Ain’t It Cool News has posted their set visit report and in it they provide us with the scene where Ender is assigned Commander of Dragon Army.
“[Y]ou have a habit of upsetting your commander.”
Ender replies “I find it hard to respect someone just because he outranks me, sir.” At this, Graff leans back in his chair, giving Ender his full attention, rocking back and forth slightly.
“That puts you in a difficult position, doesn’t it? You don’t like taking orders from Bonzo… perhaps you’d prefer to give them,” says Graff slyly, kind of like a parent about to unveil a Christmas present. Ender is confused. “Sir?”
Graff: “How would you like your own army? Dragon Army.”
Ender: “Sir, I’ve never heard of Dragon Army.”
Graff: “We discontinued the name four years ago. No Dragon Army ever won a battle.”
Ender: “Why not a new name, sir?”
Graff: “Because we already have the uniforms.”
Ender: “Who will be in this army?”
Graff: “Misfits, like yourself. Outcasts who might just be brilliant with the right commander.”
It should be noted that this is his transcript of the original scene he saw and that later takes may have changed it. Still a cool look into Ender’s promotion into Dragon Army, though! He also mentions the scene that we see in the trailer that Khylin Rhambo confirmed on EnderCast was with him and Hailee Steinfeld.
I didn’t spend much time in the Battle Room set, but I did see Hailee Steinfeld film a scene with Khylin Rhambo, who plays Dink Meeker. It’s one of Ender’s gambits where one person from his army is sacrificed and used as a human shield. In this case Dink is frozen into place and Petra (Steinfeld) takes his flash gun and fires John Woo style as Dink hugs her, protecting her from enemy fire.
In order to get this shot they had to get on a weird little contraption that the wire team called the lollipop. Imagine a bar stool seat attached to a long stick with one affixed wire attached at the middle. Hailee sat on the seat, Dink on the bar, his arms over her shoulders and her legs wrapped around his waist with both her arms shot out under his shoulders firing away as they float away from the enemy gate.
Dink whispers “Did you get him?” Petra smiles and says, “Oh yeah.” He’s looking behind her and sees their momentum is taking them on a crash course with a star and they both cringe, anticipating the impact.
There are still Comic Con videos trickling in. This one was posted recently by Entertainment Weekly. Watch Asa Butterfield and Hailee Steinfeld talk about Petra being the only girl, Graff being the “overbearing tyrant” of Battle School and their favorite thing to shoot. Also, Asa Butterfield speculates on when the Ender’s Game movie is actually set.
I’m not sure I believe the 50 year time frame. Maybe he means that that is when the first invasion occurs?
Although we just posted an image that is from Entertainment Weekly’s Fall Movie Preview, turns out that was the bonus tablet image. The image above, which shows Mazer Rackham looking at Ender while Graff gives Ender an angry look, is the actual image from the print issue on stands today. (look for the Anchorman 2 issue)
In the brief article, Gavin Hood talks about how when he told his visual effects supervisor what he wanted for the Battle Room, “his eyes nearly popped out of his head”.
HUGE thanks to my friend Michelle for helping me view this on her iPad!
Update: This image is the bonus tablet photo from EW. For the Fall Movie Preview image, click here.
We’ve seen a slightly different version of this image from Entertainment Weekly and with the new Fall Movie Preview issue on stands this week, we’ve got yet another new photo of Ender as a launchie. In this photo, he grips a bar at the gate to the Battle Room with Graff smiling with approval behind him.
Any speculation on why Graff would be the one to take Ender to the Battle Room personally? Why wouldn’t Ender go with his launch group? Give us your thoughts!
Now that the final trailer for Ender’s Game has been released, armchair critics around the world are typing out their opinions on “the nets” with comments ranging from a simple, “SPOILERS” to “this movie looks amazing” to “this movie looks awful”.
For book fans, a common kneejerk reaction to the new trailer is the complaint that it’s made pretty clear that the major “twist” of the Ender’s Game book–that it’s all really happening–is not preserved for movie audiences. And yet, I’m sure we all can eventually realize that as long as the truth is hidden from Ender, the heart of the story is intact.
