... any Arthur C. Clarke fans out there? ;-)
Warner Brothers optioned both Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow in order to create a single feature film entitled "Ender's Game." Wolfgang Petersen is attached as director, and Robert Chartoff and Lynn Hendee remain as producers.
Card turned in the author-written script in May 2003. Warner Brothers and the various producers and the director are interviewing established screenwriters for the second draft.
No schedule or casting will be possible until a final script has been written and agreed upon by all parties. Then the director's schedule will be used as the basis for determining the start of shooting. Once the schedule is set, casting will begin. Remember that this film requires many good child actors, and the two most important child roles, Ender and Bean, are also the youngest and smallest. So chances are that the children who end up in these roles will be actors you have not seen in major roles.
Meanwhile, Card and his partners continue to develop other properties for production, including Homebody, The Lost Prince, Dogwalker, Malpractice, Pastwatch, Feed the Baby of Love, Unaccompanied Sonata, and Treason.
Movie Update - November 1, 2002 Ender's Game Director and Studio
Since Ain't It Cool News is carrying the story, we're certainly not going to deny it here. The director of Ender's Game is Wolfgang Petersen. The studio that is developing it is Warner Brothers. OSC is really happy about both.
The upshot is that all are agreed on a fairly detailed outline of a film that combines Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow in a way that will combine the most important elements of both. Together, the stories make one terrific film.
To fans of the book, OSC offers this reminder: "The movie can't show everything from either book, let alone both. So there will almost certainly be scenes and even plot threads that you cared about which are not present in the film. Fortunately, the books still exist, and so readers will be able to experience those scenes for many years in the future.
"The most important thing for the film, though, is that it be a marvelous movie in its own right, whether you've read the books or not. And I can promise you: If the film we settled on in the past few days' meetings is the film that actually gets made, fans of the books will be very, very happy with it - and so will those who go see the movie without ever having read or even heard of the books."
We will not release details of the film story, however. Not ever. Not nohow. All we'll say is this: Ender is the main character. Bean is also very important and will be a point of view character, too. Both Col. Graff and Mazer Rackham will be major adult roles, and major children's roles will definitely include Petra, Alai, and Bonzo. There will, of course, be many other lesser roles for adults and children.
However, nothing whatsoever will be done about casting or hiring until after the script is finished. The film's release will not be scheduled until the script is fully agreed upon AND the director has finished his next film. So it will certainly be at least two years and more likely three, maybe even four years before the film is released.
Be patient. The longer it takes, the better it's going to be. And in the meantime, we'll try to get some firstrate Ender's Game computer games out on the market so that some of you, at least, can get inside the battle room before the movie is released.
For more details on director Wolfgang Petersen, follow one of these links.
http://www.german-way.com/german/petersen.html
http://www.scene360.com/DIRECTORchair_peterson.html
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Petersen,+Wolfgang
Orson - trust me on this one, guy - take the money and run. And don't look back. Unless you're really, really lucky, they're gonna butcher it.
They will most likely destroy it
I think this movie would be too tough to bring to life. I know they can write the main characters a little older, but I just dont see the audince "buying" into the whole thing. I don't see hollywood doing any justice to this film.
By the way, there are a ton of sci-fi books that have the rights bought to them, and most will probably make it to the big screen. One of my favorite such authors is Dan Simmons. He has at least 3 books that are planned to go to the big screen, I doubt any of them will make it, however. His books are just too grand.
... any Arthur C. Clarke fans out there? ;-)