Gadgetory

i'm brian bishop with the verge and i'm here the 2013 san diego comic-con international this is ground zero for anything science fiction or fantasy one of the most anticipated projects is the film adaptation of orson scott card's ender's game adi robertson visited the Ender's Game fan experience looking at sets from the film and talking to some of the cast were you a fan of the book before you came to the movie what was it it's one of my favorite books and I'll I mean I love sci-fi so it was quite on my street yeah what did you like about the book what drew you to it I think I mean as I said I've really enjoyed sci-fi but one it is a really exciting action filled story but there's a lot more to it than that it's very complex and deep there's a lot themes inside story present in today they always have been and i'm sure they always will be yeah a lot of the book is sort of about being the smartest kid in the room and not being able to express the things that you think to anybody else how do you translate that to something that's visual yeah I mean Gavin me and gavin talked a lot about how we're going to transfer the book and end his character into the story in the film and visually it looks stunning I mean the all of the visual effects and everything incredible Oh sort of do you see your character and how do you make a movie that's about children but is not a children's um my character is very independent and very strong and you know it's that's an interesting question I think it's it really focuses on these intelligent minds of you know teenagers and it's sort of the next generation and it's it's you know a lot of the a lot of what's in the film is very relevant to today and a lot of the you know the stories theme of sort of teamwork and coming together at the end of the day and it's interesting that's a good question ender's game was published in nineteen eighty five but has taken this long for the film to come to the big screen we sat down with writer-director gavin hood and producer roberto orci talk about what they need to do to make that possible I think we both landed on it that decision that yeah I think Warner Brothers headed for about seven years but this was before us we were blissfully ignorant and then at some point I got a call from my agent saying you know there's this book called ends game they're looking for a rider want to take a meeting what I thought it was stuck at Warner Brothers was told so yes so I took a meeting and then at some point Bob was approached me and they put us together that I loved the book and had been wondering about it for years and then we got in a room together and he's like hell I'm gonna write it you you go girl that's gonna be a challenge right let's see what happens there hmm and when he wrote the script I think that gave us all the confidence to know that this actually was made me finally going to happen and that may just go get the additional partners you know we went and got international partners to help us with the financing we got lionsgate mauled summit we met with Eric fight will actually uh I think he didn't he didn't know the book particularly not at that stage and then became a fan of it himself so we just found that everyone we'd approach as we go around try to put together there were so many people who had fond memories of the material that we were able to kind of took a village to put it together and that's what we did the first things that had some fun doing those with everybody obviously interested in Seoul battleroom 0g in that very special environment and so one of the first things we did was make this little 45 second teaser because everybody was saying like how are you gonna do remember we had to get a can and like we got to try and sell because the studios you know Warner Brothers it passed and so the studios were a little bit nervous and it can it be done and how on earth is the zero-g gonna work domain on spec right yeah data version of we did a 45 second thing yeah I'm and we made this little thing and then Bob and I kind of went to can like to traveling salesman and we kind of hopped up in front of you member hi foreign buyers um we're here to show you 45 seconds of something we hope you'll love and a script would you please invest and you know what they did which was very very bold of them and we should say we're very grateful to our foreign buyers because this movie would not have happened okay to see it as fastly you cooking through the booking of cerebral in a lot of ways you know and the you know the trails would very heavy on the action in the element you know is that representative the finished film was their decision to make it or an action ride or you said you didn't want to bring in both of those elements yeah I mean it's in them it's in the book so right it's just you know we're saying before we never no one ever had the technology quite do this right yet and so we didn't want to shy away from the spectacle of it in a way the the spectacle is what makes it a unique property audiences have seen everything and actually have kind of a giant movie that actually is something you can talk about afterwards and it actually makes me think and that that's actually you have young protagonist that they're having a great time and doing things we'd all want to do like float in that room right but they're doing it for potentially a more adult purpose and in preparation potentially for four and for leadership and for growing up and to have that in one movie is I think part of the appeal and so and so both sides of it should be celebrated both its cerebral pneus and its spectacle yes yes I didn't talk down to kids no I agree with beau it's unusual for a big popcorn movie which this has to be to achieve the kind of audience impact that it needs to also have these great characters and these dynamics now obviously when trailers come out you know you don't want to spend two minutes watching some sort of cerebral on strike so the marketing part the department is likely to say look at how cool stuff don't worry this is super cool and it is and at the same time when we go to a movie which is not a two-minute experience it's a two-hour experience we've also all been there go okay you've showed me 10 minutes of super cool stuff is there a story in here anywhere because I don't need to be sitting here for two hours and looking at cool stuff so trailers and movies are kind of like their little bit odds in some ways so I promise you that we have been true to the core emotional and moral dilemmas that the book is so famous for and we have also i hope delivered on the spectacle that the book is also in this battle room so our invention that's in the book and that's what makes it such a great property is this combination of really original environments with great story and great characters who are not stereotype to are not just good versus evil these are complex characters who are struggling with their own demons and trying to find a way to define themselves as leaders of both others and of themselves and that's what I love about Ender's Game you go on the spectacular journey and you come to a place where character really defines who he is in a good you know intelligent way