Happy Birthday Philotic Web and Ender’s Ansible!

Posted on by June 30, 2012

Happy birthday to Philoticweb.net, our sister website, who has been serving the Ender’s Game fandom for 12 years. On June 30th, 2000 Ender’s Game author, Orson Scott Card, became the first person to register on their website. Since then, they’ve been personally mentioned in 4 of the books: Shadow the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Ender in Exile and The Authorized Ender Companion. If you haven’t already registered there, I suggest you do so because they are awesome people!

Ender’s Ansible was founded 1 year ago on June 30th, 2011. (The date is pure coincidental!) Can you believe how fast it went by?! Let’s review the year to see what Ender’s Ansible and Philotic Web have accomplished together:

1 Hosting move
12 Staff members
1 Amazing partnership
5 Different layouts between our two sites (see below!)
3 Exclusive interviews (Sebastian Fiumara, Steve Sywak and another to be released very soon!)
2000+ Facebook likes (many were lost in the hosting move, are you one of them?)
The launch of our Podcast, Tumblr and Pintrest
200+ Posts (or about 1 post ever 43 hours!)
5000+ Emails (probably more)
600+ Twitter followers &
1 Set visit

For fun here’s what our very first header looked like:

And an old one from Philotic Web:

Thank you, our readers, for supporting us!

Earth Unaware Audiobook Preview

Posted on by June 27, 2012

Exclusive Audiobook Preview

Ender’s Game prequel Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston hits shelves July 17th. If you can’t wait, we have an awesome 8 minute sneak peak of the Earth Unaware audiobook for you from Macmillan Audio. The audiobook is narrated by Stefan Rudnicki and a full cast. Listen below!

 

 

 

You can pre-order the Earth Unaware audiobook here. Also, if you want more details about Earth Unaware or want to read an excerpt from the first chapter, click here.

A few reminders:
1. You have until July 7th (date extended) to submit your book questions to Orson Scott Card via Smart Pop Books. Your questions may be answered in the upcoming book, Ender’s World. Submit your questions to their blog here.
2. Don’t forget to nominate the Ender’s Game series for NPR’s annual Top 100 list! Learn how here.

Khylin Rhambo Talks Ender’s Game Movie

Posted on by June 23, 2012

Formics are CGI

Dink-actor, Khylin Rhambo was spotted on the red carpet earlier this week for the Bryon Allen fall line-up launch party. In an interview Red Carpet Report TV, he discussed Ender’s Game and his new TV show called First Family. On First Family Khylin will play, Charles, the U.S. President’s son. About Ender’s Game he tells us that the formics were made via CGI and even reenacts a scene with his pretend flash gun. Watch below! You can follow Khylin on Twitter @KhyRhambo. Be sure to tweet him that you watched it!

Help Get Ender’s Game on NPR’s Top 100 List!

Posted on by July 6, 2012

…Again!

Every summer NPR comes out with a top 100 book list. Remember this post? Last summer, with our encouragement and your help we got Ender’s Game to the #3 spot on NPR’s Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy booklist. We asked you guys to tweet and vote and you did!

“With just two spots above Ender’s Game, the #1 spot went to J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings with 29,701 votes. The #2 spot on the list went to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams with 20,069 votes. With an impressive 16,141 votes, Ender’s Game came in third! “

Let’s make it happen again! Right now NPR is taking nominations for their Top 100 Young Adult Fiction Novels. Here’s how you can help:

Now:
1. Click here!
2. Login and write a comment on NPR’s page nominating up to 5 young adult fiction novels (the entire Ender’s Game series counts as one vote)  make sure you nominate it “Ender’s Game Series by Orson Scott Card”
3. Share it! Tweet it, post it on Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit, Pinterest… etc.

Later: In about a week NPR will generate a list for everyone to vote on. Once this happens, we’ll let you know! Which leads to Step #4…
4. Vote!

Let us know in a comment, Facebook post or tweet when you’ve submitted your nominations!

