Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Part of Ender's Game Script Posted

Posted by Hemos on from the getting-the-buggers dept.

SilentJason writes "Orson Scott Card posted a few of the pages from the Ender's Game script onto the web. He changed some material, as to be expected, like the buggers becoming Formics, as well as cutting the fight between Ender and Stilson. I first saw this on Ain't It Cool News, reported by Cassius the Evil. You can read the script at Fresco Pictures. "

12 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. Buggers and Formics by copito · · Score: 3

    "Formics" is the formal name for the aliens, "bugger" is common slang. This is clear in Ender's Shadow (worth reading BTW) but I can't remember if it is in Ender's Game.
    --

    --
    "L'IT c'est moi!"
  2. Old old OLD by Wonko42 · · Score: 3
    The partial script has been online at this site for at least four months now, perhaps even more. This is not news.

    --

  3. Bugger == Pedicator by Tom+Christiansen · · Score: 3
    I imagine they've stricken "bugger" from the script because of its obvious interpretation as "pedicator". The people who say "you dirty old bugger" are much more apt to be offended than those who say "what a cute little bugger he is!" So in the interests of avoiding a non-kid-viewable rating, they might have dodged the word. Perhaps it's even on the unapproved list; I don't know.

    Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if pedication weren't precisely the connotation that Card intended. You were not supposed to identify with or in any way like the Buggers.

  4. Books into Movies by Tom+Christiansen · · Score: 3
    There seems to be a lot of mistrust that the Ender movie can accurately portray the Card's book. But is this really necessary? Is it okay to have a somewhat different story? Have you read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Did you enjoy Blade Runner? I think they were different, but both good.

    Aren't the two media of books and film fundamentaly different? Do you think there's something about Ender that specifically does not lend itself to a movie format? Or do you just not trust the production team? I think Ender is feasible, although don't know how it will work out. Certainly having Card write the screenplay means that no one will be able to say that it was contrary to the author's wishes. But has Card any screenplay experience?

    Which books have successfully translated into movies? Which have failed? What do you think the cause was? I believe that no single cause exists. Consider Dune as movie and book. I don't think many people were very happy with the movie. I don't think it was the actors, but the time allotment. Can Ender be told in the 2½ hours allotted? Is there too much internal dialogue for it to work out, or is there enough action?

    A more important movie coming up for next Christmas (or the following one) is the first of three installments to The Lord of the Rings. Details are at the The Lord of the Rings movie page, with casting photos and FAQs/gossip available as well, plus an IMDB entry. In this case, it's not going to be too short the way Dune was, since it's going to be three movies. I don't know that even Card dreams of doing the whole Ender quartet as movies. I hope not.

  5. Re:Oh no. by UncleOrson · · Score: 3

    "That little brat"? I've met Jake, and he's an exuberant, decent, unspoiled, extremely bright, very talented young man. I wonder why you would make such a personal comment about a child you haven't met.

    Maybe the reason you didn't enjoy his performance in Fantum Mennis was that the writing was so awful. There IS no actor who could have made those lines good. Given the right script and the right director, Jake can be astonishingly good.

    However, no one has been cast because there is no director in place and no studio yet funding the film. By the time that happens, Jake will probably be too old to play the part. The kid from Sixth Sense already is too old.

    But however the casting turns out, Jake Lloyd is a human being who has done nothing to harm you and does not deserve to be attacked personally in a public place where it is quite possible that he or his friends or family might see your message. The messages posted here might be electronic, but the people who read them aren't.

    - Orson Scott Card

  6. Re:Length forced cuts... by UncleOrson · · Score: 3

    All full-length novels are too long for the screen, unless they've been seriously padded with extraneous writing. However, while length forced me to cut SOMETHING, I chose to cut the Peter&ValentineTakeOverTheWorld subplot because it is completely unfilmable - just a couple of kids typing - and hard to make believable without being able to use the novelist's tool of getting inside the characters' heads.

    As to Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind, they are all unfilmable in that they absolutely depend on knowing what characters and thinking and feeling from the inside. Most of what matters can't be visualized. So a film version of Speaker, for instance, would be a bunch of talking heads interrupted occasionally by unwatchable cruelty. Who wants a movie of that? Not me!