When I first saw the trailer at Comic Con, I tweeted about this audience perspective topic because it somehow surprised me. Since I think a lot about this movie adaptation, I’d known for a really long time that it was possible they’d open this part of the story up, but seeing it on the screen was still a bit of a shock. Now that I’ve actually had the chance to watch the trailer as many times as I’d like, the dust has settled and I’ve come to realize the amazing potential of such a decision by the filmmakers.
The most important thing to realize right from the start is that Ender’s Game is a film adaptation. A book is a book and a movie is a movie. I know we book fanatics can sometimes be so stuck to the pages of a novel that we can’t see the painfully obvious–that impactful scenes in books can translate into awfully dull scenes in movies.
Mind you, this is not a criticism of Card’s book. I obviously wouldn’t have started this site and invested so much into it if I didn’t truly love the book he wrote. They’re simply different mediums. Let’s look at Eros. The environment Card put Ender in worked exceptionally well for an individual holed up somewhere with their nose in a book because let’s face it, we all read alone.
We feel isolated in some way when we sink into the world of a story and that’s probably part of the reason why we felt a kind of relationship with Ender Wiggin. You felt alone with Ender Wiggin in that isolated simulator room with Mazer Rackham breathing over his (and your) shoulders. You can immerse yourself into his situation and for some people this creates tunnel vision, which is what makes the final reveal of the twist so jarring.
Movies, however, are an entirely different experience. Rather than relying on imagination, movies depend entirely on visual appeal, sound effects, and performances. Movies must also present a much broader picture in much less time, which becomes a crutch for telling such a complex story as Ender’s.
The reason so many of us are so attached to the story of Ender is that it made us think. After it was over, there was so much to talk about and contemplate regarding morals and ethics, which is probably why it’s taught in so many schools.
Books have the luxury of having pages and pages to explain the complexities of plot, but to preserve his twist, Card doesn’t actually do this during Ender’s “gaming”. He left the explanations for the post-war section of the book. The movie could do the same, but the flow would be interrupted because people would have to think back to what he did. With prior knowledge of what the teachers are hiding from Ender, audiences are set up for a bigger emotional investment for when Ender finally learns the truth. This isn’t The Sixth Sense, nor does it have to be.
Revealing the real “game” the teachers are playing also gives us a much better look into the characters of Graff and Mazer, who are, let’s face it, marquis players in this movie’s cast. Hiding it actually seems like wasted potential for the film. By expanding upon the teachers’ moral dilemma over Ender, their characters become more complex and therefore more interesting rather than being straightforward domineering superiors.
We’ve seen only a few seconds of Graff in the trailers and a lot of it could be taken out of context, but I’m liking what I’m seeing so far. One of our readers on Facebook said that he doesn’t like how they’ve been portraying Graff, that he’s much too hardass and not the Graff he loves. I have to respectfully disagree because the brief glimpses of Graff that I’ve seen are to me true to the heart of his character.
While the book-Graff we know clearly cares for Ender, what has always made him compelling is the fact that he knows enough about what’s at stake and sets his sights on the end goal, which is the safety of the human race. He is the cornerstone for the conversations people have about this story. Do the ends justify the means? Is what they did to one boy “excusable” in order to save billions? And while Graff in the trailer does sound cold and jaded, this is the steely determined Graff that molds Ender into who he is. Without his drive, Ender may not have succeeded.
The conflicts between Graff/Mazer and Graff/Anderson would serve to highlight these issues and with audiences aware of the true nature of the destruction that Ender is causing, it ultimately makes for a much more powerful finale. In short, the emotional impact of the movie shouldn’t be that you didn’t realize what was going on. The impact should be with Ender’s realization that what you’ve just watched with the same horror as Graff and Mazer was, in fact, not a game.
“He’s in command, there’s no stopping him now.”
Regarding the complaint that the trailer shows the movie’s twist, it’s really all in how you look at it. There technically is no audience twist like with the book. Instead, there’s only Ender’s twist. With the look on Graff’s face, you can imagine all his fears, his hopes, his regrets, and his sorrow. He looks as though in this moment, he finally realizes the scope of the “weapon” he’s created in Ender. And yet, the true horror he has to face is yet to come when he has to face Ender and tell him the truth. This will be the movie’s heart. And it’s not in the trailer.
