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  • Harrison Ford and Abigail Breslin Officially Join Cast of ‘Ender’s Game’

    Harrison Ford and Abigail Breslin Officially Join Cast of ‘Ender’s Game’

    Abigail BreslinA slew of actors were reported to be officially joining the cast of Ender’s Game today, with Harrison Ford being cast as Colonel Hyram Graff and Abigail Breslin as Ender’s sister Valentine Wiggin.

    Other casting announcements:

    Aramis Knight has been cast as Bean, Ender’s smallest and most brilliant recruit in Dragon Army.

    Moises Arias has been cast as Bonzo Madrid, the leader of Salamander and Ender’s first commander.

    Jimmy “Jax” Pinchak has been cast as Peter Wiggin, Ender’s sociopath older brother.

    Conor Carroll has been cast as Bernard, the first enemy that Ender makes on the shuttle launch to Battle School.

    Khylin Rhambo has been cast as Dink Meeker, Ender’s friend and ally in the Battle School.

    Suraj Parthasarathy has been cast as Alai, one of Ender’s toon leaders in Dragon Army.

    Source: Variety

  • Brendan Meyer Joins ‘Ender’s Game’ as Stilson

    Brendan Meyer Joins ‘Ender’s Game’ as Stilson

    According to an insider’s source of the Hollywood Reporter, 17 year old Brendan Meyer from the Disney XD series Mr. Young has been cast as the bully Stilson who torments Ender Wiggin at school.

    Although the role is very small, the character Stilson has a lasting impact on Ender as he makes his way through Battle School, coming back to haunt Ender when he begins to play the fantasy game Giant’s Drink.

    Meyer joins Asa Butterfield (Ender Wiggin) in the production, which begins filming in New Orleans next February, while Hailee Steinfeld and Ben Kingsley are still in negotiations to join the cast.

    View Meyer’s IMDB profile.

  • Ben Kingsley to Play Mazer Rackham

    Ben Kingsley to Play Mazer Rackham

    Ben Kingsley

    According to the Hollywood Reporter, Ben Kingsley is in talks to play war hero Mazer Rackham in the movie adaptation of Ender’s Game, which is tentatively scheduled to begin principal photography next February, though the headline and the article give different versions of the story.

    Kingsley has worked with star Asa Butterfield before in last month’s Hollywood delight Hugo. Although there has yet to be studio confirmation on either Kingsley’s casting or more recently, Hailee Steinfeld in talks to play Petra Arkanian, Kingsley seems to be a great fit for the character, who is presumed dead by the world long after he single-handedly puts an end to the last Formic invasion. Rackham then becomes a mentor to Ender as he completes his training.

    Kingsley has played a wide variety of roles, with some of his most memorable being from Shindler’s List, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and House of Sand and Fog.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • EnderWiggin.net Forums Now Open

    EnderWiggin.net Forums Now Open

    Forums

    Forums have now been set up for the site, so feel free to head over and register an account and start discussions regarding either the books or the movies. The theme isn’t set in stone, so feel free to give feedback if you find the color scheme too difficult to read.

  • Hailee Steinfeld in Negotiations for ‘Ender’s Game’ Movie for Petra Arkanian

    Hailee Steinfeld in Negotiations for ‘Ender’s Game’ Movie for Petra Arkanian

    Hailee Steinfeld

    According to The Hollywood Reporter, the young star of last year’s True Grit is in talks to join the cast of Ender’s Game.

    Although she was nominated for an Academy Award, Steinfeld has yet to follow up her stunning performance with additional work, but this role would put things back in motion for her in February of next year.

    Steinfeld is negotiating for the role of Petra Arkanian, Ender’s lone female soldier in Dragon Army. Ender first meets Petra when he arrives in the Battle School and the two children become friends, training together for years.

    What do you think of her being Petra? There’s absolutely no doubt she can act and she’s only slightly older than Asa Butterfield, who looks younger than his 14 years, so their youthfulness matches up nicely with the books.

  • Harrison Ford Being Discussed for Colonel Graff

    Harrison Ford Being Discussed for Colonel Graff

    Harrison FordWith Asa Butterfield officially cast as Ender Wiggin in the Ender’s Game movie, rumors have now begun regarding one of the few adult roles in the primarily youthful cast, Colonel Graff. When reporting about Butterfield’s casting, Variety let slip that after talks with Viggo Mortensen fell through, discussion over who would play the Battle School Commander began to center around alternatives, including Harrison Ford.

    Now, while the desire for a huge name as a leading man for a movie that will undoubtedly have to be carried by children is understandable, the Colonel Graff I remember was much younger and most of all, fat. I’m a huge Harrison Ford fan, having loved him since the day he told Princess Leia “I know.”, but I just can’t see Ford as Graff. And on that note, I can’t picture Viggo as Graff either. In fact, that casting choice seems even worse.

