Fans have been clamoring for a big screen adaptation for Ender’s Game for years and years. It hit a sort of fever pitch in 2003 when Orson Scott Card sold a screenplay to Warner Bros. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (currently kicking ass with Game of Thrones on HBO) did a rewrite, Wolfgang Petersen was attached to direct, all seemed awesome, and then…nothing. Petersen left, Card was angry at Hollywood’s changes to it, and took the package to Odd Lot Entertainment.
Odd Lot put it in the hands of Gavin Hood, Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman. They have a screenplay (written by Hood) they’ve been shopping around since September 2010. No studio has bit. Until now.
According to Deadline, Summit has aquired the package and will be co-financing and distributing it. They desperately need another franchise now that Twilight is due to wrap up, and ideally something that would appeal to a wider audience. Ender’s Game is certainly that.
I’ve always thought Game was adaptable, if someone has the guts to cast an 11 year old as the commander of a fleet, and as someone with a dark and frightening knack for violence. It’s a tricky, tricky property that’s been criticized in the past. It’s hard to imagine this making it to the big screen without being neutered, but maybe The Hunger Games is carving a new path for youth oriented violence.
I’m also dubious about Hood’s involvement, though Wolverine was a micromanaged Fox movie…and Kurtzman and Orci have shown their way around space opera…but still. Perhaps it’s best not to get too excited.