“Ender’s Game” Twitter News Round-Up #4

Posted on by May 2, 2012

23 April-1 May 2012

Following in the footsteps of last week’s Production Blog, the Twitter News Round-Up for this week was slightly delayed…  My apologies, but I hope the content makes up for the tardiness!  Not only do we have another mention of Harrison Ford (Colonel Graff) on set, but several new cast members have been identified as “Ender’s Game” extras!

  • This last week saw continued filming in the zero-gravity Battle Room, with several of the actors tweeting their enjoyment on set.

(Conor Carroll is playing Bernard – no Twitter account yet, though everyone is encouraging him to get one.)

  • Brandon Soo Hoo (Fly Molo) tweeted that he will be leaving the set around May 4th.  Not sure what this means for the filming schedule.

  • And Asa Butterfield (Ender Wiggin) is growing up way too fast!  Already taller than most of the other cast members, it’s hard to picture little Ender being picked on when he’s bigger than all his bullies.  Wondering how a certain scene with Moises Arias (Bonzo Madrid) is going to play out…

  • Now for all those who enjoy following the cast and crew on Twitter, I have identified several more Battle School extras with active accounts and stories to tell.  One of them has even given us a mention of Harrison Ford during a break on the “Ender’s Game” set (tweet posted May 1st)!

You can follow the “Ender’s Game” main cast and crew on this public Twitter list, and the Ender’s Game extras on this one!

Thanks to everyone for reading this week’s Twitter News Round-Up!  If you have any questions or comments, please let us know!  And if you’ve got news that I missed, feel free to contact me at @Wiggin47.

Official Ender’s Game Production Blog #6

Posted on by April 26, 2012

Meet Gavin Hood

 The new post from the Official Ender’s Game Production Blog features Ender’s Game director, Gavin Hood. That’s him above crossing off a completed scene from a storyboard. Did you guys know he shaved his head when all the young actors had to get military haircuts? What a great guy.

“Let’s just hang the kids from bungee chords, roll camera for ten hours and see what we get!  That was plan A.  Which is why we are not directing the movie and instead Gavin Hood is.  We never thought we would find a bigger fan of the novel than all of us until Gavin walked in the room…”

Continue reading on the Official Ender’s Game Production Blog.

Bobby Cohen Talks Ender’s Game Movie

Posted on by April 25, 2012

Fluxed as we are about the film, MTV News knows what’s gravitating in the world of Ender’s Game. Recently, on the set of “Now You See Me” they caught up with Bobby Cohen. Alike Alex Kurtzman in a recent interview, who expressed his galactic excitement for the cast and film, Cohen expressed his feelings toward the actors and movie also.

“Our other movie is ‘Ender’s Game,’ based on the incredible book that people have been trying to make forever. A lot of directors have tried to do it. We have an amazing script. Gavin Hood is directing, we’ve got Harrison Ford, Sir Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, Hailee Steinfeld from ‘True Grit,’ Asa Butterfield from ‘Hugo.'”

He also gave us some insight into the set.

“There is a NASA stage where they literally used to build the rockets for the space shuttle that is now actually a sound stage,” he said. “They will be spending 65 some odd days about 45 minutes from here on a big giant set. So that’s going well.”

You can watch Bobby Cohen’s interview here.

Sounds stellar, no? What better way to film a space school than to film it on NASA headquarters.

“Ender’s Game” Twitter News Round-Up #3

Posted on by April 22, 2012

15-22 April 2012

Welcome to a revitalized installment of the weekly “Ender’s Game” Twitter news round-up, a selection of some of the most interesting, funny, silly, crazy, or otherwise noteworthy posts from cast and crew.  These are only highlights of the week’s events; if you’re interested in keeping up real-time, be sure to follow their individual accounts (click here for the current list maintained by Ender’s Ansible).

  • On 18 April, Moises Arias (Bonzo Madrid) celebrated his 18th birthday with cast, crew, and family!  And I must say I agree with Moises – I don’t know who is telling him these things, but I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be on MY birthday…

"Ender's Game" cast and family members help Moises Arias celebrate the big 18!

 

  • On 20 April, Asa Butterfield (Ender Wiggin) and Aramis Knight (Bean) posted several snaps of some photo fun.  Can’t wait to see these two together on the big screen!

 

  • On 17 April, Hailee Steinfeld (Petra Arkanian) had this to say about life outside of filming on the “Ender’s Game” set.