I could be wrong. Perhaps the trailer has been very cleverly edited and I only think I know what they’re saying because I’ve read the book. But movies have a different level of power when it comes to evoking emotion. Gavin Hood has talked about putting pages of thinking and emotion into a single look on screen and I think that’s indicative of his own awareness of the importance of the ending.
Last December, I wrote a piece in which I talked about what Ender’s Game ultimately needs to accomplish. I said that what mattered most was that audiences realize what they’ve done to Ender and I think at that time, I thought that it rested solely on Asa Butterfield’s performance immediately following the final battle.
I can see now that the setup for that scene will be a key factor in making that performance truly successful. With that setup, his performance would be given so much more weight. And so, I want audiences to know. I want audiences to feel and despair over Ender’s actions so that when he’s finally aware, every little part of that scene clicks into place. To make people feel what I and so many of you felt when we first journeyed with Ender Wiggin would be an amazing accomplishment and a rounding success for Gavin Hood and his cast and crew.
Check out this hi-res image of Harrison Ford addressing Battle School students. Since they’re dressed in yellow, these are likely Launchies. As for the video they’re watching, it’s likely Mazer Rackham’s Run:
Thanks to Summit for the image! This image first appeared in the print edition of Empire magazine.
In this clip from San Diego Comic Con, exclusively revealed by Yahoo Movies, Graff greets new students to battle school, introducing more of the before seen footage of the First/Second Invasion. Looks like they will indeed make the name and story of Mazer Rackham as important and ever present in the minds of the kids as it is in the books!
Moviefone and Fandango have exclusively revealed three new Ender’s Game character posters each. They look awesome! Click for higher resolution! (Especially the Fandango ones, i.e. Anderson, Mazer and Ender, are super hi-res.)
Which one is your favorite? Any you don’t like? Do you miss anyone? Tell us in the comments or sound off in our Forums!
Check out this awesome cover of Entertainment Weekly featuring none other than Harrison Ford and Asa Butterfield in Ender’s Game!
We get a great look at Ender in his Dragon Army flash suit, carrying in his arm his Dragon Army helmet. It’s a “bonus” cover, so you may have to check around to find this one for yourself!
In this week’s EnderCast, Kelly and Crystal talk to Air Force colonel Tom Ruby, who contributed the essay “Ender on Leadership” to Smart Pop Books’ anthology Ender’s World. Among other things, they discuss
how Tom met and became friends with Orscon Scott Card
bad movies, and how they can damage the reputation of a book
if battle school is a real possibility, and what Tom would do if he was in Graff’s shoes
how they might establish Ender’s exceptional leadership abilities in the movie
Last week we got a great new image of Ender Wiggin in the Battle Room, presumably it’s his first time in the Battle Room because he’s wearing a yellow helmet, which we’ve all guessed is the official Launchie uniform color.
Now thanks to a hi-res version of the image, we get a better view of the look on Graff’s face as he watches Ender hang on to the handholds outside the gate. He’s clearly smiling, or at least looking at him with admiration.
I didn’t comment much on this last week, but looking at this closer up, I do love the statement this image makes about the “technology” of Ender’s Game because Ender floats just a few feet away from Graff, who is clearly standing in a hallway with gravity.
Whether or not this is possible at all, I’ll leave up to the people who know science. I still think it lends some cool factor to the world they live in.
It’s also easier to see the flash suit (click for larger size):
Let this be a lesson to me that the next time I hit the snooze button on my phone alarm, I should check email first. Haha!
Empire Online has just released a new still from Ender’s Game showing Ender in the Battle Room with Graff watching nearby. We get a really amazing look at the gate from the inside along with a better idea at just how massive the Battle Room is.
Empire spoke with Asa about the Battle Room scenes. Some of it we’ve heard before, some of it we haven’t, including the Battle Room scene he’s most proud of.
During their training, Ender and his unit take on a lot of other teams in the Battle Room. Any stunts you’re particularly proud of pulling off?
There’s a really cool sequence where I’m sort of spinning over backwards and I let go of my guns. They’re floating by my side just going along. As I push myself through these two stars, I spin back over and grab the guns, then shoot the people around me. I loved doing that.
He also mentions that they spent a month and a half filming scenes in the harness, which should be comforting for fans that were concerned by something author Orson Scott Card said last year at a book signing that one scene in the Battle Room is too many.
