21 March 2005 Monday

Ender's Game the movie

it seems the Ender’s Game movie possibility continues…

Troy? really? i did not consider that a bad movie, but.. hardly a model for Ender’s Game. in many ways, X-Men 2 would have been a far better model. actually, they should be talking to the people who so very meticulously fashion the Harry Potter movies that almost (or do) overcredit the original books themselves.

Says Card, “Mr. Benioff proved with Troy that he could adapt a long work to fit the brevity of film, while preserving what is most powerful and effective in the original.”

i don’t want “brevity”! break the first book up into two or three parts! and make each movie three hours long if necessary — probably necessary! please, please do justice to this story. and the other books would be worth doing too — if they do it well. and if they do a Shadow movie/series to parallel the original Ender’s Game movie/series… how awesome would that be? if they invest the attention and care (and money) into it, this really could become an epic like Star Wars. i really do believe that. but i am nearly convinced (though i’ll gladly be shown wrong) that they will not do the story its deserved credit.

Any film of Ender’s Game will be heavily dependent on special effects, says Card, “but it’s the characters that the audience must care about for the film to succeed.”

Are they going to up the ages of child characters? make them 9 instead of 6? Haley Joel Osment is too old to play Ender now… what other actors of such youth could properly do it?

well, i’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with (if the whole thing goes through), and i’m hoping hoping hoping to be pleasantly surprised. meanwhile, i’m definitely enjoying the latest book, Shadow of the Giant.