io9 has an exclusive behind-the-scenes video from the Ender’s Game Blu-ray featurette “Ender’s World: The Making of Ender’s Game” that shows a little bit about how they went about creating the Formics for the film.
Ender’s Game will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on February 11, 2014.
Watch the video at io9.
i09 is giving Launchies around the world a chance to take 360° tours of two Ender’s Game sets: the Dragon Army barracks and Graff’s office. We’ve seen Graff standing in his office and we know that behind that wall is the Battle Room, where Graff can watch battles. Funnily enough, it looks like there’s a doorway to a shaft right above his desk. Perfect for snoopy little Bean-like soldiers. 😉
The Dragon Army barracks has DRAGON on the floor of the entryway, just like what we saw in the still MTV released yesterday of Ender and Petra entering Salamander’s barracks.
Thanks to @SpeedBrkr for the tip.
Update: We’ve embedded the tours below thanks to IF-BattleSchool.com.
San Diego Comic Con officially kicks off tonight with Preview Night and to launch what’s turning out to be a massive marketing campaign at the convention, Summit has launched a Battle School aptitude test at IF-BattleSchool.com for you to take.
Find out whether you make the cut and what army you’ll be assigned to. Will it be Dragon Army under the great Ender Wiggin? Or will you fall under the strict command of Bonzo Madrid in Salamander Army?
Take the International Fleet’s Battle School Aptitude Test and find out if you have what it takes to lead our fight in protecting Earth from the Next Invasion. Our future depends on it!
Watch the video on Facebook here.
Asa Butterfield did several press interviews while at CinemaCon 2013 and the latest to come out is one from io9. They focused their talk mainly on the Battle Room, but also touched a bit upon Ender and Valentine. As an added bonus, Asa casually drops a mention about the mind game!
The cast was trained by an astronaut, who came to teach them about how one really moves in zero gravity.
“You have to move really slowly… fluidly and smoothly. When you’re in the harnesses to stop yourself from falling at the waist, which is where they’re connected, you have to be tensed up. So keeping actions smooth whilst having your whole body completely tensed is surprisingly difficult.”
Asa also talks about Ender’s age, which had previously been speculated to be anywhere from 10 to 15. In the interview he mentions that the cast had to be aged up to 13 to 14.
“You can’t find — at least as not that I’m aware — a six-year-old actor that can play that sort of a character, it’s complex and it’s physically demanding. That was the first issue, so they changed it from being six to 13 or 14.”
When asked what he thought was Ender’s hardest form of psychological torture, he mentioned Ender’s separation from Valentine.
“Probably one of the hardest scenes for Ender was leaving his sister, back on Earth. I think that’s one of the things that really damaged him. As you can see in the mind game, as well.”
I’ve read that there were lake scenes in the trailer, so that’s possibly the goodbye people mentioned rather than their initial goodbye. There’s a lot more to the interview, so be sure to check it out at io9.
Although the trailer that debuted today at CinemaCon during Lionsgate’s Product Presentation wasn’t the final trailer, fans are of course dying to hear every last detail. io9 gave an amazing shot by shot description of the whole thing including the following scenes:
That sounds like enough to explode my head, but io9 remained cautious in its praise.
All in all, it’s WAY too early to say much. But the action looks good, and Butterfield is a fantastic casting decision for Ender. There wasn’t enough Battle Room footage shown to decide if it looked authentic or not, but it did look cool. We remain cautiously optimistic.
Be sure to read the entire recap. That is, if you’re not afraid of spoilers!
I admit I’m shocked they chose to show so many things, especially from the finale, but I’m extremely excited about everything. What are your thoughts on their approach in this trailer?