Article by Merwyn.
In September 2010, 24 Frame, a blog by the Los Angeles Times, reported that Gavin Hood, director of X-men Origins: Wolverine, was expressed interest in developing a screen adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s award winning novel Ender’s Game. Prior to that, the film was going to be adapted by Wolfgang Peterson (The Perfect Storm). According to the blog, Gavin Hood had been working on a rewrite of a screenplay which Orson Scott Card himself had originally completed for Peterson. Since then we have heard literally nothing about the project.
Now it seems that Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are attached to the project as producers. Kurtzman and Orci, whose credits include Eagle Eye, Fringe, The Proposal and Star Trek, have said that they loved Hood’s screenplay, and would be “taking it to town”. While there is still no studio attached to this film and no cast lined up for it yet, it remains prudent that a screen adaptation is still likely. This however does not entirely sit well with many fans of the novel, including myself. And though an animated version might sound plausible, I am personally skeptical as to whether Gavin Hood will be able to pull of a project as ambitious such as this.
Though it’s not an uncommon trend, it seems however that over the past decade, we’ve seen an increasing number of award winning novels being adapted for the screen, City of Ember, Harry Potter series, The Road. Adding to the long list of books that are awaiting the same fate, the decision to turn one of science-fictions most elaborate and outstanding novels into a film, begs me to ask the question: WHY???
While I have yet to see all of Gavin Hood’s films, X-Men Origins: Wolverine was not one of the greatest films in that year. Some might argue that my opinion is here invalid because of that. That’s okay, I don’t give a shit if you think that. Despite studio interference, Wolverine could still have proven to be great fun but it way destroyed because of a lack of competence from the filmmakers and a poorly written script .
Getting back to Ender’s Game, the first problem that comes to mind is the sheer scale of the project. Ender’s Game is the exciting science fiction novel that tells the story of young Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, who has been chosen amongst a select group of people to attend Battle School, to be trained as military leaders in the war against an alien insects referred to as buggers. The novel takes readers from his invitation to Battle School right up till his final exam at Command School.
Through a series of challenges or “games”, Ender slowly progresses through the ranks, gaining recognition by some of his superiors while being isolated from some of his peers. The “game” that takes place in the novel is essentially a gladiator type event where two squads face one against one another in a simulated space battle. Squads or teams are taught and challenged in the art of strategic warfare and must be able to work with another another, navigating their way through a series of obstacles in a space roughly the size of a football field. The obstacles, which are called “stars”, are sort of these cubic objects meant to simulate celestial bodies and often cadets find themselves bumping into one another.
The thing about these battle rooms is that there are several of these battle-rooms attached to the station. If a battle-room is occupied, teams wishing to practice wait outside for several minutes while the next battle-room changes and though it’s never quite clear how exactly it works, the fact that the battle-room is only one of the locations from the book in the space complex, already lends itself to a logistical challenge. Add that to the fact that a lot of it will most likely be in cg and you can already see the huge task ahead.
This brings up another interesting question and that is finding the right talent to play the titular role of Ender Wiggin. It’s difficult enough to find a young actor with the time and skills to commit to a major project but where the majority of your cast consists of 8 year olds where the lead has the mindset and intellect of a veteran soldier, the chances of finding that talent is slim. Kids grow fast and time is probably one of the biggest obstacles when confronting such a huge project. Another contributing factor is that the character of Ender is one of the darkest and enriching characters that I’ve read so far. Harry Potter’s got nothing on this kid. Ender is often subjected to arguments and fights which stems from his relationship with his older brother Peter.
The International Fleet has also attempted to isolate Ender from the others on board in an attempt to push Ender to conquer them. As a result, Ender often find himself secluded to his room and even his relationship with his fellow team is strained at times. There are several occasions within the novel in which Ender is beaten up. Both at the beginning and at the end and often Ender finds himself unable to control his emotions but it’s that fear of losing, of being teased at so often that propels him forward. In the eyes of his superior, the manipulation and brainwashing that Ender is the price he must pay to the survival of the human race. It’s through the manipulation and the abuse, that Ender becomes the greatest commander in the fleet but also the most feared. Subjecting a young actor to the physical and psychological abuse that Ender went through could be tantamount to being sadistic. The only comfort that Ender finds is through the memories and love of his sister Valentine who essentially is his emotional support.
This brings me to another which includes the several subplots that runs across the novel, one of which include Valentine. Though she and Peter have been separated from Ender, their role in the book is quite clear. They do not appear until quite later in the book but Valentine and Peter become significant in their role as political columnists. Taking on the aliases of Demosthenes and Locke, both Peter and Valentine pose as political rivals and engage in a series of debates attempting to influence the politics on land in order to prevent a major war from breaking out. This subplot appears in a rather abrupt and awkward fashion and while I personally love the interaction between these two characters, it somewhat slows the book down a little and takes me out of that world a little. As the majority of the book in spent with Ender in space, this subplot somewhat has a little sense of place. It all pays off in the end though. However, the point I’m trying to make here is that there are several subplots that run through the course of the book, which are crucial to establishing the universe and the time required to set it up, while having it make sense would most likely cost the film.
Another point I’d like to make is about the characters within the novel. Characters within Ender’s Game appear for several chapters then are either never heard from again or left until the very end. The main enemy, the buggers do not appear until the last few chapters, though they are referenced many times earlier. Everything in the book depends on the build-up to that final exam and while some of the characters may only appear for brief moments of time, they affect our main hero Ender in some way or another. They are pivotal to what’s driving Ender forward and how he sees them. It would be a mundane result should any of those characters be removed and we’ve all experienced it at some point where a film would throw out numerous characters which only appear several times with their purpose never explained. The difference here is that your dealing with an ensemble cast and to keep that cast separated for long periods of time, drags the film down and the impact that those characters have is diminished. Particularly with the villain of the novel. Though the real villain is really Ender himself, having your main opposing force, in this case the buggers, not fully appear at all is a, and excuse the cliche, recipe for disaster.
