OSC Talks Ender’s Game Movie

In a Q&A book signing for ‘Ruins’ in Orem, Utah earlier this month Ender’s Game author, Orson Scott Card, had a lot to say about the Ender’s Game movie. Although we’ve heard many of his talking points before, there are a few tidbits worth listening to. A frequent commenter on IMDB, Haley’s Comet, put together a brief summary of the talk:

Part 1
– The film will come out a year from now November 2013. The movie is shot and wrapped.
– Orson has a small one line voice-over role in the film as a pilot. This is during a scene where Ender and Graff are on their way to “Fleet Headquarters”(1)
– The above scene isn’t in the book, and furthermore Card notes that effectively NONE of the scenes(2) from the movie are from the book and vice versa.
– The Battle Room scenes will be very limited in scope and complexity and there is not likely to be more one complete battle(3). “It’s about the characters. it’s about the relationships… which is what the book is about.”(4)
– While on set Card watch Harrison and Asa perform some scenes. He stated that the mic was really close and they spoke in low voices. “That’s because most of this is going to be close-ups…”(5)

Part 2
– Card laments about part of what took so long to get Ender’s Game made into a film was the child actor issues, which means short hours. He noted that every day filming is a million dollars toward the budget.(6)
– All of the kids in the film did their own wire work (7) because walking and collisions in CGI “always looks false.”
– Cirque du Soleil did all of the distant shots/stunt work, but also trained the kids to mimic the movements, which was agonizing but put them in top physical shape.
– Card said that how Ender’s Game does in the theater will determine if his future projects get funded (specifically speaking of “Enchantment” and “Alvin Maker (Seventh Son?)”(8)
– Card stated that although Ben Kingsley didn’t look half-Maori to him, he is sure he could pull of any role included that of Mazer Rackham.

Part 3 (this part has SPOILERS for the novel Shadows in Flight)
– Card had several versions of the screenplay for Ender’s Game over the years, none of which got made into a film. The final screenplay was by Gavin Hood.
– Card did not read the script version (not written by him) for Ender’s Game. He approved them based on the review of his friend Aaron Johnston and Card’s wife.

Part 4
– Why is it taking a year for Ender’s Game to be released? “They’re doing CGI..they make the live action scenes and then they build they make the animated film around it. But, there are sets that don’t exist anywhere.”
– Card says that he will probably know when the trailer will come out “a day or two after you do.” He says he gets all of his info like that from his fans.
– “With Ender’s Game I raided my own family, but I changed so much…” So some characters are loosely based on some Card’s family members.

Part 5
Nothing really about the movie in this part, but some humorous instructions on what to do (and not to do) in the book signing line, a comment by Card that he writes “Unitarian Fiction” (a great comment for those who like to argue about him putting his political views in his works) and an appearance by Jake Black, the writer of The Authorized Ender’s Companion.