
The 'Unfilmable' Ender's Game’s 28 Years in Development Hell - danso
http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/91066/endgame-the-unfilmable-enders-games-28-years-in-development-hell
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mmuro
At the end of the audiobook, Card talks at length about the difficulties
getting an Ender's Game movie made.

One problem was that the studios always wanted to make Ender an older teenager
and to give him a love interest.

Another was that the screenplay was always challenging because most of the
book takes place inside Ender's head. Once he figured out that he could tell
Ender's thought processes through Bean, it finally opened up the screenplay.

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arethuza
Ok - now that we've had _Ender 's Game_ made into a pretty decent movie can we
get _Use of Weapons_? :-)

[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/11/sci_fi_poll/](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/11/sci_fi_poll/)

~~~
yoshokatana
I would throw money at anyone who made a Culture movie (as ironic as that
action would be).

Also, what about a Vorkosigan movie? Though I think it'd actually work pretty
well as a TV show, with either hour-long episodes (one per book) or even with
2-4 shorter episodes per book.

~~~
arethuza
The scene where Zakalwe visits the Ethnarch Kerian could make a splendid "cold
open" introducing the Culture and Zakalwe in a suitably dark fashion....

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theorique
Remarkable book.

I remember coming across the book as a teenager, having vaguely heard of it as
'good', and then staying up until 5 AM reading it.

I can think of no more than a couple other books that had this effect on me.

~~~
mathattack
It's definitely a 1-sitting book. Don't pick it up if you have any
responsibilities the next day.

~~~
jazzyb
Wow. How true. I started reading this book in college one night right before
bed (~8 or 9). I finished it at 4am.

I had no idea this book had a similar effect on others.

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meunier
I strongly encourage everyone to abstain from buying the book or seeing the
movie. You're lining Orson Scott Card's bigoted pockets to oppress sexual
minorities.

~~~
anatoly
People like you are far more dangerous, in our times, than Orson Scott Card
could ever be.

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mikeash
Asking people not to contribute money to bigots is dangerous? What?

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talmand
Well, in this case I can't speak of it being dangerous, but it can be a bad
precedent and have unintended consequences.

Let's just go with the notion that Card is expressing his opinion on the
matter. He has a right to this opinion, whether you agree with it or even if
you consider it right or wrong.

But anytime someone is allowed to shut down an opposing viewpoint it will
eventually lead to problems. Once someone has the ability to shut down one
opposing viewpoint they disagree with, then they will have the power to shut
down any viewpoint they disagree with. Possibly even shutting down a viewpoint
they think is of the opposition when it's likely it's not, such as a
misunderstanding or being inarticulate.

The difference being, a person actually has to commit actions against another
human being to for a reaction need to take place. If someone says he doesn't
like gays, fine, let the guy state his outdated rant and get on with your day.
The moment the guy actually discriminates or commits an illegal act, then do
something.

As for consequences, this movie is an excellent example. If you boycott the
movie because of your disagreement with Card, then you are hurting far more
people then you will ever hurt Card. Another example, the Chik-Fil-A boycott a
while back. That hurt local businesses run by local owners who employ local
people far more than the dude at the top that still got paid no matter how
much chicken you refused to eat.

If anyone has the generic "you seem to defend what I don't like so I dislike
you" reaction to this post, you are practically proving my point.

~~~
mikeash
I don't understand. Card has the right to express his opinion but I don't have
the right to express mine?

Deciding not to pay for a product is somehow dangerous? Expressing my opinion
to other people and asking them to do the same is dangerous?

If Card is allowed to say hateful things, then I'm allowed to tell people
about it and recommend that they not give him money. It is not logically
possible for you to accept the former without also accepting the latter.

~~~
anatoly
Are you being willfully obtuse, or deliberately misleading? No one said you
weren't _allowed_ to express your opinion, recommend anything you want, that
you _didn't have the right_ to say what you want, etc. Why do you pretend that
anyone did?

~~~
mikeash
The original comment up there said, "People like you are far more dangerous,
in our times, than Orson Scott Card could ever be." Just because they said
maybe you shouldn't give your money to Mr. Card. No, they didn't come out and
say we weren't allowed to say it, but they did call it "dangerous".

~~~
talmand
You're deflecting. This discussion is about your response to my post. If you
were referring to the original comment without regarding what I was saying,
then you should have replied to the original comment and not mine.

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deletes
If you haven't read the book first, DO SO, it is worth it.