The problem that I see here is that should this adaptation get made, it would most likely be dumped down to a PG at the least to expand to the kids audience. Toys, merchandising, cartoon shows. These are all cause for concerns when taken on such a huge and popular series. Like the Chronicles of Narnia series, key elements such as the emotional struggle that Ender experiences might become mundane. The material covered in the book is a genuine science-fiction with the dramatic elements of a fast-paced psychological thriller. It’s brutal in it’s ideas on the cost of a young boys life in order to save an entire race. When you have a novel where the weight of the world lies on the shoulder of a young kid, who has spent a great deal of his life in fear of losing control of his emotions, it becomes more important that those psychological elements be brought across. CGI elements the massive cinematic landscapes affect the way the film is perceived. The message sometimes become jaded and misinterpreted or loses its meaning altogether. Audiences would become too easily distracted by the effects and we’ve seen numerous cases of this happening. And there would most likely be a huge amount of CGI required for the battle-room sessions and the final exam. Adding to that the number of futuristic gadgets and equipment used, it might be better off if the novel was left untouched.
To be fair, I could be very wrong with this argument. It could very well turn out decent though I doubt it very much. Though I might still cringe at the thought of an animated adaptation of this novel, it’s still be the only plausible way of adapting this brilliant piece without worrying about the logistics or production cost. Ultimately though, I would still prefer it if I never see a live-action version of Ender’s Game but that’s not up to me to decide. The visuals and the world that Orson Scott Card had established in his award winning book is so rich and exciting in his description and action that I feel should be left up to the individual reader to interpret, that any screen adaptation would do a disservice to the book. The adventures and thrill that you get from reading the novel couldn’t possibly be compared to an adaptation on the big screen. Let this message be clear to Hollywood: NOT every award winning novel needs to be adapted for the screen.
However, these are merely my own subjective thoughts and concerns. What are some of yours? Do you think it could work?
Patricks review of CITY ISLAND
I begin in literature because City Island fails in its writing; and I quote Forster for another reason. As the poster will quickly show you by the ghostly chalk drawn over the figures, these are flat characters parading as round ones; each figure in the picture is reduced to a basic symbol: the envelope, the cigarette, etc. Each figure has their own lie, which they hide beneath their lives, and, importantly, from one another. The film springs off this set up, but where it springs too is all too predictable. None of the characters have what Forster calls a surprising capability. I urge you, try and piece together how a film like this will end. We are too aware that revelation is the only logical answer. Lies will be revealed, shocks will pull open mouths and awful words will fall out; the family will fight, then they will tie a bow around their sweet forgiving smiles. To put this film at a better angle would mean to look on this revelation as catastrophe, not catharsis. Imagine a moment in your own life in which all your secrets and all the others belonging to those in our family pour out into one another’s ears in the space of ten minutes. How could you properly go on living with each other? The dark malevolent underside of your life should properly remain a dark underside. When someone shines a torch on it, all sorts of fears, frustrations and hatred boil up like gremlins’ backs under water. Freud should have had a place in this story, but he didn’t. For all the secrets revealed, it is all too happy.
This is a boiling pot story, one which is pushing toward a zenith we know will happen, and one we also know will turn out in smiles for the protagonists. Andy Garcia, the father of the family, is the only figure who is in the remote country of what we might call the periphery of good characterization. He skirts its edges, and sometimes – mainly due to wonderful acting – he might be allowed access to the pasture of memorable characters. But I hardly think Raymond de Felitta (director) ought be congratulated for his performance. Though the film was carried by Garcia, it was too crowded with other ‘flat’ characters to give him room enough to breathe. I might imagine this film as a television series, and not such a bad one; it is the kind of story which needs more than a feature length to fully unravel and juggle its host of characters with their back stories.
With all the gloom I have lain on this film, its pros’ might seem worthless. And yet, in a few scenes a much better movie is glimpsed, as is often the case. Vince Rizzo’s (Garcia) has a secret passion for acting. Vince’s audition scene, when he tries for a part in a Scorsese film is one of the genuinely engaging scenes of the film has managed to make. It is all Garcia and none of the flat-figure crowd he is often lost in; and it shows what range he has as an actor, jumping from an impression of Brando, an awkward unconfident amateur actor, to a very convincing performance for the judges. As for the other notable scenes, the ones in which the family fight around dinner table, we spy how the characters should have been handled throughout the rest of the film.
Such scenes display the family members at obvious odds with each other, but, of course, none of them are clued into knowing why the others are angry at them. What we have then is a reactionary scene; a scene in which the cause is hidden but the reaction, the effect of the cause, takes place before our eyes and theirs. The cause in this case is the lie they each carry. The effect is the anger, jealously, contempt they each old for one another. But such narrative sparks are short lived. A whole film based on this premise would allow events to take place without any reason obvious to the characters affected by them. The word riding on my tongue here is misconception, as well as that other word favored by readers of Austen, prejudice; the risk of prejudging before one has adequate information. This is hardly a film about lies, as it thinks it is, and more about a family misconceiving each other. Unfortunately, these brief glimmers of a better story within a bad one cannot redeem it from baseness.
Written by Patrick Cronin. ©Damngoodcup 2010
American Release, 19th March 2010.
Australian Release, 27th May 2010.