    My own choices for the role of Graff include Mark Addy (who has definitely shown his acting chops as King Robert in A Game of Thrones), Timothy Spall (Wormtongue from the Harry Potter movies), and Oliver Platt. While they may not carry the big celebrity profiles of Mortensen and Ford, they seem to fit the role a lot better.

  • Asa Butterfield Confirms Casting for ‘Ender’s Game’ Movie

    Asa Butterfield Confirms Casting for ‘Ender’s Game’ Movie

    Just over a week ago, it was reported that Asa Butterfield, the young star of Martin Scorscese’s Hugo had been offered the part of Andrew “Ender” Wiggin for the film adaptation of Ender’s Game.

    Today, Butterfield confirmed that he has accepted the role via Twitter.

    Asa ButterfieldThe film, which is set to begin filming early next year, will be released in March 2013. Fans of the novel have been waiting decades for this film to be made and this casting is definitely a sure sign of it finally happening.

  • ‘Ender’s Game’ to Begin Filming in New Orleans

    ‘Ender’s Game’ to Begin Filming in New Orleans

    New OrleansProduction for Ender’s Game is now reported to begin in late February of next year, running into early summer to conclude in June. The production will be filming in New Orleans, Louisiana, which has been a popular filming location for the studio, Summit Entertainment, in the past.

    With filming set to start in just three short months, we should be hearing a lot more about casting for the numerous parts in the long-awaited sci-fi thriller about genius children being trained to save the world from an alien race that nearly wiped them out in the past.

    So far, only 14 year-old Asa Butterfield has been tied to the project, though there hasn’t been news so far on whether he would be accepting the part he was offered. At least nine other young actors are needed for roles in the film and there are a few adult roles to fill as well, including Graff, Anderson, Mazer Rackham, and possibly an adult Valentine.

    Source: NOLA Movies

  • Asa Butterfield Offered Role of Ender Wiggin

    Asa Butterfield Offered Role of Ender Wiggin

    There’s big news to report today in regards to the film adaptation of Ender’s Game, with Deadline reporting that 14 year old Asa Butterfield, who stars in Martin Scorcese’s Hugo opening next week for the Thanksgiving holidays, has been offered the science fiction role of a lifetime: Ender Wiggin.

    It’s already been reported that the book’s main characters have all been aged up significantly, but the young actor doesn’t necessarily look like he’s 14, which is a good thing because the younger Ender can look, the better it will fit with the overall theme of the book.

    A professional actor since the age of 8, Butterfield has a decently sized film resume to back him up. It’ll be interesting to see who will be cast next. Will it be precious Valentine Wiggin or sociopath Peter Wiggin? Are they going to be able to find a kid smaller, younger, and spunkier than the commanding Ender for the role of Bean?

    Ender’s Game is set to be released on March 15, 2013.

    Source: Deadline

  • Summit Announces March 15, 2013 Release Date for ‘Ender’s Game’

    Summit Announces March 15, 2013 Release Date for ‘Ender’s Game’

    Fans have literally waited decades for an Ender’s Game movie to make it to the big screen and previous attempts at the adaptation always seemed to fizzle out and leave fans of the young super genius disappointed yet again. Yet when casting calls went out last month for a slew of young roles, including Ender himself, the movie started to become a reality.

    Still, things had fallen through so many times before, it was still hard to believe until today. Summit Entertainment, the studio that built itself on the Twilight franchise, announced a release date of March 15, 2013 for Ender’s Game.

    Casting rumors have surfaced that Ender has been aged up to 10 and Orson Scott Card has come forth to say that he endorses such changes to the story and admitted that we may see the Locke and Demosthenes storyline omitted for the sake of the film.

  • Casting Calls Go Out for Ender Wiggin and More

    Casting Calls Go Out for Ender Wiggin and More

    According to io9, casting calls have gone out for the film adaptation of Ender’s Game, which is a strong indication that things are finally moving for the movie going into production.

    An obvious concern is finding quality actors at such a young age and while Ender is only 5 when he’s recruited, that’s obviously an incredibly difficult age to cast for such a crucial and “smart” role. The script indicates that Ender is 10 instead of 5. While this is a significant jump in age, it’s an understandable change.

    Details on the characters they’re casting:

    Ender Wiggin: He’s depicted as smart and sensitive, but also incredibly ruthless. There are a few scenes where he worries about being like his cut-throat brother Peter, and confides in his sister Valentine. Just like in the book, he dishes out a rough treatment to Bonzo Madrid, his former platoon leader, when Bonzo tries to bully him too much. And then he feels bad about it. The screenplay also includes some scenes where Ender has weird nightmares about the buggers — and he tries to understand where the buggers are coming from, and what their children are like. Ender is pissed at Graff because he keeps changing the rules in the war “exercises.”