~~~
nodata
I don't agree. I think if I'd read the book as a teenager, I would have loved
it. As an adult reading the book for the first time, it's nothing special.

~~~
moron4hire
It is something special, though. If you read it, you realize where the Bush
Administration's foreign policy came from. And by extension, the Obama
Administration's foreign policy.

I likewise did not enjoy the book as an adult reader. I thought it was far to
apologetic for ultraviolent, genocidal overreactions to be considered healthy
reading for teenagers. The end of the book is not "genocide is bad". It's
"isn't is a shame that poor Ender had to be tricked into committing genocide?"
It's not that "governments shouldn't be given the sort of power capable of
genocide", it's that "you can get away with it scott-free if your intentions
were good."

Also, the whole "they hate me because I'm the best" wore really thin on me.
It's just not a thing you see amongst real kids. In fact, being good at things
is a good way to get other kids to like you. The kids didn't like Ender
because he was a self-righteous prick, a spoil-sport punk with a Napoleon
complex.

The dialog also sucked. Grade A shitty dialog. As a teenager, you might be
intrigued by the idea of alternative slang (and that is probably why Buffy the
Vampire Slayer was so popular, and by extension why Joss Whedon has such a
following now, but can't seem to follow it up). But as an adult, it is really
annoying.

~~~
westicle
For those who haven't read the book, you might consider editing out your
second paragraph, or at least adding spoiler tags.

~~~
moron4hire
For a book that is nearly 30 years old? SPOILERS: King Kong dies at the end
and the Titanic sinks at the end.

~~~
talmand
I agree, because new generations never watch old movies or read old books for
the first time.

~~~
moron4hire
There is more to a book than the end. Just because you know what happens in
general doesn't mean you can't enjoy reading the book at all. Why do people
re-read books? Why do people watch movies based on books, or go back and read
the book after they've seen the movie?

I'm not going to destroy my prose with legalistic gerrymandering just because
you're too emotionally underdeveloped to enjoy a story after knowing details
about it.

~~~
talmand
Wow, defensive much? By your logic you should be fine with reading a book
backwards. That may be your bag but not everyone would agree.

I reread and rewatch stuff all the time. That doesn't mean I want to know how
the story ends the very first time I'm exposed to it.

I think you're too emotionally underdeveloped to realize I didn't ask you to
destroy your prose with legalistic gerrymandering in the first place.

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Pxtl
You'd think the success of the Harry Potter franchise would've gotten that
project fast-tracked. Kids love the story of a poor downbeaten kid turning out
to be The Chosen One.

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danso
Reading this article made me impulsively buy the book again, except this time
for Kindle (hard to pass up for $4). I think the last time I read it was as a
young adult. Reading it now, it's still as gripping, but I wonder how much of
our ageism - particularly in the tech industry - has to do with reading young-
adult books not only in which the hero is very young, but that the ability to
be "The One" is detected at an early age and in which anyone even in their
teens is already past their prime (same goes for Star Wars)?

I say "tech industry" because many of us grew up loving sci-fi books more than
the average kid. It's no fault of the authors, because of course to be
appealing to young adults, the young adults have to be the saviors.

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baldfat
You NEED to read the "Shadow of Ender." It is the retelling of the whole story
but through the eyes of a different character EXTREMELY well done.

~~~
timdiggerm
Ender's Shadow, I think you mean

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VaedaStrike
Read the man's actual quotes in context prior to judging the man.

[http://www.hatrack.com/misc/Quotes_in_Context.shtml](http://www.hatrack.com/misc/Quotes_in_Context.shtml)

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zequel
Reminds me of the movie Watchmen, they said that was unfilmable as well. It
was probably a tougher screenplay to write imo.

e: grammar

~~~
Pxtl
... I think the movie that came out of Watchmen is pretty much proof of the
conjecture that it was unfilmable. The director tried very hard to be faithful
to the original - the changes were minor (some added ultra-violent fight
scenes, and changing the nature of the SQUID) but the film that came out just
wasn't very good. Some of the cast chewed the scenery a bit harder than was
strictly necessary, but no film is going to have _perfect_ acting. And yet
somehow it just was such a mess. A shame, since I loved Moore's book.

Watchmen is a book that's designed to be read over and over and your own pace,
with more to notice each time through. I think everybody skims the Black
Freighter stuff the first time. Comics are so short that a good re-reading
experience is prettymuch intrinsic to separating a decent comic from an
excellent one. That doesn't really translate to film, since all the details
and layers of the story just make the movie feel too dense.

~~~
talmand
Although I respect your opinion, I highly disagree. In fact, many of your
problems with the film are some of the things I actually liked about it.

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Pxtl
You misunderstand my point. I'm saying that the actual specific divergencies
and problems with the film that fans of the book can easily spot - the music,
the small plot changes, and the acting - those aren't big problems. They're
small problems that are easy to get past.

But as a whole, the movie is a mess even though there's nothing you can put
your finger on as "see here? _this_ is where they ruined Moore's vision!".

That's what I mean. The movie is a great and faithful attempt, but it still
had a weak outcome. The book is unfilmable.

~~~
talmand
Sorry, still disagree. I find the book quite filmable because I say it's
already been done. It seems to me you say it cannot be done because you
already have what you want, the original book.

