ROTTEN TOMATOES: Wolfgang Petersen Still on Enders Game and Two More Sci-fi Projects

Wolfgang Petersen Still on Enders Game and Two More Sci-fi Projects

The Grays, Uprising in the works.

by Fred Topel | October 03, 2007

With Hollywood adapting children's books no one's ever heard of to cash in on the fantasy craze, one classic still struggles in Hollywood. Ender's Game is Orson Scott Card's sci-fi tale of children trained in battle school to fight off an alien race in the future. Director Wolfgang Petersen is still holding out hope that he'll crack that script.

"I just had a meeting again with Orson Scott Card and we're hanging in there," said Petersen. "We are hanging in there and we will do that."

Petersen may be determined to do a science fiction movie, as he has two others in development simultaneously. "I'm at the moment developing three science fiction films. Two for Columbia: The Grays is one, based on Whitley Strieber's book. The other one is called Uprising. The other one is Ender's Game. We're still working on Ender's Game. It's a very, very tricky adaptation and not easy but a fascinating concept. I think at some point, I will do Ender's Game."

The filmmaker will also step up the technological processes for his upcoming genre projects. "I like what we might be able to do in the future with 3D. I'm very excited about that. For example, in one of the sci-fi films I develop, I have a special section in the film that has to do with transmitting of images from an alien to a human. I will only do those, and they are quite often in the film, only those in 3D and keep the whole film as 2D so you start using 3D as a creative tool. Not only as an overall gimmick or let's show this film in 3D, but you express with the fact that all of a sudden you open up as if you're looking into somebody's mind and you are drawn into it. Then when it's over, go back into the 2D world that you used to be."

Related Items

Movie:	Ender's Game
Celeb:	Orson Scott Card
	Wolfgang Petersen
	Whitley Strieber

(1-20 of 25 posts) | Reply

cabezone writes:
on Oct 03 2007 02:18 PM

It'll be tough to find enough quality child actors to properly tackle Ender's Game. It has a very Lord of the Flies feel to it, nothing like Harry Potter.

(Reply to this)

witherwings writes:
on Oct 03 2007 02:38 PM

Exactly, more like Lord of the Flies than Potter.

As far as I'm concerned, they can take their time with Ender. I want it to be the best movie possible. That book is in my top five favorites. Brilliance.

(Reply to this)

renodc writes:
on Oct 03 2007 03:41 PM

I'm glad their not rushing the project, and Card being involved in the creative process is a bonus. Hopefully, he's very involved.

(Reply to this)

Jexy writes:
on Oct 03 2007 03:57 PM

Ender's Game is my favorite book of all time. I really hope they take their time with it.

(Reply to this)

Segkee writes:
on Oct 03 2007 04:13 PM

Benioff wrote a draft, but I think Card is writing the current script... they're combining the first two books in the Ender series... I think.

They're having problems because this isn't a "kids" movie, there's enough for three movies in the first book, and it's R rated fo' sho.

A true adaptation would be quiet and contained. Scott's ALIEN. Ender would be locked in the battle school. We'll see no buggers, we won't deal with bro and sis becoming political phenoms on earth. We only deal with the politics and psychological horror of war.

But I bet this looks like STAR WARS meets HARRY in the end.

(Reply to this)

witherwings writes:
on Oct 03 2007 04:27 PM

How would they combine books? Two different situations. The themes don't even gel. Hope that's not the case, and somehow I don't think it is.

This should be a quiet movie. First person. If Card is involved... I know it'll be perfect.

(Reply to this)

Daniel Aaron writes:
on Oct 03 2007 04:33 PM

I think it's a great book great story but can use a little life. Mabey some zing,ya know? Im thinking...instead of Lord of The Flies...why not take the Annie aproach or...mabey even "newsboys" and as far as im concerned let's get it into production as soon as possable make sure the kids are cuite we need marketable aliens and lets Mc Donalds and Burger King on board highest bidder gets the toy tie in and possable product placement....im thinking.....the kids favorite food or somthing ..plenty of room to roam here lot's of close up shots of french fries being eatin will give the box a 65% exposure in the shot just so the audiance gets a good feel for who's fries our little soldgers engoy the most....mabey a dance number...rember Mac and Me wasn't that bad of a film,infact i feel it was well put together and extremely underated....it was before it's time..., and i think if we play our cards right the time has finnally come agian we need this to happen ..America needs this to happen..let's get on the phone people im also thinking a possable Big Mac tie in for the adults do to slumping sales..at least that's what i was told when we were going over the my little pony spec's but hey Ponies and Big Mac's..nothing there.... strictley a "Happy Meal" affair anyhoot will some one get me a copy of the book mabey some cliff notes on it i figure you we can rip out some major plot pionts get a name or two package it up and have it ready by summer 09 ..mabey 8 if where quick about it. :) just joking....but preparing fans for the 86% chance of that being reality.

