Though no casting has taken place yet, the Ender’s Game film adaptation has just received a release date from Summit Entertainment. The Gavin Hood-directed jaunt will come out in theaters on March 15, 2013. Orson Scott Card has released a statement about his hopes for the movie, and assures fans that while there is no way to get the entire book filmed, all of the book’s most important moments will make it on screen.
In regard to which young actor might be cast in the role of Ender Wiggin, Card is hoping for a no-name: “Whoever plays Ender will almost certainly be an actor you haven’t seen before, and with any luck, a child who has not gone through the soul-numbing process of being cute on camera. In other words, I hope it is a child who never had an agent, but who is very, very intelligent and therefore can take direction.”
No matter how good this story is, I think everyone should boycott this film because of Orson Scott Card’s is a bigot and a homophobe. Some bigots and homophobes have the decency to keep it to themselves — Card indulged his ugly opinions in a ridiculously over-the-top homophobic reimagining of Hamlet. In it, he takes homophobia to the point of derangement, drawing no distinction between homosexuality and pedophilia or incest. He makes Michele Bachmann look good by comparison.
Anyone who doesn’t know what I’m talking about should read this review. Here’s the crux of Card’s Hamlet:
So, if human rights are important to you at all, BOYCOTT CARD. Don’t buy his books, don’t go to his movies, don’t do anything to encourage his outlandish bigotry.
I can’t wait! This could be really cool! If they mess it up like they messed up the Dark is Rising, I’m definitely going to be pissed.
Been waiting a long time to see this project get this far. Hopefully it can sail smoothly through production. Orson Scott Card is an asset to the writing community. He has introduced hordes to sci-fi.
Interesting – @1 calls Orson Scott Card “a bigot and a homophobe” over and over again. His/her comment remains.
@3 Calls @1 “gay” (something some readers will consider an insult and others a badge of honor) and gets deleted from the comments. That seems a little one-sided, doesn’t it? Perhapse @3 meant it as a compliment.
Question – Why is an anonymous poster protected from slander when his/her comment is every bit as slanderous as the aforementioned slandering?
Equality FTW!
@5: Comment 3 was hurtfull name calling and nothing more.
I agree with deleting @3. It was mean-spirited. It was wrong. It just seems peculiar that @1 is still there. It is slanderous. It is hurtful. It is name-calling. It is subjective.
Even though Mr. Card is a public figure, does he not deserve this site’s protection as much as your anonymous posters?
No one will boycott the movie. Almost all of Hollywood turns a blind eye to Roman Polanski and Woody Allen. It’s all about the money and “what can you do for me” aspect of Hollywood.
As for Ender’s Game as a movie. To be done right it needs to be filmed like Avatar (minus the 3d). Finding that many child actors who can act will be hard.
Odd’s are that it will be awful.
I haven’t read Hamlet’s Father and don’t want to, but OSC rebuts reviews like what @1 was quoting, so here it is if you want his side of things: http://www.hatrack.com/osc_responds_halmets_father.html
Speaking of things that are on-topic, I hope the movie will be good. I just don’t see how it could be as cool as the book. Movies usually aren’t. If it can get the battle room scenes right though, that would be cool. And it’s a good thing it took so long; now we have 3D. While it’s often misused or done poorly, when it’s done right 3D can add a lot to some kinds of scenes by adding depth perception. And I cannot think of a better place for that than the battle room scenes.
The book stands a good chance of making the transition to the big screen. I look forward to seeing how it goes. I have high hopes, but recognize that it might fail. We will always have the books.
As to @1, if I boycot the works of everyone I don’t agree with I would have a very limited set of experiences in this life. As limited as the lives of those who practice extreme prejudice and bigotry. I choose liberty, for me and for them.
Pendard has it exactly backwards. Card is exaggerating to make the point. He’s the opposite of homophobe, pointing out just how ridiculous it is to label someone because of their sexual preference. If you knew anything about Card, you’d know this to be true.
As for Ender’s Game, I’m hopeful. As with any other book to movie transfer, it can be amazing but still have a lot left out, and it can be horrible (sometimes because they’re trying too hard to get everything in).
#1 shows the dangers of failing to think and experience anything for ones self. Nothing like blindly following an erroneous review to get ones PC innards all riled up. If #1 read Hamlet’s Father, or even some of Card’s earlier work which contained homosexual characters, they’d know how ridiculous they come across on this board. Card has responded to this falsehood elsewhere. Probably worth checking it out and getting the facts straight. But then again, that would take away from the pleasure derived from righteous indignation, no matter how justified.
As for the movie, we can only have high hopes at this point. Nothing could be worse than a horrid translation of this fine book to film. Time will tell!