“Ender’s Game” Twitter News Round-Up #7

Posted on by June 21, 2012

17-21 June 2012

After a brief hiatus, the Twitter News Round-Up is back! While principal photography is over and the cast has parted ways, we’ll still be combing the nets for any cast/crew updates until the movie’s release. Since most recent Twitter postings were rolled into other news stories, this should be a short and sweet update.

1) Asa Butterfield has left LA and is back home in England.  Looks like the photo shoots are done – it could be a while before we see our cast all together again!

2) A fellow “Ender’s Game” fan tracked down this YouTube video of Aramis Knight…behind the wheel?  Check it out here.

3) I’m sure most of you have seen this by now, but Aramis Knight also posted this photo of a copy of “Ender’s Game” that he had signed by some of the cast and crew.

Starting top left, Aramis managed to get this book signed by:

  • Sir Ben Kingsley (Mazer Rackham)
  • Aramis Knight (Bean)
  • Harrison Ford (Colonel Hyrum Graff)
  • Hailee Steinfeld (Petra Arkanian)
  • Asa Butterfield (Ender Wiggin)
  • Orson Scott Card (author)

And on the right:

  • Gavin Hood (director)
  • Viola Davis (Major Gwen Anderson)
  • Khylin Rhambo (Dink Meeker)
  • Jimmy Pinchak (Peter Wiggin)
  • Nonso Anozie (Sergeant Dap)
  • Suraj Partha (Alai)
  • Cameron Gaskins (Pol Slattery)
  • Moises Arias (Bonzo Madrid)
  • Abigail Breslin (Valentine Wiggin)
  • Brandon Soo Hoo (Fly Molo)
  • Conor Carroll (Bernard)

I believe my immediate response was to tell him to shrink wrap it and not lay a finger on it for twenty years… What an awesome keepsake for him (and a horrible tease for us)!

Until next time, fellow Twitter fans!  @Wiggin47

Our Top 5 Favorite Ender’s Game Movie Trailers And Why We Love Them

Posted on by August 15, 2012

Fan-Made Of Course

There are hundreds of fan-made Ender’s Game movie trailers on the nets. A lot of the them are made for school projects, but there are some really amazing ones out there. Today we’re looking at our top 5 favorite (fan-made) Ender’s Game movie trailers and why we love them. While they might not be theater quality, each of them helps make an important point to the movie-going audience. Thank you @EnderSpeaker for helping us on this one!

#1 The Introduction
Alright, so we love this because the graphics are amazing. We liked how it didn’t give the story line away; it just set the scene for the movie. This video would be great as an online trailer. Our only complaint is that Ender is 10 in the movie, not 6!

#2 The Drama
This one helps us see that  Ender’s Game can be more than a sci-fi adventure film. This helps people who haven’t read the book understand that, at the heart, Ender’s Game is about personal relationships. As EnderSpeak pointed out, it also helps us understand why the filmmakers had to use older actors for the children. The boy sounds/looks too young to understand what he is saying.


#3 The Story Line
You guys should know Darian by now. He makes amazing fan art (just check out his latest IF propaganda posters on his blog!) Darian made this trailer. We love it because he summarizes the story line without giving away the ending in just over a minute! We think it’s really important that the end of the film isn’t spoiled for people who aren’t familiar with the book.


#4 A Teaser
So this one is a little older; ignore the 2010 date. This video points out that Ender is capable of being violent. One thing that’s missing from it is Ender’s motivation for the violence. We’d love to see something like this mixed with a little of Ender’s remorse and vulnerability. This style of trailer could be great as  a series of TV shorts focusing on different aspects of the film- being a third, the game, his relationship with Valentine etc.


#5 A Cult Classic
We’ve all seen this one before, it’s even featured on Orson Scott Card’s website and this list wouldn’t be complete without it. The voice-overs and the  theatrical imagery and music help us understand how necessary Ender is to the world. We see that Earth is in danger and how a genius hero is needed to save humanity. We also get to see a little of the IF’s manipulation on Ender’s part which could be interpreted as a spoiler.

