Gavin Hood and adapting: "What can I do in a film that the novel might not be able to do as well?"

Ender's Game director Gavin Hood tackled a few tough questions at the Fan Expo Canada, an annual fan convention which was held this past weekend in Toronto.

On exploring "moral greys:"

"Some films masquerade as dealing with moral complexity, but in fact, for me, cop out a little by never putting the protagonist in a truly morally complex situation," Hood said in a recent interview at the pop culture fest known as Fan Expo Canada. "There are films we can think of where, yes, the protagonist kills people, but actually all the people they kill are bad or awful in some way, (without) that moment of really having to face up to the grey zone, that place where you ask, 'Am I capable of doing something morally repugnant because I believe it’s for a greater good?'

On his adaptation and decision to cut the beloved Locke and Demosthenes storyline:

"I think I was a little naive myself," Hood says. "As a filmmaker, it offers tremendous opportunity for visual spectacle. … And I have young kids, and I want to take them to a big fun movie and then talk to them about it afterwards. I want to encourage conversation. Great. Of course, then I start adapting it, and it took me two years." [...]

“My wife actually says to me, ‘Gavin, you have to stop going on the Internet. It makes you crazy.’ There’s so much chatter,” says Hood. “I found it hard to cut. But it really means you need to make a 15-part miniseries, and I was given the opportunity to make a two-hour film, so my focus was, ‘What can I do in a film that the novel might not be able to do as well?’”

Check out the full article over at  Metro News.