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Category: Ender’s Game Blog

Gavin Hood Previews Ender’s Game One-Sheet Teaser

Some of you may have seen a leaked image last Friday of the first Ender’s Game and stuff like that is always a little unfortunate because while we’re all starved for Ender’s Game stuff, there’s always that disappointment at seeing something not as we were intended to see it.

Thankfully, director Gavin Hood has an official teaser of a teaser (I love saying that!) on the Ender’s Game production blog for us to drool over until we get to see the poster ourselves in theaters. He’s also given us some insight into his own personal tie to the story of Ender Wiggin.

It’s been four years since I first began writing a screenplay based on the classic novel. I love the book. And I especially love the character of Ender Wiggin. I was drafted into an army myself at 17, and Ender’s journey of self discovery – his battles with authority figures he does not trust and his development as a leader – are themes I strongly relate to.

Here’s a look at Ender’s feet at the edge of the gate to the Battle Room:

We are now well into post production and the famous zero gravity battle room scenes are looking fantastic.

[…]

And today we are looking at battle room scenes that will blow your mind!

To read the full entry, head over to the Ender’s Game Blog.

What do you guys think? Tomorrow we’ll get to see the whole thing unveiled via Yahoo! Movies, so be sure to keep your eyes on Yahoo tomorrow!

March 24, 2013
Production Blog Photos: Gate to the Battle Room

Even though principal photography is now truly over, with Asa Butterfield returning to his home in the United Kingdom yesterday, Bob Orci managed to give the fans one more production blog entry to oogle over. In what appears to be concept art of the gate to the Battle Room, we get to see another glimpse of the rounded doors we previously saw in the background of a photo of Mr. Orci.

On the floor are the ominous words: “WARNING: NULL G BEYOND THIS LINE”

Ask anyone to quote ‘Ender’s Game‘ and the majority will probably say, “The enemy’s gate is down.” Yet it can be easy to forget that it’s only “down” in the battle room. The concept of up and down can be so hard to deal with that it induces vomiting, something that happens to some of Ender’s fellow Launchies on the way up from Earth. Part of Ender’s training included teaching his soldiers that quick reminder of how to re-orient themselves once they entered zero gravity.

The Battle School operates with gravity, which means that up until the soldiers enter the room, the gate looks like any other doorway. Look down at the floor to read this warning and your brain will likely automatically attribute the floor as being down. Enter the Battle Room and down could shift to being above your head.

This photo shows “B Gate”, though it’s hard to tell if this is artwork or an actual still. The inner area looks to be padded and quite wide, so it’s possible this is the outer door and the null g warning appears on the floor on an inner chamber pictured to the right.

Orci gave a bit of background on production designers Ben Proctor and Sean Haworth by asking them about their fan background and they didn’t disappoint.

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, [he] 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.

Just looking at the photos posted, you have to wonder just how set designers go about taking concept art and making that a reality. Do they order parts? Do they literally make them from scratch themselves? It’s mind boggling, really.

“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.”

Ask them to describe the Formic world and you’ll get excited tales, imagining a Formic method of manufacture that was distinctly inhuman — a kind of biological 3D printer, with the drones building living spaces and spacecraft layer by layer.

It’s interesting to hear their perspectives on the need to make the Formic sets exotic and beautiful because they could have easily gone the other way and made their sets simply terrifying (Aliens comes to mind) or simply more technologically advanced than the humans. To read the full entry, head over to Ender’s Game Blog.

With production at an end, it’s understandable that the production blog comes to an end too, but hopefully we get to see something else down the line as they move into post-production. Eventually, we’ll probably see the launch of a full blown website, Facebook page, and Twitter. Hopefully that’s not too far down the road.

And in other news, we’ve just cracked through the 500 day mark to the premiere of Ender’s Game! Woohoo!

June 19, 2012
‘Ender’s Game’ Production Blog Talks Flash Suit Construction

The latest entry in the Ender’s Game production blog is here and they’re talking about costume designer Christine Bieselin-Clark, who has done work on movies such as TRON: Legacy, Watchmen, and 300.

It’s obviously a tough and daunting job to create something that fans have been imagining in their heads for nearly 30 years.

Are the suits loose or tight fitting in your imagination? Are they completely colored in the army colors or are they a single color with the army colors on the fringes? Or do you not have much of an image of it in your mind, with more focus put on the look of the Battle Room itself?

In truth, the suits in the books aren’t described with very much detail other than being tight:

Worse, the suits were confining. It was harder to make precise movements, since the suits bent just a bit slower, resisted a bit more than any clothing they had ever worn before.

