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!)