Ender's Game
Short description
Set in a future where Earth has survived alien attacks, Ender's Game follows Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, a gifted child recruited by an international military program that trains exceptional young people to become the commanders who might defend the planet against the next invasion. Colonel Hyrum Graff oversees the effort, seeking a successor to Mazer Rackham, the commander whose leadership saved humanity before. Ender is shy but brilliant, and his talent for tactics sets him apart from the other cadets as he advances through the program.
Gavin Hood directed and wrote the screenplay, adapting Orson Scott Card's novel. The film came fourth in Hood's directing career, after Tsotsi, Rendition and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and before Eye in the Sky and Official Secrets. Asa Butterfield plays Ender, with Harrison Ford as Graff and Viola Davis as Major Gwen Anderson. Ben Kingsley appears as Mazer Rackham, while Hailee Steinfeld and Abigail Breslin are among the supporting cast.
The production had a budget of 110 million US dollars and returned about 126 million worldwide, a modest result against its cost. On IMDb it holds 6.6 out of 10 from roughly 264,000 votes, and on TMDB it also scores 6.6, from far fewer votes. A critics' rating of 6.1 from 224 reviews puts it close to, and slightly below, those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- To achieve the effect of weightlessness in the battle simulation room, two rigs were devised. The first was a 'freezing hand' which was used as a counterweight and provided a full range of motion. The second was a 'human crane.' Essentially, it is similar to the first rig, but uses air bearings to create the sensation of floating in the air.
- Digital Domain, which handled the special effects for this film, previously made a demo reel demonstrating the battle simulation room, which allowed producers to attract the necessary investment for the film without significant difficulty.
- Each of the laser fire shelters for the opposing team in the battle simulation scenes weighed almost 6000 kg.
- The room shown in the film for battle simulations spans the diameter of three football fields.
- The city depicted on the propaganda posters is Hong Kong.
- Filming took place at the NASA complex in New Orleans, Louisiana.
- Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, and several other actors who played cadets at the military school attended a space camp prior to filming to prepare for shooting the zero-gravity scenes.
- Since the book's publication in 1985, Orson Scott Card received numerous offers from Hollywood studios to adapt it into a film, but he consistently refused them to preserve the integrity of his vision for the story. When Card co-founded Fresco Pictures in 1996, he decided to write the screenplay himself, as well as become its producer.
- Some props for the film were created using 3D printers, including the model of Mazer Rackham's ship, which can be seen in Ender's living quarters.
- The film is based on Orson Scott Card's novel "Ender's Game" (1985).
- In the early 2000s, Jake Lloyd was one of the main contenders for the role of Ender. Coincidentally, at the same time Lloyd starred in an advertising campaign to promote the library, and he was depicted reading the book 'Ender's Game'.
- In May 2013, a group of LGBT supporters launched a campaign against the film due to the opinions and actions expressed by the novel's author, Orson Scott Card, who is also a producer of the film. The studio and several people directly involved in the film's creation, including Card himself, later released a statement on the matter. Everyone except Card himself stated that they did not support Card's views and urged people to see the film regardless.
- The film's producers consulted with Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, on the technology of future space shuttles depicted in the film.
- To perform acrobatic exercises on the rope independently, the actors trained with Cirque du Soleil performers for a month.
- The book "Ender's Game" is on the list of recommended literature for officers within the United States Marine Corps, with a note that the book contains "lessons on training methodology, leadership, and ethics."
- The film contains veiled references to the work of Stanley Kubrick. For example, the part of the ship where artificial gravity is maintained, in terms of shape and principle of rotation, resembles the ship from the film '2001: A Space Odyssey' (1968). Also, in the scene with the formation of new recruits arriving at the center, the layout of the barracks and the principle of the dialogue with Sergeant Depa are similar, and sometimes coincide, with the scene of the recruits' reception by Sergeant Hartman from the film 'Full Metal Jacket' (1987).
- Work on various screenplays for "Ender's Game" had been underway since approximately the early 2000s. The latest version of the screenplay, written by the novel's author himself, was completed in early 2009.
- Director Gavin Hood first read the book 'Ender's Game' at a relatively mature age. By that time, he had already served in the army after being drafted at the age of 17.
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