(Reply to this)

Xhrix writes:
on Oct 03 2007 04:34 PM

Ender's Game should be motion capture animation. I can't imagine ever finding suitable child actors who could portray characters such as Ender or Bean.

(Reply to this)

Daniel Aaron writes:
on Oct 03 2007 04:38 PM

p.s forgive the typo's it was speed type off the top of my head

(Reply to this)

Segkee writes:
on Oct 03 2007 04:48 PM

P.S. They're not combining GAME with SPEAKER. They're combining GAME with SHADOW. It makes sense. They can spin Bean off into a SPACE WARS trilogy and have the SPEAKER series as back up.

(Reply to this)

Mazula writes:
on Oct 03 2007 05:09 PM

Yes, itll be "Game" and "Shadow." I'm really looking forward to this. The books are definitely some of my favorite too. except I thought Shadow was better. Besides this though, that other movie with the 3D implementation sounds pretty awesome. although wearing 3D glasses for the whole movie when most of it is only 2D would be pretty annoying.

(Reply to this)

Shompy writes:
on Oct 03 2007 05:55 PM

could never get through ender's game... should i give it another shot before the movie or is it as dull as i remember it?

(Reply to this)

witherwings writes:
on Oct 03 2007 06:30 PM

In reply to this comment (#1167383)
I loved that book from the first five pages. Maybe it's not your thing. It does have a pretty sweet ending though. It sort of gets redundant in the middle, so if that's where you lost it, I'd pick it back up.

(Reply to this)

Segkee writes:
on Oct 03 2007 07:02 PM

Yeah, the ending made me cry. I haven't cried since Benji died... did Benji die? Either way, I cried. Great ending. It's one of those endings that changes the context of what came before it. If that makes sense.

(Reply to this)

CometCowboy writes:
on Oct 03 2007 08:41 PM

NOOOOOOOOO! Am I the only one opposed to Peterson making Ender's Game?! The book is one of my favorites, Peterson is not on the list of favorite directors, so I'm worried. (OK, I need to take a breather).

(Reply to this)

CometCowboy writes:
on Oct 03 2007 08:42 PM

NOOOOOOOOO! Am I the only one opposed to Peterson making Ender's Game?! The book is one of my favorites, Peterson is not on the list of favorite directors, so I'm worried. (OK, I need to take a breather).

(Reply to this)

DIABLUSX writes:
on Oct 04 2007 02:22 AM

If Enders Game is done right they can try to make Enders Shadow. It would be like watching Clint Eastwood two movies about Iwo Jima since both take place on the station and are about the same war.

(Reply to this)

Elixor writes:
on Oct 04 2007 05:17 AM

I wouldn't worry too much about Peterson directing. The guy has done some good Sci-Fi with Neverending Story and Enemy Mind. Neverending Story is really well done, especially for when it was made.

(Reply to this)

Elixor writes:
on Oct 04 2007 05:19 AM

With that said, I don't admire anybody that is going to try to bring Ender's Game to the big screen. It's an excellent book, but it's really going to be hard to get believable child actors to pull this off. They'd be better off doing this as an animated movie.

(Reply to this)

witherwings writes:
on Oct 04 2007 08:33 AM

I don't know about it being hard for actors. If they all underplay the parts, I think it'll work. It won't be great, but it'll work. The dialogue itself really carries character, obviously. For instance, I see Ender as being very quiet with expressive eyes. And Bean has a smirk, perhaps. Good child actors can do that. They just need to play it cool.

(Reply to this)

Related Links

Wolfgang Petersen 3-Pack

Related Articles

Most Discussed

Latest News

Latest Interviews

Latest Features

Sponsored Links