Today, the New York Times published an extensive article giving us a bit of background on OddLot Entertainment, the production company responsible for finally making the film adaptation of Ender’s Game a reality, by talking with one of its co-founders Gigi Pritzker.
During years of development at Warner over the last decade, Wolfgang Petersen, who planned to direct “Ender’s Game,” referred to its protagonist Wiggin Ender as a science fiction equivalent of Antoine Doinel in François Truffaut’s “400 Blows.” The depth of the lead character is something Ms. Pritzker sought to preserve as OddLot began to carve a film story from what has now become a series of books.
She joined Lynn Hendee and Robert Chartoff, who were supposed to produce the film for Warner, along with Mr. Card and others. They hired Gavin Hood, the filmmaker behind both the South African teen crime drama “Tsotsi” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” as writer and director. OddLot bought out the work done earlier for Warner, but Mr. Hood essentially started from scratch, ultimately creating a story that is built around a young actor, Asa Butterfield, who is 15, but is intended, like “Hunger Games,” to attract viewers well into their 30s.
“I think ‘Hunger Games’ cracked the code,” Ms. Pritzker said of a shift in film culture that has since made “Ender’s Game” one of Hollywood’s most closely watched projects.
The article goes on to talk about her passion for the project and that being the reason it finally went into production.
Mainly, Ms. Pritzker said, the aim has been to create a working business, rather than simply to underwrite movies from a family fortune. In putting together “Ender’s Game,” for instance, OddLot joined Digital Domain in providing about 75 percent of the budget, some of that offset by advance foreign sales, while Summit contributed the balance.
In a telephone interview last week, Robert G. Friedman, co-chairman of the Lionsgate motion picture group, credited Ms. Pritzker with having spotted the potential in “Ender’s Game” at a time when most of Hollywood had given up on it.
“A lot of these things sort of hide in plain sight,” Mr. Friedman said. “It takes somebody’s passion to unearth them.”
It’s certainly nice to hear that the filmmakers seem to have a deep appreciation for the story. Does this give you guys hope that the film adaptation will be a success come this November?
Source: The NYT
