Movie News

The Ender's Game Movie is Scrapped

January 6, 2009

An article at the Los Angeles Times talking about Orson Scott Card's new Ender novel, "Ender in Exile," states that director Wolfgang Petersen is no longer attached to direct the big screen adaptation of Card's "Ender's Game":

"Soldiers, in a sense, never come home," he said. "[Those] who have seen radical violence are never able to share that. We regard it as pathology if they do."

This complex weave of emotions has made Ender especially difficult to film and has resulted in two decades of fizzled studio meetings, dead-end scripts and a marathon director search. The author said he was not interested in a "tough-hero action film" and refuses to condescend to green-screen Hollywood. Card imagines a "film where the human relationships are absolutely essential -- an honest presentation of the story."

"Ender's Game" was recently in development with director Wolfgang Petersen ("In the Line of Fire," "The Perfect Storm," "Troy") on board, but Card did not feel comfortable with the movie's direction. That project was scrapped early in November.

You can read much more on "Ender's Game" Card's official website.

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COMMENTS (48)

Posted by:

TheFalcon129

January 6, 2009

I can't say I am surprised. The book is one of my favorites and the ideas behind it are very complex. This would be a tough movie to shoot and do justice to the story.

Posted by:

January 6, 2009

Well I am just glad that Wolfgang is not attached to this anymore. I am sure it will get its feet off the ground sometime soon. I think its a hard thing to adapt but I think it can be pulled off. Why not use possibly motion capture?

Posted by:

disturbed

January 6, 2009

Effects won't be the problem, pacing and content will. The book is brilliant, but as Card himself said "human relationships are absolutely essential" to making a good film. I love sci-fi but many times when making an adaption they ignore the characters for the action. I have to admire Card for not taking the easy cash and waiting for someone to do the job right.

Posted by:

bigdadsav

January 6, 2009

I agree with TheFalcon. I doubt a movie could do the book justice. Some stories are best left in books.

Posted by:

Semgmazor

January 6, 2009

This would have to be categorized as Sci-Fi drama. It would be refreshing to see a futuristic Sci-Fi that wasn't focused on the eye candy of a futuristic era, and instead on the story of the lives of the characters.

Ender Rules!

Posted by:

Dudeman

January 6, 2009

Human relationships are for pansies and hippies. I want green-screen backgrounds, explosions, high-speed starship chases, a sex scene between two sexy alien chicks and CG the hell out of everything that's left. Cut, print, count the hundreds of millions that would roll in.

Posted by:

Luke

January 6, 2009

Cripes, I remember when they were talking about have Jack "Anakin" Lloyd as Ender. Gads, I don't know what they were smoking back then, but anyway, that just shows how long this has been stuck in development hell.

Good grief, it's been TEN YEARS since Episode 1...

Posted by:

Sod Off

January 6, 2009

Fortunately for people who have taste in literature and cinematography, douchebags like you aren't in charge of the Ender's Game movie, Dudeman.

Posted by:

Dudeman

January 6, 2009

Sod off, it's pansies like you who spend your time watching movies and reading books when you should be racing on the freeway without a seatbelt on or picking fights at football games with drunken gangbangers. Ender's Game is literature for pussies. If you own a copy, you automatically have a vagina.

Rumsfeld!!!!!!

Posted by:

Chris

January 6, 2009

Good, they could never to the book justice, its just WAY too difficult to turn into a movie. I think it could make a great anime series though, with each book being a season. Then yo could really flush it out