If there’s any book out there that deserves a fabulous movie adaptation a whole lot but has so many thematic nuances and other production difficulties (like a predominantly underage cast) that it’s unlikely to ever get one, it’s Ender’s Game. But for better or for worse, Summit Entertainment has taken the bait, and Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the guys behind Xena, Hercules, Alias, and Star Trek (2009) are involved.
And, according to io9, casting started a couple weeks ago for ten children to portray the movie’s ten central child characters.
Those characters are, to list them briefly, Ender, Valentine, Peter, Bean, Bonzo, Petra, Dink, Rose the Nose, Alai, and Mick. (Mick appears to be an “original” character: that overweight kid that humorously eats everyone else’s desserts, because if we’re making a sci-fi epic about a government that mentally abuses children for the survival of the human race, lets throw in some tropes from Hook and The Little Giants.)
Other than aging the characters up from about six to about ten, the movie seems to be doing things pretty faithfully. At least, according to io9, who have gotten their hands on a leaked script (YES, there are spoilers at this link). So call me cautiously optimistic that the movie will be enjoyable enough, and that I can sit back and relive the days before I found out that the Ender books’ sublime message of tolerance and acceptance of all sentient life forms no matter how different was put to paper by a deeply hypocritical man.
(via Pajiba.)
