down is the enemy's gate

[kaydeefalls]

I missed this completely: they're actually making a movie of Ender's Game.

Looks like an interesting cast. I can't blame them for aging all the kids up -- hard to film such a brutal movie with a cast of six-year-olds. I really like that they've genderbent Sgt. Anderson -- the novel is SO FUCKING MALE (with the notable exceptions of Petra, queen of my heart, and Valentine). And casting Ben Kingsley as Mazer Rackham is fucking perfect. Harrison Ford works for me as Graff. The kids all look good so far -- I'm glad they maintained the ethnic mix of the book. And it's coming out next fall? Cool beans.

I have a complicated relationship with the books these days -- I LOVED Ender's Game when I was in high school, though the rest of Ender's arc didn't really grab me, and I quite liked the spinoff series about Bean (as a teenager/college student, the geopolitical scene back on Earth was vastly more interesting to me than Ender's philosophic alien worlds; I haven't reread them in years, though, and the later Ender books might appeal more to me now). And, of course, now that I know more about Orson Scott Card's appalling social views, it's hard for me to separate author from work -- you can definitely see the influence of his personal beliefs seeded throughout the novels, particularly the later ones. But Ender's Game is still a cracking good story, one of the formative texts of my teen years, and I'll be interested to see how the film handles it. And if it's a shitshow, I've got enough distance from the books now that it won't bother me so much.

Comments

[zulu]

That's really cool! Thank you for the link. I loved Ender's Game before I knew much about Card, so it is still relatively untarnished in my mind. I'd love to see how they're going to do the battleroom.

[kaydeefalls]

Seriously, the Battle Room! It's hard for me to visualize even when I'm reading it -- the zero-G battles should be super interesting to watch.

[sophinisba]

Oh that's exciting, thanks for passing on the news!

[kaydeefalls]

Sure thing! :D

[fiercynn]

It's funny, I actually reread Ender's Game a few weeks ago before I even knew there was a movie in the works, so I've been thinking a lot about it anyway. I was especially obsessed with it in elementary and early middle school, but it sounds like I had a pretty similar relationship to you with the whole series - I read Speaker for the Dead and didn't particularly like it so I stopped with the series, but then went back and read Ender's Shadow when it came out. I never continued with the other Bean books, though - would you recommend them?

Anyway, similar thoughts and feelings of inner conflict about OSC too, now, but I have to say I'm still excited about the prospect of the movie! Especially Asa Butterfield, hee. I love that kid.

[kaydeefalls]

The Bean books...okay, let's put it this way. The geopolitical stuff is fascinating, and it's wonderful to see how the Battle School kids grow up and find their places back on Earth. And Bean and Petra will always be my favorites, so the focus on the two of them (and Peter, who also does a lot of growing up and becomes a decent human being somewhere along the way, which I also like) is great. On the minus side, Card's personal social views definitely become more apparent as the series progresses, which I found very off-putting in the last book in particular -- it's frustrating, because the story he's telling is still pretty damn good, but then...well, it's hard to describe without getting very specific about certain characters, but yeah. I still enjoyed the series despite it?

Definitely looking forward to the movie. "Ender's Game" is still the strongest book and storyline as a stand-alone.