    Most of my novels are unfilmable, except those written with film in mind (Homebody, Treasure Box, Ender's Shadow, Enchantment). A few older works would do well on screen (Treason, Wyrms, Hart's Hope) and we're exploring a film version of the Alvin Maker books. We're even attempting a version of Pastwatch - though fitting THAT into two hours is pretty hard, especially given how much has to be explained.

    Print science fiction, at its best, is rarely translatable to film. Which is why film science fiction is rarely as "good" as the best print science fiction, and why sci-fi films so often focus on action. The costs of science fiction filming are so high that sci-fi films must appeal to a large audience in order to recoup the investment. When a sci-fi film can be done for much less - check out the astonishingly creative and clever "Being John Malkovich" for an example - then it can explore the much greater possibilities that are routinely exploited in written science fiction.

    - Orson Scott Card

  7. Not the same script by UncleOrson · · Score: 3

    The script that I wrote this past summer and posted early this fall is a complete rewrite - the old script was thrown out and I went back to the book and started from scratch. The first script was from the adult point of view, trying to make it more fundable by not relying so heavily on child actors. That was a mistake, because the emotional heart of the story is the relationships among the children. So the first strategy was tossed, and this script is absolutely from the children's point of view. Works a lot better now.

    I wish I could post the whole thing, because there are some cool surprises that I wish I could have included in a new edition of Ender's Game. But what the new script definitely is NOT is "essentially the same" as the previous one. And the reaction of Hollywood makes that clear - this script is working, and it's now only a matter of time, I think, before we get the package put together and the film under way.

    - Orson Scott Card

  8. Re:What really annoys me about Card by Hrunting · · Score: 4

    Many good authors have done that. It's not just a symptom of Card. It isn't completely about making money, either. Most of the time, short stories become longer stories as the original idea becomes fleshed out and takes on several subplots that make it a true story, and not just a tale.

    Essentially, you are criticizing Card for being a good author, one who recognizes how works can change, improve, and develop. I would rather have Card take a short story and rework it three times in different ways to show the different interpretations of a common idea than to have someone like John Grisham or Danielle Steele give me a book they just 'whipped out' solely to sell paperback.

    And as per this movie, I see Card taking on a formidable challenge, adapting the story to show another view of the idea. This time, we get a real third-person view, rather than an interior shot. I'm kind of disappointed that we won't get to see the adult viewpoint, because with Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow, that's what we're really kind of missing, but I'm certainly not unhappy with the snippet of the script that I've read.

    Quit complaining. Development, especially in writing, is a sorely needed (pardon the pun) development.

  9. True to form by Signal+11 · · Score: 4
    I loved Ender's Game, if not because in some way it reminded me of myself and alot of my friends. The movie will never be as good as the book, simply because the movie lacks the imagery you create in your mind, it lacks the subtleties in the book.

    But, I am looking forward to it nevertheless. I hope it remains true to form. They *must* do the war room properly. Most of the game plot hinges on it. I don't know how they're going to make it look Zero G'ish realistically, but I'd like to see! Either way, I suggest reading the book... it took me 8 hours to wax it off - 6 hours more is very little to pay for books instead of movies. Just my advice...

  10. Hollywood doesn't have the balls by Wag · · Score: 4

    Ender's Game is about the cruelty of humanity, (specifically children on children). Make no mistake, this is no children's movie, Ender is a murderer. Taking that out of the movie will be changing the whole nature of the story, making it less than what it is. What Hollywood studio would have the balls to show one 7yr old murdering another? Unfortunately none of them, and thus the whole story is ruined. I generally am not a big fan of violence in movies (can't stand the bang-bang shoot 'em ups anymore), but in this case the violence is necessary; intregal to the story. Mr. Card puts up an excellent case against violence by showing just how brutal real violence can be. What a shame the full extent of it won't be preserved for the big screen.

    1. Re:Hollywood doesn't have the balls by UncleOrson · · Score: 5

      While I'm not sure that extreme violence is quite as essential to the story as the post at the beginning of this thread seems to feel. Nor would I call Ender a "murderer," since his violence is only invoked in life-threatening situations. However, I share the concern that the film not "wimp out." I shudder at the thought of the Spielberg version, in which Ender finds out the truth Just In Time - the way Schindler repents at the end of Spielberg's magnum opus, while the REAL Schindler got away with a box full of diamonds.

