io9 has an exclusive behind-the-scenes video from the Ender’s Game Blu-ray featurette “Ender’s World: The Making of Ender’s Game” that shows a little bit about how they went about creating the Formics for the film.
Ender’s Game will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on February 11, 2014.
Watch the video at io9.
The Ender’s Game wall calender shipped out last week and finally made its way to my mailbox this afternoon. After nearly chucking my scanner out the window, I managed to get some decent scans, though I only pieced together a couple of the images. The ones that didn’t lose much with one scan I left as-is. We’d previously posted images from Ender News, but there were a couple of additional new images in the calendar for us to gawk at.
Please be warned that there are MOVIE SPOILERS beyond this point.
IN CASE YOUR EYES MISSED IT, THERE ARE SPOILERS.
Since it’s a 16 month calendar, the first page with the army logos contains all four months left in 2013: September-December.
January features the Battle School, which I did not scan since we’ve seen a lot of it already. The image looked like it was taken from a short video on display at the Ender’s Game Experience. The caption for it appears to be incorrect, as it says:
A shuttle returning Ender and Colonel Graff to Earth after Ender quits Battle School.
February features the image released by Empire magazine of Ender floating while Graff watches at the gate.
In his relentless quest to isolate the cadet and mold him into the leader he needs, Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) orders Ender (Asa Butterfield) to be the first to brave the stomach-churning drop into the zero-gravity Battle Room. Ender pushes off and flies out uncertainly into the vast empty space with steel stars drifting about like asteroids.
Next to the month is a still of Valentine and Ender.
After rehashing the fight with Stilson and losing his monitor (or chance to enter the training program), Ender (Asa Butterfield) and Valentine (Abigail Breslin) are surprised by their brother, Peter, who mocks the failed cadet and proposes a game of Formics and Astronauts.
I’m sorry, but the term “formics and astronauts” makes me snort-laugh.
March moves on to Battle School with a still of the Launchy barracks. You can see Bernard on the far right and Bean next to him.
Sergeant Dap (Nonso Anozie) calls attention on deck as Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) enters the Launchie dormitory to announce that he’s pleased with their progress and, with some failed seniors leaving soon, he’ll be looking to promote some of them.
On the month page, there’s an image of their locker that I didn’t scan.
Ender takes the only free bed in the Launchie dormitory, and approaches the shiny locker next to it. At the sound of his voice, the locker spins open to reveal a slightly stiff, anodized spacesuit, flight boots and gloves, an aerodynamic helmet, and a pistol-like gun.
In April, there’s a classroom scene with Ender in the center, Bernard in the top row on the left, and Alai at the top on the right.
With Ender (Asa Butterfield), Bean (Aramis Knight), and Alai (Suraj Partha) the only passing scores on the Deep Space Navigation Test, Professor Behari (Jasmine Kaur) encourages one of them to step forward and educate the class on using the gravitational pull of a planet to slingshot fighter craft into attack formation on the dark side of a moon.
The month image shows the planet image we get a glimpse of in the trailer and this is apparently for the lesson mentioned above.
May features Ender and Bernard in Launchy suits.
Given only ten minutes to suit up with helmet and weapon, Ender (Asa Butterfield) and the other Launchies listen intently as Colonel Graff introduces them to the zero-gravity Battle Room.
Rows of Launchies stand at attention in the Battle Room Staging Area, as Dap (Nonso Anozie) looks on and Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) prepares to send them into the zero-gravity Battle Room for the first time.
June features the still we saw of Ender and Petra in the mess hall. On the calendar page is an image of Ender in his Launchy suit.
Petra Arkanian (Hailee Steinfeld), the only girl in Salamander Army, befriends Ender (Asa Butterfield) when he is reassigned to her platoon. Their leader, Bonzo Madrid, forbids Ender to unholster his weapon, but Petra takes the inexperienced recruit under her wing.
Ender (Asa Butterfield) looks down across the sea of kids in the Mess Hall watching the Battle Room Games scoreboard flash Game Over, and Bonzo Madrid’s Salamander Army remains on top. Aware of the lingering Launchie, Bonzo tells Ender to keep his eyes on the floor and sends him to face a wall with a lone kid in a Salamander uniform.
July takes us to the Battle Room staging area with Ender and Petra.