I would suggest that #12 get their “facts straight.” Card has written has a long history of writting articles and op-ed’s in which he makes his stance on homosexuality and marriage equality perfectly clear. For example he wrote:
“The dark secret of homosexual society — the one that dares not speak its name — is how many homosexuals first entered into that world through a disturbing seduction or rape or molestation or abuse, and how many of them yearn to get out of the homosexual community and live normally.”
Card worries that marriage equality will spell the end of western civilization and if enacted, those who oppose it will no longer owe allegiance to America. He believes that the idea that homosexuals are born that way is a myth and therefore there is a great danger in accepting their lifestyle.
Including homosexual characters in his fiction, or an erroneous review of his work, is not what is being discussed. It is his personal and public opinions that have drawn the ire of so many.
Hi Guys, Thanks for keeping failry cool with this highly emotional issue, however, I’d like to stay on topic of the movie as much as possible. Card’s stace on homosexuality has been discussed here, and many other places, many times. Let’s stick to the post topic.
Any word on which agency is doing the casting? I have 3 age-appropriate sons I’d like to submit (and, of course, I’d be the PERFECT Hyrum Graff or Mazer Rackham, but I digress…) and though the web is full of announcements of the casting taking place, nowhere can I find the actual agency in charge.
Thanks.
I think the best, and possibly only way for the movie to come close to the book is to animate the entire thing in 3D. Or, if it can be done convincingly, use adult actors, but animate the children. An actor who can handle Ender’s dialogue will be older that Ender’s actual age, and part of what made Ender so special was the brilliant dialogue coming out of a 6 yr old. Also, what are the chances of finding dozens of equally talented children who can all handle these scenes convincingly? Hire the animators who made AVATAR, and I think this movie might actually have a chance.
card in his rebuttal to the review @9: “Because I took a public position in 2008 opposing any attempt by government to redefine marriage, especially by anti-democratic and unconstitutional means, I have been targeted as a “homophobe” by the Inquisition of Political Correctness. If such a charge were really true, they would have had no trouble finding evidence of it in my life and work. But because the opposite is true — I think no ill of and wish no harm to homosexuals, individually or as a group — they have to manufacture evidence by simply lying about what my fiction contains.”
Card’s statement belying his rebuttal claims (one among many) from Ornery.Org “The dark secret of homosexual society — the one that dares not speak its name — is how many homosexuals first entered into that world through a disturbing seduction or rape or molestation or abuse, and how many of them yearn to get out of the homosexual community and live normally.”
I agree – boycott the movie. I shouldn’t have to link to his other idiocies (like advocating the overthrow of the government if marriage isn’t ‘saved’ for heterosexuals), or to other stories (among which is an interesting interview that calls into question Card’s authorship of Ender’s Game).
We don’t need people who think like he does earning even more money that will help them spew over an even larger audience.
Why shouldn’t you have to link to his “other idiocies” if you feel the need to mention them anyway? If you’re going to make a claim as outrageous as that he didn’t really write Ender’s Game, you need to back that up with a source, please.
Also, as others have said, I can’t imagine refusing to read an author or watch a TV show or movie just because I don’t agree with their political ideas. That’s the very definition of bigotry: animosity towards someone simply because of their beliefs.
Personally I can’t wait for this movie to come out; knowing Card, he’ll keep a tight enough grip on his story to prevent the movie studios from really messing it up.
I am cautiously hopeful about the film. I know it will be difficult to cast and that it will be very easy to find things to criticize.
When I watch it, though, I’ll be judging the work on its own merits, rather than on the politics of the source material’s author. If I confined my watching/reading habits to works produced only by people I agree with 100%, well, I expect I’d have a lot of empty bookshelves, and no TV.
According to OSC’s webmaster, with whom I semi-regularly exchange email (most likely much to her chagrin…) Card has made no comment on the release date as it is a “fictional date.” Unspoken was the “now please stop bothering us…”
As to the rest, Card is not now nor has he ever been homophobic, and writes quite eloquently on the matter in one of the Earthborn books, though it’s been so long I forget which one. If it is his experience that a large number of homosexuals he knows or has heard testimony from that they entered that life via rape and/ or abuse, he has every right to say this out loud.
I imagine all the above posters calling for boycotts are bastions of liberal tolerance and think me ugly for refusing to enrich Sean Penn by ever paying to see another one of his movies. Now, if he makes a GOOD movie some time in the next 40 years, he may actually put me to the test on this…
I seriously believe that we all just need to relax on the matter of homosexuality and bigatory. We are responding to a thread on Ender’s Game movie. I, for one, am excited at the possiblity of seeing it on film, and I agree with the idea of pulling in the animators who worked Avatar. They did an awesome job! If the children in the book are animated, we have a better chance at finding young actors/actresses who can play the voice over parts – mainly due to them sounding so young at a pre-puberty age. I’m just saying I believe it can be done. Praise for Ender’s Game!!