Ender's Ansible

On Stands Now!

Entertainment Weekly revealed the first Ender’s Game movie still earlier this week. Now if you’re itching to get a hard copy in your hands, you’re in luck! The image featuring Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford appears on a full page of the December 14th issue of Entertainment Weekly. That means that the issue is already on stands and will disappear after next Thursday.

Look for any of these 4 collector’s edition covers:

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.

Listen the the 5 part talk below and thank you Roko for the link!

Digital Domain Still Holds a Large Stake in Ender’s Game

In case you missed it, Galloping Horses and Reliance Media, acquired the Ender’s Game special effects company Digital Domain in September. Digital Domain CEO Ed Ulbrich says that the acquisition transforms Digital Domain from a service provider to content owner, which has been a “dream from the very beginning.” Consequently, Ender’s Game will be the first film Galloping Horses and Digital Domain will work on together as Digital Domain continues to hold a 37.5% stake in the Ender’s Game film. The acquisition will not delay the release of the Ender’s Game movie.

In light of a long and quiet post-production we finally have some news via China Daily. About 60% of the Ender’s Game movie will contain special effects.

About 60 percent of the film, focusing on conflicts between humankind and aliens in the Earth’s future, features special visual effects, according to Ivy Zhong, vice-chairperson of Galloping Horse.

Is 60% too much or too little special effects? Tell us in the comments!

The Ender’s Game movie will be released on November 1, 2013. 

Earth Afire

The Earth Unaware Trilogy by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston are planned prequels to the original Ender’s Game novel. The first novel Earth Unaware was released this summer. Click here to read our review and click here to buy it.

Now the co-author of the trilogy, Aaron Johnston has let fans know via Twitter that the second installment in the prequel trilogy will be called Earth Afire and will be released next summer on June 4, 2013. [P.S. Together with philoticweb.net we interviewed Aaron Johnston a few months ago listen to the podcast Part 1 and Part 2.] Follow Aaron Johnston on Twitter @AaronWJohnston.

Happy Halloween everyone; be safe! This time next year we’ll all be sitting in lines waiting for the midnight release of the Ender’s Game movie! Thank you, user philoticweb for the tip!

Here are the winners from the giveaway:

LilBee91
jotabe
evilender
unphill
blaketheroux
Demo$thene$
Mich
Dems
Rei
SIRender
Kigurumii
Brian
kyrraraarara
leilsilver
thoughtreader

I sent a personal message to each of your philoticweb.net accounts; please reply with your mailing addresses!