Author: Valentine

  • Smart Pop Books Holding ‘Ender’s World’ Giveaway at SDCC 2012

    Smart Pop Books Holding ‘Ender’s World’ Giveaway at SDCC 2012

    Smart Pop Books will be publishing Ender’s World: Fresh Perspectives on the SF Classic‘, a collection of essays written by almost two dozen writers and edited by Orson Scott Card himself, in February 2013, but 25 lucky fans won’t need to wait that long to get their hands on a copy.

    Visit Smart Pop Books at booth #4300 at the 2012 San Diego Comic Con and you can enter to win one of 25 advance copies of the book. Head over to Smart Pop Books to see what else they have in store for SDCC.

    They will also be giving out free copies of their preview volume, which will include an essay by Hilari Bell called ‘Winning and Losing in Ender’s Game‘.

    Ender’s World: Fresh Perspectives on the SF Classic Ender’s Game, edited by Orson Scott Card, comes out in February 2013. But we’re giving 25 Comic-Con attendees the chance to read it first.

    Come by booth #4300 and ask us to scan your badge to be entered to win an advance copy of Ender’s World. We’ll pick the winners after the end of the convention and notify you via email. Then we’ll ship you your copy, hot off the presses, as soon as they’re printed!

    The preview volume will also include excerpts from their upcoming books about ‘The Hunger Games’ and ‘A Game of Thrones’.

  • Asa Butterfield Accepts Breakthrough Award at Young Hollywood Awards

    Asa Butterfield Accepts Breakthrough Award at Young Hollywood Awards

    Asa Butterfield, who is currently in Los Angeles finishing up Ender’s Game, attended the Young Hollywood Awards last night where he was awarded the Breakthrough Award of 2012. Congratulations!

    Fellow Ender’s Game castmates Moises Arias and Hailee Steinfeld also attended the event.

    Since Asa has so recently been filming, you can get a nice, high res look at how his hair will probably be in the movie (non-Instagram!)

    Here’s a gallery of images of the cast at the event, via Zimbio.

  • Promotional Poster for ‘Ender’s Game’

    Promotional Poster for ‘Ender’s Game’

    Ender's Game Poster

    While people were fooled by a fan-made poster making the rounds last month, this poster, which was posted today to Facebook and Twitter by what appears to be a movie theater in Mexico (El Planeta del Cine) seems like it could be the real deal.

    Posted among several other movie posters including Pacific Rim, Smurfs 2, and Fast and Furious 6, the Ender’s Game teaser poster is tagged with Comingsoon.net and does appear to match the other officially titled items. It’s very simplistic, showing only the title, but it’s still something.

    What do you think? Official or not?

    Update: The teaser poster was unveiled at the 2012 Licensing Expo going on in Las Vegas, NV now.

    Update 2: Summit has informed us that although it’s an Ender’s Game promotional poster, it’s not considered their first official teaser poster and will not be marketed for sale. 

  • Fan Art: Ender’s Game Poster

    Fan Art: Ender’s Game Poster

    Fan Poster: Ender's Game

    Check out this really cool fan-made poster for Ender’s Game made by Ryan Derrick on Deviantart. It was made before the movie’s release date was pushed back to November 1, 2013, but it’s still an incredible poster regardless!

  • ‘Ender’s Game’ Officially Wraps Production in New Orleans

    ‘Ender’s Game’ Officially Wraps Production in New Orleans

    Ender's Game Chair

    Many cast members began tweeting that they’d wrapped Ender’s Game earlier this week, but some cast and crew were still on set for a final day of filming today including Hailee Steinfeld, stunt coordinator Garrett Warren, and Mandy Safavi.

    Hailee Steinfeld tweeted about her last day and wrap.

    Hailee Steinfeld

    Garrett Warren posted the photo of his chair back with a caption of the movie officially wrapping today.

    Removing my chair back! Enders game new Orleans is officially wrapped!!! Wheels up!

    Congratulations to the cast and crew on finishing up today! All us fans can’t wait until we start seeing stills, posters, teasers, trailers, and clips in the torturous 508 days to come!