  • On 21 April, Asa gave a plug for the “Ender’s Game” stunt coordinator, Garrett Warren. Be sure to add him to your list!

  • So to sum us up for this week, I leave you with two more comments to put us in the “Ender’s Game” spirit!  The first from Asa makes me wish, as always, that I too could be spending my days in null gravity.  The second from Suraj Partha (Alai) should mirror all of our sentiments exactly.  Stay tuned for more Twitter updates next week!

 

Casting Rumor For “Mick”

Posted on by April 22, 2012

Our friends at Ender News were tipped by a reliable source that Jacob Leinbach has been cast for the role of “Mick”, the boy who approaches Ender when he first enters the mess hall and offers the advice to “kiss butt” if needed, so Ender wouldn’t end up like him, not commanding his own army.

It’s worth noting that back in March someone notified us that they asked OSC, via Facebook page (yes, he has one to) about some characters that hadn’t been cast at the time. OSC politely responded that “some characters have been cut from the screenplay” because, as we all know, movies have a strict time limit, so decisions had be made. Here is a screenshot of the post.

This news is unofficial. No official statement has been announcement from production has come out. Though, IMDb does have listed Jacob Leinbach as “Mick”, let us not forget that anyone can go in and add information. We will keep up with this rumor to find out what has become of the casting but right now it seems to contradict the words of OSC.

Ender’s Game Book: Film Tie-In Edition

Posted on by April 19, 2012

Spotted Listing on Amazon

On Amazon’s UK site, we spotted this entry for an Ender’s Game “film tie-in edition”. There is no book cover uploaded yet, but the release date is listed as January 3, 2013. This paperback printed by Orbit is listed as having 352 pages, with a pre-order price of £7.99 or roughly $10.50.

From the back of the book:

“Now a major motion picture starring Harrison Ford ‘An increasingly popular and relevant novel that risks and achieves and delivers more than most anything else within the science fiction genre, Ender’s Game is a contemporary classic’ New York Times ‘Card has taken the venerable SF concepts of a superman and interstellar war […] and, with superb characterization, pacing, and language, combined them into a seamless story of compelling power’ Booklist ‘A gripping tale of adventure in space and a scathing indictment of the military mind’ Library Journal ‘Some of the most hauntingly brilliant writing of the decade’ Interzone Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards”

Note that this version would likely not be similar to The Hunger Games: Official Illustrated Movie Companion. The entry is more similar to this listing (scroll down to product details) for a regular print of the book with an updated cover featuring images associated with the movie. We can’t say we’re surprised, books adapted into films almost always release movie covers close to the release of the movie.

What are your thoughts on movie book covers… love them, hate them, think they’re cheesy? Tell us in the comments.

Rumor: Ender’s Game at Comic-Con 2013

Posted on by April 19, 2012

Publicity Mirrors Hunger Games

Recall that the Ender’s Game Movie release date was moved to November 1, 2013. With this piece of news Variety reports that Ender’s Game may be making an appearance at next year’s Comic-Con in 2013.

“An informed source indicated that the November date may have greater potential for the start of a potential franchise film and will allow Summit to take advantage of promo opportunities at next year’s Comic-Con in July.”

Comic-Con is a four-day event held in San Diego each July and draws over 100,000 attendees. If this rumor is true, this publicity would be similar to the strategy Lionsgate used to promote The Hunger Games at Comic-Con 2011, where they passed out posters and medallions to waiting fans. The Ender’s Game movie is scheduled to be wrap filming the first week of June, so theoretically the cast would be able to make an appearance at the event.

Would you make a trip out to San Diego for Ender’s Game?

Ender’s Game Production Blog #5: Ender’s Monitor

Posted on by April 19, 2012

Ender’s Monitor

The Official Ender’s Game Production Blog has been updated, giving us a glimpse of Ender’s monitor. Though, the monitor is only seen briefly at the beginning of the novel, it “allows Colonel Graff to “see through [Ender’s] eyes” and know:  HE’S THE ONE.”

The monitor itself looks very creative, but the post on Ender’s Game Blog is a little creepy. Modern tracking devices do exist and who knows what other technology is being invented at the present. One day tracking devices could come to extremes like this. Do you believe we’ll ever come to see a person using a device like Ender’s?

You can read the rest of the post here.

Ender’s Room Reexamined

Posted on by May 6, 2013

What’s in Ender’s room? (Again!)