Ender gripped the handhold and flexed his knees. He noticed that along with the sluggishness, the suit had an amplifying effect on movement. It was hard to get them started, but the suit’s legs kept moving, and strongly, after his muscles had stopped. Give them a push this strong, and the suit pushes with twice the force.

Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game (pp. 55-56)

Ender does mention his new Salamander suit given to him on his birthday as feeling loose, but since they’d tailored that one for him, it was probably designed with growth in mind and the suits are probably tight fitting.

So how did Bieselin-Clark go about creating them?

With science fiction, there’s a danger in creating a look that seems so foreign it becomes alienating. For ENDER’S GAME, we wanted to make a future that looked both functional and logical. We wanted it to be a future where you can picture yourself in their shoes.

But of course, it is the future. For the uniforms, all synthetic materials were used, meaning no loud silk florals. And for the flash suits… well, we actually had to create them out of thin air.

Christine built the flash suits from virtually non-existent fabrics designed by our incredible production team. The idea was to take cues from “extreme sports” to inspire our design, using real world practicality as opposed to the heightened reality of superhero spandex and a cape.

And the best part? They look pretty darn cool.

The grid suits in TRON: Legacy looked pretty phenomenal, so if she brings that experience into the mix the suits will likely have a wonderfully modern and sleek look to them.

Similar to how actor Chris Hemsworth worked out a little too much and then didn’t fit his Thor costume, it must have been a nightmare to measure growing teenagers and then make suits from scratch while considering their growth during filming.

Speaking of big men, they also joke about the size of Nonso Anozie.

And then there’s having to make a uniform for Nonso Anozie, who plays Sergeant Dap.

Normally, a bolt comes with nine yards of material, and can make 2-3 suits. Or, in Nonso’s case, one suit became a living example of the expression “the whole nine yards”.

Amazing! It’d be awesome to see a side by side photo of Aramis and Nonso.

510 days left, folks. We’re still a really long ways away, but hopefully the next production entry comes soon! Executive Producer Mandy Safavi assured us on Twitter there are a couple more coming.

June 8, 2012
‘Ender’s Game’ Production Blog Gives First Look at IF Logo

This week’s entry in the Ender’s Game Production blog has something especially exciting featured: the logo of the International Fleet!

A photo of what looks to be some kind of metal platform with the IF logo on it shows a hollow oval with a capital ‘I’ overlaid on it, with a starburst behind it. Anyone have any insight on the symbolism behind it? My first interpretation is that the oval represents the Earth and the ‘I’ obviously stands for International, but I’m curious to hear if anyone else has an opinion about it, since I pretty much suck at symbolism.

Update: One of our readers Cole pointed out that it’s a greek Phi.

In addition to the image, producer Bob Orci answered a few more fan questions.

Ccspatriot35 asks:

How militaristic will the environment be? Will we be seeing the children treated like the soldiers they are meant to portray? For all intents and purposes they are in boot camp for most of their adolescence. Will we see the characters being broken down?

Funny you should ask. We had a great visit with some online press who visited the set, and they got to talk to our actors. Without giving too much away, they told great stories of not only going to Space Camp, but also having to undergo a form of boot camp with a no nonsense instructor who taught them how to march properly in unison and much more. And when they screwed up they were ordered to do push ups! They got in shape trust me. It’s painful for my self image to see so many young kids with six pack abs. Maybe I should go to boot camp next.

This was from our set visit! Consider that this was a room of young boys and discussion over six packs gradually turned into a hilarious “who has more” six pack contest.

Addressing the ever-present age issue, Bob gave a great answer about the timeline of the movie.

Katrina asks:

How has the book been adapted to script to work with the ages of the actors?

Time has been compressed impressionistically. Though we don’t specify how much time has passed, leaving it somewhat up to your imagination, it is clear that the time span is not as long as the book’s.

A lot of people will read this and still find themselves upset over the change from the book, but you have to keep telling yourself that this is an adaptation that has to be smashed into two hours. Certain changes such as this one are to be expected and it’s tough to deal with some of them, but in the end all we can really do is hope that it works in the end.

From looking at the cast listing, it’s clear that they ended up scrapping quite a few named characters from the book, but one that most certainly couldn’t be cut was smart little cadet Bean. When asked about exactly how much Bean we’d see in the movie, Orci had good things to say. “Orson Scott Card advocated for as much Bean as we could muster, and really encouraged ways to make him pivotal. You’ll decide if we succeeded! I think we did. And we’re even more excited for you all to experience Aramis Knight’s fantastic portrayal of Bean.”

