Ender's Game film back in development
- 25 September 2010
- John Howell
More than a year ago we told you that Orson Scott Card, the science fiction and fantasy writer most famous for Ender's Game and its sequels, had declared that a film adaptation of Ender's Game was no longer happening. Now the L.A. Times reports that Gavin Hood, the director responsible for last year's X-Men Origins: Wolverine, is working on the project and has just completed a rewrite of Card's last screenplay.
The independent production company Odd Lot Entertainment is backing this new attempt. Based on Card's own short story, Ender's Game tells the story of Andrew Wiggin (Ender), a child who becomes a soldier and tactical military genius and helps save the Earth from an alien race known as the Formics. A large part of the book describes Ender and other young military cadets (the best that the Earth can find) using advanced military simulators to head off the alien threat.
The book was critically acclaimed on its first release, winning the Hugo and Nebula Awards, but also caused controversy for its depiction of child soldiers. Card has written numerous sequels and tie in books set in and around the same Ender's Game universe, including Speaker for the Dead (1986), Xenocide (1991), Children of the Mind (1996), Ender's Shadow (1999), Shadow of the Hegemon (2001), Shadow Puppets (2002), Shadow of the Giant (2005), Ender in Exile (2008) and the soon to be released Shadows in Flight.
I'm a big fan of Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide, which followed Ender into adulthood, but the later titles became more and more repetative - they certainly had nothing like the originality and flair of the first book. Of course, it would be hard to come up with a twist as good (I won't spoil it for you here, but encourage you to pick up a copy when you can). Perhaps M. Night Shyamalan had the same problem with following up The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable: good twists are hard to come by.
A film version of Ender's Game has huge potential. The book does present challenges though for anyone taking it on. Finding young actors with enough clout to take on the lead roles is just one. Doubts aside, let's hope that this time it makes it all the way.
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