for a very short time. He also said that he combined many of the adult characters at Battle School. The time spent at the school has also been cut down to one year. He's trying to fit in both Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow into the movie, so there's probably going to be a lot cut out.

joeydaninja

woo-hoo! I just read Speaker for the Dead.

Fok

great books, hope they do it justice.

Patman

I'm 2/3 through Ender's Shadow, may have to skim Ender's Game to mesh the 2 books in my own mind afterwards. Don't know where they will get kids young enough to play 6-8 years old who are smart as hell.

Psychlowne

I'm happy about this but at the same time I'm not. The books are great, I don't think any movie (even though the screenplay is written by OSC himself) can live up to the book. I guess everyone says that about every book, but this one in particular is something I think it would be incredibly hard to do.

Especially for Wolfgang Petersen. I never found him to be one of those uncanny directors that could pull of a good Sci-fi flick and make it believable. OSC said he didn't want to give the script to the likes of Spielberg or Lucas. I can understand the Lucas part; sorry Star Wars fans, but Lucas isn't that great of a director -- but Spielberg would be a great choice, even though he has done so many Sci-fi films as of late. This movie, to work for me, has to be pretty epic to work. It will be interesting to see.

I know going into it I'll think it's going to be really bad but inside I have really high expectations because I know how good the book really is. Hopefully I'm not let down.

Kudama

They're not even writing X3 yet????

peon73

ender's game was a great book. i remember reading it several years ago right when the sixth sense came out and imagining that kid playing ender. he's too old for it now tho.

Psychlowne

Haha, me too! Although my imagination distorted his image a bit, at the time he would have been a great choice for the part. After he did A.I. though I thought it would be a terrible idea.

What the movie needs is a fresh, new, great child actor. Someone like Henry Thomas at the age of E.T. would be perfect for the movie. There aren't many good child actors out there, especially ones who could pull of a more adult-minded role like Ender. Look at Star Wars Episode I, that was a serious miscasting in terms of Anakin.

Kal-El

Ironically enough, I believe Jake "yipee" Lloyd was being considered for Ender before...

devilshalo

Harrison Ford locked for 'Ender's Game'
OddLot's sci-fi tentpole gains trio of Oscar nominees
By Jeff Sneider

After confronting extraterrestrials in both "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and "Cowboys & Aliens," Harrison Ford is ready to take on another alien race, as he has officially joined the cast of OddLot Entertainment's sci-fi adventure tentpole "Ender's Game" along with fellow Oscar nominees Abigail Breslin and Hailee Steinfeld.

Also onboard are young thesps Aramis Knight, Moises Arias, Jimmy "Jax" Pinchak, Suraj Parthasarathy, Conor Carroll and Khylin Rhambo.

Gavin Hood ("X-Men Origins: Wolverine") is directing from his own script, which is adapted from Orson Scott Card's award-winning novel. Summit Entertainment is co-financing and will release the film in the U.S. on March 15, 2013.

Set in Earth's utopian future, "Ender's Game" stars Asa Butterfield ("Hugo") as the title character, a genius strategist who's recruited by the government to help destroy an insect-like alien race.

Ford will play Colonel Hyram Graff, who's in charge of training the young male recruits at an elite military academy. Breslin will play Valentine Wiggin, Ender's older sister, while Steinfeld will play Petra Arkanian, Ender's ally and trusted right hand.

Knight, who previously appeared in Hood's "Rendition," will play Bean, the smallest new recruit; Arias ("Hannah Montana") will play Bonzo, the commander of Salamander Army; Pinchak ("Let Me In") will play Peter Wiggin, Ender's brilliant but tortured older brother; and Parthasarathy will play Alai, the first recruit to befriend Ender.

Carroll ("Away We Go") will play Bernard, the leader of the new recruits who bullies Ender at first; and Rhambo will play Dink, a brainy member of Rat Army.

OddLot, K/O Paper Products and Digital Domain are production partners on "Ender's Game." OddLot's Gigi Pritzker and Linda McDonough are producing with Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman via their K/O Paper Products banner, as well as Lynn Hendee, Robert Chartoff and Card. OddLot's Bill Lischak and K/O's Mandy Safavi will exec produce with Digital Domain's Cliff Plumer and Ed Ulbrich. Sierra/Affinity is handling foreign sales for the pic, which will start production in early 2012 in New Orleans.

Ford, who's no stranger to sci-fi epics, recently signed on to play famed Brooklyn Dodgers GM Branch Rickey in Legendary Pictures' Jackie Robinson biopic "42."

Steinfeld starred in the Coen brothers' "True Grit" and will soon play Juliet in Carlo Carlei's upcoming adaptation of William Shakespeare's classic romance. Breslin can currently be seen in Garry Marshall's "New Year's Eve" and the indie "Janie Jones."

Ford is repped by UTA and Ziffren Brittenham, while ICM reps Steinfeld and Breslin, who are respectively managed by Protege Entertainment and Untitled Entertainment. Steinfeld is also repped by Coast to Coast Talent Group.

Dragon Tattoo

I'd rather have had Steinfeld as Demosthenes, but whatever. Best not to get my hopes up for this.

Hokeyboy

I hope they introduce the Magical Quantum Wishing Box in this movie, as opposed to waiting for Xenocide, which (let's face it) will never happen.

Nick Danger

I wish them best of luck in finding a half-dozen really strong child actors to carry the movie. Otherwise, they'll have Baby Geniuses Go to Battle School.

Wasn't there a movie about kids forced to fight each other that just came out? How well did that do? If it didn't do so well, would the studios release another movie about even younger kids forced into combat training?

Pizza the Hutt

honest question, Gavin Hood won an Oscar right? What was it for again?

starman9000

Tsotsi won Best Foreign Language Film, so technically he didn't win an Oscar, South Africa did.

Hiro11

This book seems to me to be relatively easy to translate to screen. The linear plot and relatively compact cast of characters make it a great candidate to make into a movie. Also, it has potential for some amazing action set pieces and is thematically topical. It's even got a large built-in audience as most any sci-fi fan has read it. It seems to me it's got high potential to be a hit, the only surprise is that it took so long to get it made. Has any version of the book ever been filmed? Hopefully it will be good.

Speaking of sci-fi books that should be movies, I just reread "Ubik"... dammit, someone make a movie of that.

wishbone

Sounds like you're thinking of Hunger Games. Ender's Game has kids in battle school "fighting" each other in combat games akin to laser tag but the bigger picture is mankind vs. the buggers.

A movie adaptation for this book has the potential to be great or awful -- so far the casting gives me hope that this movie is moving in a good direction.

The enemy's gate is down.

Abob Teff

Starship Troopers: The Next Generation

??

Nick Danger

But both share the theme of kids being forced to fight by adults. And of Ender deliberately being made miserable, like the children in lots of stories where unfortunate children are abused by adults. The difference between the typical story and Ender's Game, is that the adults know that they are doing Ender dirty, and they feel bad about it, but they accept it as a sacrifice of war. That didn't happen to the child laborers in Dickens, or the children in Grimm's fairy tales, or the orphan girls in gothic romances.

Shannon Nutt

Also, I'm glad to see Ford isn't shying away from "big" movies any more. There was a point there after LAST CRUSADE where he made a lot of odd choices...and I think it hurt his career. I still can't believe he turned down JURASSIC PARK - but I love Sam Neill, so it was probably for the best.