Fan DavidB voiced another huge concern about how the book, which is told primarily from Ender’s own point of view, would translate to screen since voiceovers are a bit tricky.

Praising the young actors of the cast, Orci sounds convinced that the performances will go a long way in conveying the emotion of the overall story. “Gavin elegantly translated some of the inner thought into action or character decisions in his script — drama — and that allowed him to find natural places for the characters to speak about what they are going through.”

The last question addressed the psychological aspect of Ender’s story:

Sarah Pezzat asks:

Is it still about using empathy as a weapon?

One of the great themes that is explored, in more ways than one, is how empathy can be seen as a weakness or a strength. How understanding an enemy makes you also understand their weaknesses. And even how withholding empathy can also be a weapon. The fact that the audience is going to want nothing more than for commanders to show these young people warmth and understanding, but that it has to be weighed against the fear of it being not in the young soldiers best interests in order for them to do what they have to do, makes for fascinating stuff.

To read the questions and answers in its entirety, visit the Ender’s Game Production Blog. You can also discuss the logo on the EnderWiggin.net forums (which definitely needs help getting off its feet!)

May 25, 2012
Roberto Orci Answers ‘Ender’s Game’ Fan Questions

After receiving over 300 questions about the production of Ender’s Game, producer Roberto Orci chose five questions to answer that revealed things that may do more to ease fans minds about what this movie is ultimately about. We also get a look at Battle School name tags!

Starting off with a question (from me!) about his favorite scene from the book, Roberto reveals that he always loved when Ender played the Giant’s Drink game.

Valentine asks:

As fans of the book, what is your favorite scene from the book? Do you have a different favorite scene from the movie?

I always loved the scenes within the Mind Game that Ender believes he plays for recreation in the orbiting battle school. Part video game, part psychological test, and if you know the book, part something extraordinary that shouldn’t be given away for those who have not read the book. As for my favorite scene from the movie, we are still filming it so I haven’t seen it yet!

Another fan, Reuben, asked how this production has differed from his work in the past.

Reuben asks:

Question to Mr. Orci — How has this production differed from past (and other current) projects? I’m especially interested to know how you feel about the cast’s interactions and your feelings about the script, now that you see it ‘in action’.

Gavin’s script made me jealous, but it was also a relief that he had satisfied what I would want as a fan from a difficult adaptation. Also, I have never worked with so many talented young actors who became friends so fast under such amazing circumstances. Seeing Asa, who plays Ender, and Hailee, who plays Petra, floating high above the set and getting the giggles was amazing and frightening all at once. They laughed for like twenty minutes, which as a producer on a clock eager to finish your shooting day can give you a heart attack. But soon we all had the giggles, and the joy of it overcame the panic.

It’s definitely nice to hear that the cast is having a great time. Author Orson Scott Card made it sound almost too strenuous for the young actors in his recent account of his set visit!

Echoing a common fan question, Orci next tackled the subject of visuals.

Chris Neumann asks:

What are the visual influences for the movie? Syd Mead or Star Trek? 2001 or Armageddon? Jon Berkey or Michael Bay?

One thing I can tell you is that Gavin Hood is a gigantic Stanley Kubrick fan, and it shows. And yet, in some of the Zero G battles, things are going on that Kubrick never had a chance to tackle. The technology and advancements in film making available to us allowed us to realize a vision that is totally unique and modern while also being, as Harrison Ford calls it, one of the most emotional science fiction movies he has ever seen.

As a fan one of my many concerns is that Ender’s Game would turn out to be purely an action/adventure movie with young adults, but hopefully Harrison Ford’s assessment is proof that that’s not the case with this film.

William Harley asks:

How much time is going to be spent on developing Graff’s relationship with Ender? To me, those insights into the command level of the school really brought out the meaning of leadership and how to tackle the challenges that come up.

The relationship between Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) and Ender (Asa Butterfield) is key to the movie’s success. Graff would love nothing more than to be Ender’s friend, yet Graff can’t always show it because he has to make it clear to Ender that in the event of another alien invasion, there will be no one available to help him. Their relationship is simultenously heartbreaking and fun.

Since Ender overhearing a conversation between Graff and Mazer has always been, to me, one of the most heartbreaking and emotional scenes of the book, it’s great to hear they understand the importance of this relationship.

Lastly, Orci answered what may be the most important question of it all: what type of movie they’re making.

Paul2012 asks:

Is it a movie for adults, about kids, or a kids movie? I hope for the former.

