Ender's Game is Now Being Cast: “I've lived too long with pain. I won't know who I am without it.”
By Steven Lloyd Wilson | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (23)
An Ender’s Game movie has been circling production for two decades at this point, and any time there’s a terrifying rumor, it ends up not being true, and we can take comfort in the repeated assurances that Orson Scott Card has made to the effect that he will not let a movie go forward unless it’s true to the book. But a year ago we had the stomach clenching news that a new draft of a screenplay was being written by the director of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Yeah, that was pretty discouraging news. But the word earlier this year was that Orci and Kurtzman had come on board, and then a couple of months later that Summit had picked up the film. Now a version of the script has been leaked in the process of casting, and those who’ve read it (not me, I’m not on mailing list for leaked scripts) are reporting that what’s there is remarkably true to the book. They have bumped the ages up a bit to Ender being ten instead of six though, which is an understandable change for suspension of disbelief and the finding of actors at the right age.
A casting call has been put out for ten characters, all children’s roles. They are: Ender, Dink, Rose the Nose, Bonzo, Petra, Peter, Val, Bean, Alai, and Mick. Wait … Mick? Says IO9: “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.” Err, okay then.
You can read summaries of what the call has described for the other characters on the source article below, and if you’re a fan of the book I’d recommend it. I don’t really see any red flags at this point, other than Mick, who seems to be an addition almost designed to irritate readers of the book. And then I remembered the scene near the beginning when Ender eats with an under achiever who explains how to just coast and stay out of trouble, and as I recall, steals Ender’s dessert. It might be that they’ve taken that character and changed his name (I don’t remember what it was, but it wasn’t Mick).
(source: IO9)
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Comments
Posted by: JULIE at September 29, 2011 10:19 AM
I'm cool with a movie as long as it's done right. I loved the book.