      The reason the Stilson scene was cut is because movies both magnify and compress. To begin with such an act of violence, when we can't get inside Ender's head to understand his reasoning, would overpower the rest of the story and make it impossible for many viewers to get into the film at all. Film magnifies violence because you can see it and remember it; what I could do to good effect in the book doesn't work at all in the movie. Instead, I replaced it with much milder violence directed at Peter.

      However, the crucial scene with Bonzo is intact (though it will be filmed very carefully to avoid nudity), and the double-surprise ending will be preserved, so that the moral implications of Ender's actions remain as in the book. Since these are precisely the issues that matter most to me, you will know that if they are NOT intact, it meant that I lost control of the film after all. Up to now, however, I have managed to hold onto the integrity of the story, at least as I understand it, and am working with producers who are committed to doing the same.

      - Orson Scott Card

  11. OSC Book Signing Notes by dschuetz · · Score: 5
    Since this is such OLD news, I figured I'd post something that was at least new to most people (even if it is old in itself).

    Back in September, my wife and I attended a book signing for Orson Scott Card in Virginia, and I took copious notes on my Pilot, but never posted them. He spent about an hour talking about the movie, his books, etc.

    Rather than trying to re-write my notes, I'm just going to paste them in here and do some quick abbrev expansions, etc.. Hopefully, they'll still make sense. :-)

    Ender's Game Movie

    • "jake lloyd 'is' ender, in every way that matters to me" -- Said that Lloyd really enjoyed the book, and could do a great job with the part, and that we shouldn't judge his acting skills based on SW:TPM
    • Movie should have some cool stuff, surprises
    • OSC wanted to do new version of Enders Game with new stuff (like a movie novellization) - tom doherty (publisher? editor?) said no
    • Hasn't watched 6th Sense, and won't, because he feels that his story Lost Boys will never filmed because it's too similar to 6th sense (which I disagreed with, later, and he said that the "catch" ("he's dead!") was too similar to Lost Boys' catch. I still think Hollywood wouldn't care.)
    • He also said that the 6th sense boy (don't remember the actor's name) is to old to play Ender convincingly
    • Keep in mind that there are too many variables, jake lloyd still completely uncertain - he could be 15 by the time the movie gets off the ground
    • His ultimate dream - film both Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow at once, same cast, etc.
    • Working on integrating the flash suit gun into glove (he described this, and I remember it sounding cool)


    Some other stuff

    • Working on a tv pilot called bordertown, filmed in mexico
    • Another book after Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, about Bean as the right-hand-man, general, shadow, of Peter the Hegemon (was going to do a book about Peter, but publisher didn't like it, and later, neither did OSC -- too dark a character, not enough room for development, etc.)
    • Following that, would like to do a book about Petra
    • Expect two more books in the Alvin Maker series: Crystal City and Master Alvin
    • "And if you don't know that Alvin is really Joseph Smith and Arthur Steward is really Brigham Young and that they're going to...(forget the whole quote), then You Haven't Been Paying Attention!" (I never noticed the parallels between the two, personally... :-) )
    • Will be doing Pastwatch books on Adam & Eve, and the Flood (don't remember if that was Noah's flood, or Atlantis. There's a Pastwatch Atlantis short story on OSC's web site, http://www.hatrack.com/osc/storie s/atlantis.shtml.
    • Expect three books about biblical women: sarah, rebecca, and rachel, presumably in same vein as Stone Tables or Saints
    • Working on a 6-part ANIMATED TV series based on Treason (!)
    • Let on that the Homecoming series is detailed retelling of Book of Mormon (never noticed this, either, and there's a great essay about the shit he took from other Mormons about his "plagiarizing" of this on his web site: http://www.hatrack.com/osc/art icles/openletter.shtml.


    That's about all I have...if you ever get a chance to see him, I recommend it highly -- he was a funny, intelligent, engaging speaker and answered all questions fully (and sometimes got on a soapbox, but he put pretty clear disclaimers around those self-described diatribes...)

    -david.