The official Ender’s Game production blog released a picture of Ender’s bedroom last week. In case you missed it, we already took a look at 10 things inside Ender’s Room. Readers from all over sent in their suggestions of 10 more finds in Ender’s bedroom. So here we go.

11. Bugger Mask
How did we miss this mask the first time around? In the book, Peter and Ender play a game of buggers and astronauts. Even if it’s not a bugger mask, it’s still pretty neat.

12. The Thing 
A reader suggests this that this action figure on the top shelf might be The Thing from Marvel’s Fantastic Four.  Here’s one from Amazon for $22.

13. Gas Chamber
This seems like some kind of pressurized gas chamber. Someone has suggested that it may be for a bike, space suit, or just polluted air.

14. A Desk Lamp
It took about 2 months but one reader finally found it. Here’s a desk Lamp from Kundalini, price unknown.

15. Perry Rhodan Poster
This poster may be of Perry Rhodan, one of the best selling sci-fi figures in the world.

16. 3D Printer
Hats off to Travis in the comments who figured this one out! That’s a second 3D printer for Ender! It looks exactly like this one from Cubify for $1,300.

17. Spinosaurus Sticker
It looks like kids in the future still like dinosaurs. That’s this print from Etsy for $8.

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18. Soldering Iron
That’s a soldering iron, used for assembling electronics, which may also explain all the tool compartments we pointed out in our previous post. Here’s one from Parts Express for $16.
19. Paint Jars
There are a few small bottles of colored paints on Ender’s desk. This suggests that Ender makes (with his 3D printer) his action figures and plane models and paints them himself. Here’s a pack of assorted colors from Amazon for $33.

20. The Room as a Whole
Everyone had a lot of comments around Ender’s Room. Here are a few of the most popular thoughts and observations people have commented, tweeted and emailed us about.

-Ender’s Room doesn’t look futuristic enough. Ender’s Game is supposed to take place in 2070, not 2020.

-Ender’s Room is too messy for someone analytical like Ender.

-Ender’s room seems to be divided in thirds in the order he most cares about different parts of his life. The top third contain his aspirations and inspirations, the middle third containing his hobbies, and the bottom third his school work.
That’s all everyone! Thanks again to everyone who sent in suggestions and finds for Ender’s room!

UPDATED: Ender’s Room Examined

Posted on by May 6, 2013

What’s in Ender’s Room?

The official Ender’s Game production blog released a picture of Ender’s bedroom yesterday. The picture is pretty small, but we think we found some pretty cool stuff in Ender’s mess. Check it out!

1. Milky Way Solar System Wall Decals
Ender has these all over his walls. We found these ones on Etsy for $45

2. Plane Models
If you look closely there are a few plane models hanging from the ceiling of Ender’s Room. We aren’t sure about this exact model, but we found a similar one from The Smithsonian for $36.

3.  Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II Decal
This jet was designed for the US Air Force in the 1970s. Read more here.

4. Bugger Ship
We wouldn’t be surprised if this turns out to be a model of the Bugger’s ships. Until we know for sure we think it looks similar to Star War’s Millennium Falcon.


5. DNA Model
We almost missed this one in Ender’s cluttered room. That’s Watson and Crick’s double helix DNA structure. Here’s one from Amazon for $19.

6. Ender’s  Desk
Check out Ender’s desk, or what we call a tablet. This may be a modified version of Boogie Board Tablet which retails for $40.

7. Compartment Storage Boxes
Ender has various kinds of these all over his room. They’re many tiny clear drawers for holding things like nails, screws, paperclips, lug nuts etc. This one from Amazon is $31.

 

8. 3D Printer
Ok, this might be one of the coolest things in Ender’s bedroom. That’s definitely a 3D printer, like this one from desktopFab, which costs a whopping $4,000. Maybe 3D Printers are cheaper in the future.

9. Map of the Sky
That’s definitely a map of the sky. (I have one!) If shows you the coordinates of stars and constellations. We found this one on Amazon for $12.

10. Halo Master Chief Action Figure
If you play the video game Halo, you might have recognized this little guy.  We found this action figure on Amazon for $14.

Thanks everyone who helped. If you think you found something else in the picture of Ender’s Room, let us know in the comments!

Updated: We put together 10 more finds from Ender’s room from the things our readers have suggested via email, Twitter and the comments! Click here.