Which one was your favorite? Tell us in the comments! If you think we missed one, be sure to send it our way.

Ender’s Game Freebies at Comic-Con 2012

Posted on by June 18, 2012

Two Freebies

Are you signed up for this year’s Comic-Con? Tickets are already sold out, but if you plan on attending the San Diego convention be sure to stop by exhibit booth #4300.

Smart Pop Books will be giving away free copies of their yearly sampler volume, which includes an advance full essay from Ender’s World: Fresh Perspectives on the SF Classic Ender’s Game (specifically, Hilari Bell’s, on “Winning and Losing in Ender’s Game.“)

Secondly, make sure you ask Smart Pop to scan your Comic-Con badge! After your badge is scanned, Smart Pop will enter you into a chance to win one of 25 galley copies of Ender’s World. “We’ll pick the winners after the end of the convention and notify you via email. Then we’ll ship you your copy, hot off the presses, as soon as they’re printed!”

Ender’s World will not be published until February 2013, so don’t miss your chance at an early copy! For more information on Ender’s World click here. To find out what other freebies Smart Pop will be giving away at Comic-Con 2012 click here.

Lastly, don’t forget that you have until July 1st to submit your questions to Ender’s Game author, Orson Scott Card, for a chance to have your questions answered in Ender’s World. Click here to learn how to submit your questions! On an similar note, this post should not be confused with the rumor that the Ender’s Game movie will make an appearance at Comic-Con 2013. Who’s going to Comic-Con 2012? Tell us in the comments!

Ender’s Game Production Blog #12

Posted on by June 18, 2012

The Enemy’s Gate is Down

The official production blog has just been updated, and this time it’s all about the production design team, Ben Proctor and Sean Haworth. They describe the “look” they were going for:

“We tried to imbue the spaces and vehicles with a gritty, engineered realism that would help sell the seriousness of the training our hero kids are going through. The visual style of the Formics, on the other hand, needed to be both exotic and beautiful to represent a society not deserving of extinction.”

It seems that they’ve both been fans of Ender for a very long time,

“For Ben, he read the founding short-story at age twelve, and has been a fan ever since. ‘Fans of the book will hopefully recognize what they’ve been imagining for years, but also be impressed with the level of detail.  And as a fan, you have an actual emotional reaction finally seeing the Zero-G action you’ve always visualized.’

As for Sean, having read the book in his twenties, vividly remembers not only the science and technology, but the terrifying human elements behind it all.

‘ I was torn between wanting to be Ender but never having to be faced with that kind of a future,’ he said.”

The blog ends with “Farewell… for now” which seems to imply that updates will not be as regular as they have been now that filming has ended. Continue reading the full post here.

Edit: Ender’s Game producer, Bob Orci, just confirmed via Twitter that this will be the last blog post.

P.S. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Tumblr for the lastest Ender’s Game news!

Kurtzman Talks Ender’s Game Movie

Posted on by June 16, 2012

OSC Gives His Blessing

While doing press for Spider-Man, Ender’s Game producer, Alex Kurtzman spoke with Superhero-Hype. He had this to say,

“We’re certainly huge fans of the book, too, so I think we felt extremely protective of it […] I know that Gavin Hood, our director, really felt protective of it, and he wrote a beautiful script. Orson came in and gave us his blessing, which I think was a huge, huge thing for all of us. “

Now that Card has given his blessing to the production, how do you think the movie will sit with long-time fans? Tell us in the comments!

Ender’s Game Cast at Young Hollywood Awards

Posted on by June 16, 2012

Asa Butterfield Wins Big!

Asa Butterfield, Haliee Steinfeld and Moises Arias were in attendance at the Young Hollywood Awards in Los Angeles last night. A special congratulations to Mr. Asa Butterfield won The Breakthough Award of 2012.

Here is a video of the Ender’s Game cast meeting on the red carpet!

& Here is a gallery of images from last night’s event, courtesy of Zumbio.

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