  • Photo Gallery: Last Week of Production on ‘Ender’s Game’

    Photo Gallery: Last Week of Production on ‘Ender’s Game’

    Here’s a gallery of images collected from around Twitter coming off the set of Ender’s Game as they wrap up production today (June 9) in New Orleans, LA.

  • Harrison Ford Wraps Graff on ‘Ender’s Game’

    Harrison Ford Wraps Graff on ‘Ender’s Game’

    Harrison FordIt’s tough to follow a celebrity such as Harrison Ford that doesn’t have Twitter, but The Telegraph in Macon, GA reports that Ford arrived in town yesterday to begin filming his next movie ’42’, a Jackie Robinson biopic set in the 1940s.

    With many of the young cast members tweeting that they’d wrapped Ender’s Game, it sounds like Graff is all done as well. Jimmy Pinchak (Peter Wiggin) is doing his last day of filming today, as he tweeted that he’ll be leaving New Orleans on Saturday.

    On a side note, gans of Ford living in Macon that are interested in being a paid extra can still sign up for filming happening next week.

    CL Casting will be casting for paid extras for filming scheduled for June 11-12. If interested in applying, e-mail three head and body pictures, plus age, height, weight and contact information to CLCastingMacon@gmail.com.

    Source: The Telegraph

  • ‘Ender’s Game’ Production Blog Talks Flash Suit Construction

    ‘Ender’s Game’ Production Blog Talks Flash Suit Construction

    Christine Bieselin-ClarkThe latest entry in the Ender’s Game production blog is here and they’re talking about costume designer Christine Bieselin-Clark, who has done work on movies such as TRON: Legacy, Watchmen, and 300.

    It’s obviously a tough and daunting job to create something that fans have been imagining in their heads for nearly 30 years.

    Are the suits loose or tight fitting in your imagination? Are they completely colored in the army colors or are they a single color with the army colors on the fringes? Or do you not have much of an image of it in your mind, with more focus put on the look of the Battle Room itself?

    In truth, the suits in the books aren’t described with very much detail other than being tight:

    Worse, the suits were confining. It was harder to make precise movements, since the suits bent just a bit slower, resisted a bit more than any clothing they had ever worn before.

    Ender gripped the handhold and flexed his knees. He noticed that along with the sluggishness, the suit had an amplifying effect on movement. It was hard to get them started, but the suit’s legs kept moving, and strongly, after his muscles had stopped. Give them a push this strong, and the suit pushes with twice the force.

    Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game (pp. 55-56)

    Ender does mention his new Salamander suit given to him on his birthday as feeling loose, but since they’d tailored that one for him, it was probably designed with growth in mind and the suits are probably tight fitting.

    So how did Bieselin-Clark go about creating them?

    With science fiction, there’s a danger in creating a look that seems so foreign it becomes alienating.  For ENDER’S GAME, we wanted to make a future that looked both functional and logical.  We wanted it to be a future where you can picture yourself in their shoes.

    But of course, it is the future.  For the uniforms, all synthetic materials were used, meaning no loud silk florals.   And for the flash suits… well, we actually had to create them out of thin air.

    Christine built the flash suits from virtually non-existent fabrics designed by our incredible production team.  The idea was to take cues from “extreme sports” to inspire our design, using real world practicality as opposed to the heightened reality of superhero spandex and a cape.

    And the best part?  They look pretty darn cool.

    The grid suits in TRON: Legacy looked pretty phenomenal, so if she brings that experience into the mix the suits will likely have a wonderfully modern and sleek look to them.

    Similar to how actor Chris Hemsworth worked out a little too much and then didn’t fit his Thor costume, it must have been a nightmare to measure growing teenagers and then make suits from scratch while considering their growth during filming.

    Speaking of big men, they also joke about the size of Nonso Anozie.

    And then there’s having to make a uniform for Nonso Anozie, who plays Sergeant Dap.

    Normally, a bolt comes with nine yards of material, and can make 2-3 suits.  Or, in Nonso’s case, one suit became a living example of the expression “the whole nine yards”.