Like the book, the movie Ender’s Game is about young protagonists dealing with one of the most adult situations known to man: WAR. We don’t soft peddle it, yet we don’t shy away from the fun of being in space and learning amazing new skills that we would all want to learn at any age.

It seemed, overall, to be a good mixture of questions, though one that was asked but not addressed was whether Locke and Demosthenes were a part of the movie or ended up not making it into the adaptation. Hopefully this gets answered soon, as I know I’d need quite a bit of time to recover from the loss of that aspect of the movie.

Source: Ender’s Game Blog

May 20, 2012
‘Ender’s Game’ Production Team Accepting Fan Questions

This week’s image in the Ender’s Game Production blog features a photo of producer Roberto Orci holding papers and hovering over his chair with a set of headphones on.

What’s even more interesting, however, is what appears to be a piece of the set behind him. You can see what looks to be a curved doorway and the interface of a computer system behind him.

In addition to the usual photo and image, they’ve opened themselves up to questions from fans!

“I need you to be clever, Bean. I need you to think of solutions to
problems we haven’t seen yet.”

In Dragon Army, Ender encourages input. So do we. That’s why we’re
opening this blog up to you, the readers.

Ask us a question about ENDER’S GAME — something you’ve been dying to know. We’ll select our favorites (or as many as we can) from the comments section and start answering them.

To submit a question to the makers of Ender’s Game, head on over to the Ender’s Game Production blog.

May 10, 2012
An Army in Training

This week’s production blog photo shows the stars of Ender’s Game in training on the set of the movie.

You think your school was clique-ish? In Battle School, you are part of an army, each represented by its own iconic symbol. Lately, Dragon Army has come to be known as a repository of misfits and failures. As a member of this unit, you’re supposed to live, breathe (fire?) and fight as one cohesive and selfless unit. Success as one. Defeat as one. Unfortunately for Dragon Army, their reputation is the latter.

Ender will be tasked with restoring this tarnished symbol. Will they follow him?

What I want to know is, do they have to follow gray orange gray lights on the floor to get back to their hotel? 😉

Source: Ender’s Game Blog

May 5, 2012
PHOTO: Gavin Hood with Battle Room Story Board

This week’s entry in the Ender’s Game production blog features a photo of director Gavin Hood crossing off a scene he’s completed filming in the Battle Room.

Here you see him crossing off a completed shot of his detailed story boards in the zero g battle room where our young actors, in their zero g training suits, are showing off the high flying skills they’ve learned from our veteran stunt coordinator Garrett Warren.

Still, one of the best parts of the entry was the following:

We never thought we would find a bigger fan of the novel than all of us until Gavin walked in the room. Going back to his roots, Gavin decided to take on the challenge of adapting the novel himself, which gives him a huge advantage when it comes to directing it because he knows his script better than any of us.

Having a director that’s a fan of the book is always a great thing to hear. Hopefully the adaptation he’s created is something that will satisfy his fellow fans because Ender’s Game is definitely something difficult to translate to screen since, similar to Lionsgate’s recent smash hit The Hunger Games, the book is told almost entirely from Ender’s perspective.

This is made even more difficult by the fact that Ender is six years old in the book. Since Ender is now 10 in the movie, this make it a little easier, but it still presents the dilemma of whether it should largely be from Ender’s perspective or if the film should broaden it’s view to encompass the overall story taking place around Ender.

Conversations take place between Graff and Anderson continually, so this supports a broad world view, but the biggest question comes down to whether Hood wants to keep the audience in the dark in regards to the ending, since it could make for a great twist to the movie for those who have not read the books.

They also allude to what was probably one of the biggest reasons why Ender had to be aged up, so hopefully that settles down some of the fans angered over Ender’s “new” age.

[G]iven the time limitations inherent in working with young actors, this movie would be impossible to complete without Gavin’s preparation and passion.

Depending on the child labor laws of the state, young children are only allowed a set amount of hours on set per day. Not only that, when your main star is “supposed” to be six years old, this obviously poses a problem since being on set for hours at that age can be exhausting. I want an Ender’s Game movie as much as everyone else, but not at the expense of a little kid sweating it out on a movie set for months.

Source: Ender’s Game Blog

April 26, 2012
A Look at Ender’s Monitor

This week’s production entry over at Ender’s Game Blog gives us a better look at Ender himself… sort of. This photo is an image of Ender’s monitor, which we learn at the start of the book is how the military monitors the children they’re screening for Battle School. Both Peter and Valentine had their monitors removed and were allowed to remain on Earth to grow up with their parents, but then they were given permission to have a third child.