Though the Salamander Army leader, Bonzo Madrid, has forbidden Ender (Asa Butterfield) to unholster his weapon for fear the inexperienced Launchie will screw up his platoon’s perfect maneuvers, Petra Arkanian (Hailee Steinfeld) takes Ender under her wing and practices with him in the Battle Room during her free time.
Below that is the formation image of Dragon Army.
In forty-two battles nobody has beaten Ender’s Dragon Army, a platoon of misfits and oddballs. Graff, pressured by Command School for a decision to promote the brilliant strategist, doubles the enemy for the next maneuvers in the Battle Room. Whichever side gets a cadet through the enemy’s gate unharmed will win, regardless of points scored. In a stroke of tactical genius, Ender stacks multiple rows of cadets in formation.
August brings a confrontation between Ender and Graff and Anderson. This still was shown at the Ender’s Game Experience.
Ender (Asa Butterfield) confronts Colonel Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) for pitting him against his fellow Launchies on the shuttle ride to Battle School. Major Anderson (Viola Davis) is amused, but resists a desire to challenge her superior’s tactics with his young protege.
On the calendar page is Bean emerging from the shuttle.
Arriving at Battle School orbiting high above Earth, Bean (Aramis Knight) disembarks the Desert Salt Flats shuttle through the docking airlock, and hears a voice over the loudspeaker instructing Launchies (new arrivals) to follow the yellow lights.
September brings a new image we haven’t seen before of Mazer and Ender on Eros.
Above the viewing station high above the Battle Simulation Room of the International Fleet’s forward outpost, Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) sharply reminds Ender (Asa Butterfield) that the Formics’ very existence is a threat. Mazer Rackham (Sir Ben Kingsley) leads Ender down a long walkway deep in the reclaimed caves of Eros to a command console that looks out over giant holographic projectors bolted to the roof and row upon row of flight simulator pods.
On the calendar page, we see a diagram of a Formic.
Here’s another new image of Ender on Eros. I had to piece this one together so you might see some color differences.
Ender (Asa Butterfield) leads the attack on the Formics from the deck of the Command School.
This month’s page shows the image of Anderson looking at the scan of a head and as I’d suspected, she’s looking at Bonzo.
Major Anderson (Viola Davis) studies an X-ray that shows the fracture that Bonzo Madrid suffered in a fight with Ender. Back in his office, as Graff justifies training children to win the war, Anderson realizes there is no place for her in the school and announces her resignation.
Whoa! Right after I read that I felt spoiled, ugh!
November brings us to that outside image with two figures standing in the sunlight.
Certain the Formics were simply preparing to defend themselves, Ender (Asa Butterfield) awakes from a dream and runs down a low corridor with Petra racing close behind. She follows him through an airlock chamber leading out across the ravaged surface of Eros, and they stumble to a stop in front of two fallen Formic spires.
The calendar page here features one of Ender commanding ships that we’ve seen in the trailer.
The simulator blinks on and Ender (Asa Butterfield) sees the little doctor and its squadron of fighters moving silently through space. He zooms in on the red glow of the Formic home planet and despairs to see hundreds of motherships looming above him. Bean looks up and reminds Ender that the enemy’s gate is down, snapping him out of the reverie, and with a sweeping gesture he reorients the simulation so that Ender and his team now loom over the enemy.
Woohoo! Sounds like Bean’s line made it in! *celebrations*
December is the last month and features an image of Petra looking through her screen, as seen in the trailer.
After unleashing the Little Doctor on the swarm of Formic fighters at Ender’s command, Petra watches as a wave of destruction radiates outward from the point of impact.
The final photo is from the lake scene with Valentine. I couldn’t crop this one well, so I cut out the calendar part.
A homemade raft is tethered at the end of a wooden jetty at the International Fleet’s Veterans Retreat, a remote lakeside wilderness where Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield) greets his beloved sister, Valentine (Abigail Breslin).
Still no Peter Wiggin!
The calendar is pretty awesome and you can currently buy it from Amazon for $13.49. Glossy and full of Ender goodness, it’s totally worth the price. It really makes me anxious to see the making-of book now! It doesn’t seem to be available on Barnes & Noble anymore, but the last I heard from a local store was that they were expecting to get some in. The MSRP is $14.99.