    Amazing! It’d be awesome to see a side by side photo of Aramis and Nonso.

    510 days left, folks. We’re still a really long ways away, but hopefully the next production entry comes soon! Executive Producer Mandy Safavi assured us on Twitter there are a couple more coming.

  • Bean, Dink, Alai, Petra Wrap ‘Ender’s Game’

    Bean, Dink, Alai, Petra Wrap ‘Ender’s Game’

    Four key characters wrapped production on Ender’s Game this week including Hailee Steinfeld (Petra, wrapped last week), Aramis Knight (Bean), Suraj Partha (Alai), and Khy Rhambo (Dink). The cast attended a wrap party last week Saturday and today began tweeting about their filming coming to a conclusion.

    Update: Conor Carroll (Bernard) wrapped today as well.

    Aramis

    Suraj

    Khy

    Asa Butterfield tweeted his goodbye to the three young men and Hailee Steinfeld sent a congratulatory tweet their way.

    Asa

    Hailee

    Production is winding down, but doesn’t appear to be over just yet, as actor Jimmy Pinchak (Peter Wiggin) is back in New Orleans for filming and Asa hasn’t tweeted that he’s wrapped on filming himself. Filming was originally scheduled to end on June 8.

  • Michael Burns Talks ‘Ender’s Game’ with CNBC

    Michael Burns Talks ‘Ender’s Game’ with CNBC

    Michael BurnsLast week, Lionsgate vice chairman Michael Burns talked to CNBC’s Fast Money regarding their upcoming strategy for the summer and eventually the topic came to Ender’s Game.

    Host Melissa Lee hinted that Burns had pegged Ender’s Game as their next big YA franchise, but he remained cautious about it’s prospects.

    Melissa Lee: Last night when we were exchanging emails you said, “Have you read Ender’s Game. You were saying Ender’s Game is going to be the next big young adult franchise after Hunger Games, how excited are you about this? Can you give us sort of a… when you read the books, do you think it’s going to be as big, as resonating as ‘The Hunger Games’?

    Unfortunately, he seemed to get the book confused with The Hunger Games, citing how great it was that it was back on the NYT Bestseller list four years after it originally came out. Still, he said he has high hopes for it.

    Michael Burns: You never want to try to pick your hits. The book is terrific, I’m not going to put a spoiler out here right now. We have a great cast. Our head of production and his team think this movie is going to be a great addition to the young adult franchise, so yeah I have high hopes for it.

    It’s interesting to hear them talk franchise, since book readers know very well that the Ender’s Game book sequel Speaker for the Dead wouldn’t fall into the YA category by a long shot, but Ender in Exile, which was published just under four years ago, would be the likeliest candidate for a chronological sequel.

    To watch the video, head over to CNBC. (skip to 3:50)

  • ‘Ender’s Game’ Set Photos; Young Mazer Wraps

    ‘Ender’s Game’ Set Photos; Young Mazer Wraps

    Keen observers on Twitter may have noticed a few new photos from the set of Ender’s Game, which is nearing completion in New Orleans, Louisiana. Actor Kyle Clements (@kyle_clements) tweeted that he wrapped his Ender’s Game scenes yesterday. He plays the young version of Mazer Rackham, who is played by Sir Ben Kingsley.

    Bob Orci and David Coatsworth

    This is a photo of producer Bob Orci (left) talking to executive producer David Coatsworth (right) tweeted by @ManSafGo. You can see in the background that the entire area is painted green for filming!

    David Coatsworth

    The last of these photos shows above-mentioned David Coatsworth having lunch with his phone.

  • Smart Pop Books Accepting Questions for Orson Scott Card

    Smart Pop Books Accepting Questions for Orson Scott Card

    Publisher Smart Pop Books will be releasing a book of essays next February and are now accepting questions for Orson Scott Card to include in a Q&A section of their book.

    Alongside those essays, we’re putting together some Q&As with Orson Scott Card to add throughout the book. Why is the Battle Room a cube? Why did the military recruit their soldiers as children? How does the queen survive until Ender finds her?

