It was awesome, right? Anywho, Ender's Game came out in 1985, and ever since then people have been talking about making it into a movie. The author tried his hand at a script. The guys running the Game of Thrones show took a run at it. The problem is, Ender is a tough nut to crack. It's almost exclusively about pre-teens, so it's kind of like the early Potter books, but it's much more brutal than the first half of Rowling's stories. A decent chunk of the story occurs in zero gravity, so you've got to figure out a way to make that look cool. For whatever reason, thinks just never clicked between Ender and Hollywood, until now.
Summit Entertainment bought the rights. They hired Gavin Hood to direct off of a script he wrote. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are going to produce, and we even have a release date - March 15, 2013. All of those things are nice, but they're not "real". Directors and writers and producers get attached to projects all the time, and then nothing happens. But now, now they're casting. And not just one big name star who will eventually move on to something else. Looks like Ender is finally happening.
Asa Butterfield is Ender Wiggin
Asa was Bruno in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and Norman in Nanny McPhee Returns. He's in the theater right now as the titular character in Hugo. He'll turn 15 in April, so he's a little older than Ender is supposed to be, but he still looks like he could be younger. I couldn't be happier about this casting, and my only concern is that he can pull off an American accent. If you've read Ender's Game, this photo shows you everything you need to see.
Hailee Steinfeld is Petra Arkanian
Hailee was Mattie in last year's True Grit, and she was nominated for pretty much every acting award in existence. She just turned 15, so she's about six months older than Asa, which works for the characters. Hailee is a great actress, and I was really rooting for her to win an Oscar last year. She probably won't get nominated for her part in Ender, but I think it will giver her a great opportunity to play another aspect of the tough, reliant young woman character she nailed in Mattie.
Ben Kingsley is Mazer Rackham
I don't want to get too much into who Mazer is to avoid spoilers, but needless to say he's a major character who ends up influencing Ender in the second half of the story. We all know Kingsley. He won an Oscar for Gandhi, and great acclaim for Sexy Beast and House of Sand and Fog. Mazer is supposed to be half Maori, while Kingsley is of Indian and Russian descent, so it will be interesting to see what they do there, but you can't ever complain about having an Oscar winner in your beloved franchise.
Harrison Ford is Colonel Graff (????)
OK, so this one is still just rumor, but it's been said all over the internet that Ford is in negotiations to join the project. I'm a bit torn if this turns out to be true. On the one hand, it's Indiana Jones!!!! On the other, it's old Harrison Ford who hasn't seemed to give a flip since...The Fugitive? Maybe Air Force One? Ford is a huge name, and he would lend instant cred to the project if he is attached. He's a great actor, and I think he could have a ton of fun with the curmudgeonly old commander of Battle School. I just don't know if he wants to have fun anymore.
So what do you think? Are you happy with the three official casting announcements? Are you willing to roll the dice on Ford, or would you rather go with someone who will actually care about the movie? Who should play Ender's siblings, Peter and Valentine? What about the rest of his jeesh, especially Alai and Bean? Let me know in the comments.
Ford all the way.
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