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Anakin Actor to Star in Ender's Game

Posted by Hemos on from the good-book-please-don't-spoil-it dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "An article on Sci Fi Wire reports: Orson Scott Card said he is rewriting the script for the film adaptation of his best-selling novel Ender's Game now that Star Wars: Episode I star Jake Lloyd is interested in the project. " Ya know, that's one of those books which you had better do a good job making into a movie, because you can so easily fail. Still, I'd pay the ticket price to see it, unlike other movies.

10 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Has Slashdot sunk this low? by dillon_rinker · · Score: 2

    NEWS FOR NERDS!!!
    STUFF THAT MATTERS!!!
    NEWS FOR NERDS!!!
    STUFF THAT MATTERS!!!
    TASTES GREAT!!!
    LESS FILLING!!!
    TASTES GREAT!!!
    LESS FILLING!!!

  2. Agreed on the Sixth Sense kid by grappler · · Score: 2

    Now THAT was an awesome movie, made awesome by a very good actor. You could feel that kid's pain. And that is, of course, what Ender's Game needs.

    Interestingly, I have seen both Jake Lloyd and the Sixth Sense kid as guests on the Tonight show. They both came across as pretty sharp people to me. Lloyd was a little cocky, like he's letting Hollywood get to his head.
    The other kid (I forget his name) seems like a better actor and when he was on Leno it became immediately obvious that he was in the smartest 1% of the people in the room.

    --
    Vidi, Vici, Veni
  3. Didnt you read my comment or are you just a moron? by grappler · · Score: 2

    I was talking about Sixth Sense, not Phantom Menace. My WHOLE COMMENT was about how the Sixth Sense kid is a much better choice than Jake Lloyd.

    --
    Vidi, Vici, Veni
  4. More info by clasher · · Score: 2

    Here is another site which has some info on the Ender's Game movie.
    http://www.frescopictures.com/movies/ender/ender sgame_update.html
    I have high hopes for this movie since Card himself is working on it. It would be unfortunate to have it go the way of Wing Commander but I'm going to see it.

  5. Will It Adapt? by Skyshadow · · Score: 2
    Mewonders how well Ender's Game will translate to the screen. Well, I suppose that's what rewriting means, isn't it? Still, I'm afraid they'll have to remove a lot of the mindplay and replace it with a lot of Starship Troopers-like scenes to appeal to today's attention deficit moviegoers.

    I also wonder about Anakin (is it Jake Reed) as Ender: First, I'm worried that everyone will be like "hey, it's Darth Vader" the whole time. Second, I thought he was only a marginally good actor, while the kid from The Sixth Sense was the best I've seen in a long time.

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    --
    Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
    1. Re:Will It Adapt? by Masem · · Score: 2
      I agree here -- there's many possible problems that can occur from this movie.

      First, I doubt that with OSC's involvement, the movie will succum to the summer-blockbuster problems (with tons of special effects and no character development). He'll do his darnest to keep the book true to the movie.

      However, Ender's Game suffers from the problem that to be done properly, it's got to be done with special effects (the war room *HAS* to be in the movie, and that ABSOLUTELY requires the anti-grav special effects), but it's also got to be cerebrial; Ender's suffering in the Battle School has to be felt, as well as setting up for the big mindfsck at the end. These two attitudes in Hollywood don't mix well, IMO. The Matrix has been the closest to mixing the two but the character development in that was a bit weak. (Keanu? HHAHAHAHAHAH :-). I would also argue about Contact being a decent mix, although the characters are a bit cardboard-ish there as well, from Sagan's original text. The question is, will OSC and gang be able to convince the marketers to keep their hands off the final product, and actually put out a quality SF movie that doesn't need the SFX to get ravings.

      --
      "Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
      "I can see my house from here!" - ST:
    2. Re:Will It Adapt? by dillon_rinker · · Score: 2

      Ender's game was an excellent short story long before it was an excellent novel. So consider this - "Ender's Game: the Movie. Based on Ender's Game, the short story, with ideas from Ender's Game, the novel."

  6. Re:Lines we _don't_ want in the movie ... by Masem · · Score: 2

    Or, from another failed book-gone-movie:
    "I WANT ROOM SERVICE!"

    --
    "Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
    "I can see my house from here!" - ST:
  7. Re:Orson Scott Cards involved? Hm.... by dillon_rinker · · Score: 2

    Ender's Game could have stood on its own.

    Actually, no. Ender's Game existed because OSC wanted to write Speaker for the Dead. He had the idea to write about someone who spoke the truth about the dead, and though it would be cool if the character who did this was Ender, from his short store "Ender's Game." He tried to work this into a single novel and realized that he'd need a separate novel to set it up. That, in my mind, is the reason why BOTH novels rocked. They were conceived together, they were written with each other in mind. It wasn't a case of "Oh, people liked this book, let's see what happened next" or "Gosh, I've got to write three books; I guess I'll take my 300-page story and stretch it into 900 pages"

  8. Re:Has Slashdot sunk this low? by adamk · · Score: 2

    On the contrary, I think that most people who visit /. are interested in a good mixture of tech news and pop culture news... Remember, the motto of /. is "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matter" Frankly, I think an update on "Ender's Game" qualifies as news for nerds.

    Adam