    Here’s your chance to get in on it: Card wants to give you the opportunity to ask him anything you’ve ever wondered about Ender’s Game!

    To submit your question to Orson Scott Card, head over to the Smart Pop Books Tumblr! A Tumblr account is not required to comment.

  • ‘Ender’s Game’ Production Blog Gives First Look at IF Logo

    ‘Ender’s Game’ Production Blog Gives First Look at IF Logo

    International Fleet Logo

    This week’s entry in the Ender’s Game Production blog has something especially exciting featured: the logo of the International Fleet!

    A photo of what looks to be some kind of metal platform with the IF logo on it shows a hollow oval with a capital ‘I’ overlaid on it, with a starburst behind it. Anyone have any insight on the symbolism behind it? My first interpretation is that the oval represents the Earth and the ‘I’ obviously stands for International, but I’m curious to hear if anyone else has an opinion about it, since I pretty much suck at symbolism.

    Update: One of our readers Cole pointed out that it’s a greek Phi.

    In addition to the image, producer Bob Orci answered a few more fan questions.

    Ccspatriot35 asks:

    How militaristic will the environment be?  Will we be seeing the children treated like the soldiers they are meant to portray?  For all intents and purposes they are in boot camp for most of their adolescence.  Will we see the characters being broken down?

    Funny you should ask.  We had a great visit with some online press who visited the set, and they got to talk to our actors.  Without giving too much away, they told great stories of not only going to Space Camp, but also having to undergo a form of boot camp with a no nonsense instructor who taught them how to march properly in unison and much more.  And when they screwed up they were ordered to do push ups!  They got in shape trust me.  It’s painful for my self image to see so many young kids with six pack abs.  Maybe I should go to boot camp next.

    This was from our set visit! Consider that this was a room of young boys and discussion over six packs gradually turned into a hilarious “who has more” six pack contest.

    Addressing the ever-present age issue, Bob gave a great answer about the timeline of the movie.

    Katrina asks:

    How has the book been adapted to script to work with the ages of the actors?

    Time has been compressed impressionistically.  Though we don’t specify how much time has passed, leaving it somewhat up to your imagination, it is clear that the time span is not as long as the book’s.

    A lot of people will read this and still find themselves upset over the change from the book, but you have to keep telling yourself that this is an adaptation that has to be smashed into two hours. Certain changes such as this one are to be expected and it’s tough to deal with some of them, but in the end all we can really do is hope that it works in the end.

    From looking at the cast listing, it’s clear that they ended up scrapping quite a few named characters from the book, but one that most certainly couldn’t be cut was smart little cadet Bean. When asked about exactly how much Bean we’d see in the movie, Orci had good things to say. “Orson Scott Card advocated for as much Bean as we could muster, and really encouraged ways to make him pivotal.  You’ll decide if we succeeded!  I think we did. And we’re even more excited for you all to experience Aramis Knight’s fantastic portrayal of Bean.”

    Fan DavidB voiced another huge concern about how the book, which is told primarily from Ender’s own point of view, would translate to screen since voiceovers are a bit tricky.

    Praising the young actors of the cast, Orci sounds convinced that the performances will go a long way in conveying the emotion of the overall story. “Gavin elegantly translated some of the inner thought into action or character decisions in his script — drama — and that allowed him to find natural places for the characters to speak about what they are going through.”

    The last question addressed the psychological aspect of Ender’s story:

    Sarah Pezzat asks:

    Is it still about using empathy as a weapon?

    One of the great themes that is explored, in more ways than one, is how empathy can be seen as a weakness or a strength. How understanding an enemy makes you also understand their weaknesses.  And even how withholding empathy can also be a weapon.  The fact that the audience is going to want nothing more than for commanders to show these young people warmth and understanding, but that it has to be weighed against the fear of it being not in the young soldiers best interests in order for them to do what they have to do, makes for fascinating stuff.

    To read the questions and answers in its entirety, visit the Ender’s Game Production Blog. You can also discuss the logo on the EnderWiggin.net forums (which definitely needs help getting off its feet!)