Orson Scott Card Writes to GeekTyrant about the Ender’s Game Movie
Earlier this week GeekTyrant wrote a letter to Hollywood about their thoughts on the upcoming Ender’s Game movie. Ender’s Game author, Orson Scott Card completely SHOCKED the staff by writing back. He includes his hope that the actor who will be cast as Ender has never had an agent, but is intelligent and can take direction.
A few important highlights of Card’s response include the dismissal of the stars of the summer blockbuster, Super 8, acting in the Ender’s Game movie; they’re just too old. We also learn which elements of the book are going to be cut from the movie: the mind game, Peter and Valentine’s online political actions and more. Read the complete response from Orson Scott Card below or click here to read it on the GeekTyrant website.
“A friend forwarded me your very thoughtful diatribe (since I write diatribes myself, I don’t regard it as a negative term) about the EG movie. While I can’t join you in wishing for the book to be the script, I am grateful for the impulse!The problem with the book, as a movie, is that all the important information about ender’s motives comes from internal monologue – his thoughts. Since voiceovers are loathsome, Ender’s actions would remain unexplained, and he would appear to be little more than a violent kid.Also, the book would make a movie that was at least four hours long. Much has to be cut – including all of Peter’s and Valentine’s online exploits, the mind game, and much of the incidental material before Ender gets into Bonzo’s army.In short, much will be omitted. But I remain confident that as long as the character of Ender himself, with his relationships with other kids, is in the movie, it will still be Ender’s Game to my own satisfaction and the satisfaction of the fans.As to the kid from Super 8 playing Ender: Alas, Ender and Bean must be the two youngest and smallest kids in the movie, and NONE of the kids should have reached puberty. This means that the actor you refer to is already too old for the part. But he is talented! Whoever plays Ender will almost certainly be an actor you haven’t seen before, and with any luck, a child who has not gone through the soul-numbing process of being cute on camera. In other words, I hope it is a child who never had an agent, but who is very, very intelligent and therefore can take direction.Again, thanks for your interest in EG and for caring that the film be done well. But here is my own source of greatest confidence: The movie will not erase a single word of the book! That’s how I endure knowing that Peter Jackson committed the repulsive crime of removing the Scouring of the Shire from the Lord of the Rings movie, which is akin to removing the last chapter from EG. THAT, at least, I know will not happen in the EG movie – all the producers understand that the point of the story is finding out that the very thing that allowed Ender to defeat the formics (loving his enemy in order to defeat them) makes his discovery all the more galling to him.
Best,osc”
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