    The scene where Ender finds out that his final victory was not, in fact, a game is pretty intense, and features Ender and Graff both trying to talk at the same time. Ender is saying “They came to establish a colony, we chased them away… in fifty years they have never returned,” while Graff is saying, “It makes no difference now,” and then Ender is saying “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds,” at the same time as Graff is saying “What are you talking about?” Finally, Ender is saying “I will bear the shame of this xenocide forever,” at the same moment as Graff is saying, “You will be remembered as a hero.” It ends with Ender getting an injection, knocking him out.

    Bean: We get to see Bean watching a heavily edited video of Mazer Rackham’s famous victory over the formics, in which Mazer fires his nuclear warhead into the formics’ exhaust system. And Bean is so thrilled he throws his hands in the air and shouts with joy — until Ender bursts his bubble, explaining that the video is edited so we don’t see Mazer die. (And later, Ender also hints that Mazer’s victory might have had a darker side, that’s also edited out.) In another scene, Graff shows Bean and Ender to the famous zero-gravity training room, where they float around with a bunch of other kids. Ender explains to Bean that there’s no “up or down” in zero-G, and then they discover their weapons actually freeze anyone they shoot at, by causing the spacesuits to swell up. They team up to go freeze some of the other kids.

    Peter Wiggin: Ender’s brother is fully a psychopath in this version of the screenplay. He’s insanely jealous that Ender was chosen for the battle school, and completely enraged when it seems like Ender has washed out of the program. At one point, he locks their sister, Valentine, out of the room and forces Ender to put on a Formic mask so they can play Formics and Astronauts, which basically consists of Peter beating the crap out of Ender.

    Valentine Wiggin: She’s the gentler, sweeter member of the Wiggin family, who’s always there for Ender — except for when the people in charge of the school won’t let Ender communicate with her. She tries to protect Ender from Peter, but mostly fails — and just like in the book, she convinces Ender to return to the school when he tries to drop out after he hurts Bonzo Madrid. She explains to Ender that what makes us human is our brains, and we didn’t evolve those brains so that we can lie around lakes — we evolved them for killing, or else we wouldn’t still be around. We’d have been killed by wild animals. She alone grasps that Ender has to understand his enemy to defeat them, and in understanding the enemy, he grows to love the enemy — right before he destroys it.

    Bonzo Madrid: Just like in the book, he’s a swaggering idiot whose platoon has won most of its most recent battles, and he resents being saddled with a useless, untrained snot like Ender. He orders Ender to stay out of the way during battles, and not even use his weapon. Later, he takes a group of his homies to try and ambush Ender in the shower.

    Rose the Nose: The commander of Rat Army, where Ender gets traded after he leaves Bonzo’s toon. Rose has a high opinion of his own leadership skills, even though he knows that his platoon leader, Dink, is “God.” Rose has a terrible fear of losing, but can’t face the fact that he’s winning thanks to Dink and Ender.

    Dink Meeker: In the script pages we read, Dink is one of the characers who befriends Ender in the Rat Army, helping to protect him a bit and showing him how to go float in the zero-G chamber to relax.

    Petra Arkanian: The only girl in Ender’s first toon, she also befriends Ender and tries to protect him — and when Bonzo decides to keep Ender out of combat, Petra offers to help him train in their spare time. Later, she and Dink are both in Ender’s Jeesh, and she’s a key part of the final assault on the bugger planet.

    Alai: Just like in the book, he’s a gentle Muslim boy who moves Ender with his friendship and his professions of peace.

    Mick: He’s a heavyset boy who just wants to make it through this school in one piece and get home — and he’s happy to help himself to other people’s desserts.

    Source: io9

  • Ender Today: Third

    Ender Today: Third

    With word of a film adaptation of Ender’s Game becoming news once again, I thought it might be a good time to not only start up a fan-site, but do some chapter reviews of what I used to called my favorite book in the 6th grade. I bought the Kindle edition of the book and since it started at the Introduction written by Orson Scott Card in 1991, I decided to read it.

    I’ve had the paperback for years now, but the last time I read the novel was at least six or more years ago. In the three or four times I’ve read the book since middle school, I’ve never once read the entire introduction, taking Mr. Card’s own advice and flat out skipping it. Although it wasn’t absolutely fantastic and wondrous, I did find one bit very interesting:

    The novel set me, not to dreaming, but to thinking, which is Asimov’s most extraordinary ability as a fiction writer. What would the future be like? How would things change? What would remain the same?

    This book was written over 25 years ago and back then, I thought it was amazingly futuristic and sophisticated. So now that I’m reading this book 21 years after my first time through, I have to wonder what will have changed in Ender’s world for me. Surely I’ll have a better grasp of Card’s technology descriptions? I should be able to see any dated areas, right?

    (more…)

  • Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci in ‘Soft Prep’ for Ender’s Game Movie

    Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci in ‘Soft Prep’ for Ender’s Game Movie

    Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci

    In an interview with Collider, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci reveal they are in “soft prep” for the Ender’s Game movie, which was recently acquired by Summit Entertainment.

    (more…)