Ender’s Game

The new trailer for “Ender’s Game” received a prominent rollout online Tuesday afternoon, with director Gavin Hood (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”), producer Robert Orci and star Asa Butterfield participating in a Google+ hangout that coincided with the premiere of the promotional spot for the sci-fi adventure adapted from the novel by Orson Scott Card. Set in a near future in which an alien race known as the Formics have attacked Earth, the movie stars Butterfield as Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, a bright boy who’s recruited to help humanity face future threats. Guided in his growth by Colonel Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford), Ender advances from Battle School to Command School and soon finds himself under the tutelage of the legendary Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley, the Oscar-winning actor who’s getting a lot of screen time in fantastic films these days). “They know our strategies. […]

The Hollywood hype machine is kicking into gear for “Ender’s Game,” the upcoming film adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s bestselling sci-fi novel. The first “Ender’s Game” trailer premieres Tuesday at 1 p.m. PDT, but a teaser offers a brief glimpse to whet fans’ appetites. Asa Butterfield, who plays protagonist Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, and Harrison Ford, who plays Col. Hyrum Graff, introduce the footage in the YouTube teaser released Friday. What follows is about 10 seconds of footage, including what appears to be a scene from the battle room, where young Battle School pupils train for war against an alien threat. “You’ll be the finest commander we’ve ever trained,” Graff tells Ender in the footage. Also featured is “Iron Man 3″ star Ben Kingsley as war hero Mazer Rackham, whose face is covered in tattoos — a departure from the book. […]

“Ender’s Game” won’t hit theaters until Nov. 1, but Summit Entertainment has just released new imagery from the movie. On Wednesday, Summit sent out a new round of images:  A new still from the film features Asa Butterfield, who plays the film’s shy but brilliant hero Ender Wiggin, dressed in the gray uniform of the Battle School. He appears to be chatting cheerfully with his peers in the mess hall while a high-tech glowing scoreboard hovers over the scene. The company also sent the four army logos from the Battle School — Dragon, Salamander, Rat and Asp. (Click through the gallery to see those.) This is not the first still from “Ender’s Game” that Summit has released. An  image of Harrison Ford, who plays Col. Hyrum Graff , addressing Butterfield in a futuristic barracks has already been floating around the Internet. […]

At 24 Frames, our sister blog, there’s a stirring of news about the long-sought Hollywood adaptation of “Ender’s Game.“… Fans of Orson Scott Card and his seminal science-fiction work “Ender’s Game” were despondent last year when the author revealed that he thought the movie could be hitting the rocks. But the project about a boy hero is now back in active development, sources say, as independent production company Odd Lot Entertainment pushes forward on a movie version of the Hugo and Nebula award-winning novel. Most interesting, sources  say, there’s now a big-name filmmaker involved with the project: Gavin Hood, who directed the Oscar-winning “Tsotsi” and last year’s comic book franchise “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” Hood has done a rewrite of Card’s most recent script and is developing the project as a director. That level of involvement doesn’t mean a filmmaker will wind […]