The first image from the young adult adaptation Ender’s Game has arrived, showing Harrison Ford facing off against Asa Butterfield in a rather clinical military environment, with the tension apparently caused by blocked emails from home. The film is based on Orson Scott Card’s popular 1985 novel. It’s due in cinemas next November.
Harrison Ford plays Colonel Hyram Graff, who oversees a military facility where gifted youngsters are trained to prevent an imminent alien attack. Abigail Breslin is playing Valentine Wiggin, the older sister to the titular trainee Ender (Hugo star Asa Butterfield), while Hailee Steinfeld is set to be Ender’s ally, Petra Arkanian. Aramis Knight, Moises Arias, Jimmy Pinchak, Suraj Partha, Conor Carroll, and Khylin Rhambo also star.
Director Gavin Hood comments, “The relationship between [Harrison] and Asa was very close, but he didn’t overly befriend him off the set. He helped Asa by allowing that slight sense of intimidation to be there.
“The kids have to attend school for at least three hours of class every day, plus do homework, so you can only shoot with someone like Asa for five hours of your day. There was no time for fooling about or not knowing your lines or being unprepared. Asa being prepared meant that we could focus on the scenes, and these are complicated scenes for a young actor.”
There has been talk of whether there should be a gay boycott of the movie, due to the fact Orson Scott Card is avowedly anti-gay, and has said he believes gay sex should be banned, that same sex marriage is wrong, and has linked child abuse and homosexuality. Whether any sort of organised protest of the film will happen is yet to be seen.
*Raises hand* in favor of that boycott.
The sad part is, though, that that will simply send the Chick-fil-A crowd flocking to see it in droves.