The book begins as Ender has his monitor removed, which ends up being a painful ordeal, despite reassurances that he won’t feel a thing.

The novel was amazingly prescient about a great many things: remote controlled drone wars, the internet, the influence of blogging, hand held computing tablets like the I-Pad, and of course, electronic surveillance implants. Implanted tracking and monitoring chips are no longer a science fiction concept. They exist now. And one day, they may be as advanced as the monitor implanted into Ender, which allows Colonel Graff to “see through his eyes” and know: HE’S THE ONE.

It’s funny how they mention the iPad because that’s what came to mind when I re-read Ender’s Game last year. I marveled at how the desks seemed to be just like the tablets of today, with the students sending IMs to each other in creative ways. It would be an interesting marketing tactic if they were to develop a smartphone game mirroring Giant’s Drink. (hopefully without the suicidal tendencies feature)

Source: Ender’s Game Blog

April 18, 2012
First Look at Ender Wiggin’s Bedroom

For this week’s production entry on Ender’s Game blog, we get a look at Ender’s bedroom, which is full of knickknacks, space decals, and model planes.

The more futuristic the world, the more invisible its technology. So why shouldn’t Ender’s room look just like any normal kid’s room? And not every future is a dark dystopia. The world that Ender lives in is a world worth saving. That’s why he is willing to leave his family to go into an orbiting Battle School and risk not seeing his sister, Valentine, again until they are both adults.

I like that they gave him a modern room. I’ve never really imagined Ender’s home to be dystopian and run down.

We will keep your room for you just as you left it, Ender…

In other news, cast member Khy Rhambo tweeted that today they worked on Salamander Army scenes in the Battle Room.

Amazing day of shooting with our flash suits @ImNotMoises @HaileeSteinfeld @asabfb @bsoohoo Salamander all day son !!!

April 13, 2012
‘Ender’s Game’ Production Blog Posts Space Camp Photo

The production blog for Ender’s Game, which seems to be operating on a weekly Wednesday posting, put up a new photo of the cast in a simulator while attending Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama.

“Houston, we have a problem. We don’t know how to land the Shuttle.” Good thing it’s just a simulator safely on the ground at SPACE CAMP in Huntsville, Alabama. Aramis, Moises, Asa & Suraj (pictured above from a monitor in the MISSION CONTROL ROOM ) and the rest of our cast agreed that to do Ender’s Game right, they had to train as though they were really headed into ZERO G. And this wasn’t just an afternoon spent taking a vanity tour. From the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), which simulates extra-vehicular shuttle missions in Earth’s orbit, to the microgravity training chair that prepared astronauts for moonwalks during the Apollo program, the week at Space Camp was genuine prep for the feeling of reality that this movie deserves. And after all, the army that trains together stays together.

From left to right seated in the photo: Aramis Knight (Bean), Moises Arias (Bonzo), Asa Butterfield (Ender), and Suraj Parthasurathy (Alai).

April 4, 2012
‘Ender’s Game’ Production Blog Posts Utility Deck Photo

The Ender’s Game production blog posted a new image today of Utility Deck G in Hall Number 0058 with the following:

If you think regular school is tough, try it in a rotating space station. And by the way, do you have a hall pass for hall number 0058? Because if you don’t, you could end up scrubbing the showers. When you first arrive at Battle School, all you perceive is its utility, its functionality… that is until you enter the BATTLE ROOM, where there is no up, no down, and ZERO G’s. Movie making can become overly reliant on digital worlds, and nothing can replace a well-built set that you can see and touch and stand in the middle of, fooling you into thinking you are really there. Enjoy this small taste of Ender’s big world. We’ll see a lot more in the weeks to come.

The really strange part? The description on this image is “BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA 3”. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to come up with a connection, but so far I can’t make anything out of it.

March 29, 2012
Ender’s Game Production Tumblr Launches

The production team behind the Ender’s Game movie, which is currently filming in New Orleans, Louisiana, has started an official production blog over on Tumblr.

It took us all a second to realize Asa was right when he said Ender’s Gamewas an amazing book from “the late 1900s.” We use that phrase all the time now, like, “Clinton was President in the late nineteen hundreds!” Most of us read Ender’s Game when we were young and wondered when it would become a movie.

It’s funny how they have the same reaction about the book when you think about how old it was. I’m about to turn 33 and Ender’s Game was my favorite book in the sixth grade. That means that the year I was fascinating about a movie, Asa Butterfield wouldn’t even be born for another SIX YEARS.

It sure has been a long time coming and I can’t wait to see the first images!

March 21, 2012