Countdown: 162 days! "Ender's Game" Movie Timeline Part 2

After it occurred to me last night that today is the 1 year anniversary of my visit to the Ender's Game set in New Orleans, I admittedly became a little bummed. Where in the world has the time gone?

(You can read both of my set visit reports here: Part 1, Part 2)

To celebrate the day, I thought we could go back and review what's happened in the past 6 months since I posted my first Ender's Game timeline. If you're just now catching up on movie happenings, make sure to read that one first!

Let's start where I left off last time, shall we?

November 12, 2012: Aramis Knight and Andrea Powell attended the premiere of Breaking Dawn Pt. 2 in Los Angeles. We were hoping they could meet up for a photo, but they couldn't find each other!

November 17, 2012: An edited version of the full synopsis of the Ender's Game film was released by Summit Entertainment:

In the near future, a hostile alien race (called the Formics) have attacked Earth. If not for the legendary heroics of International Fleet Commander, Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley), all would have been lost. In preparation for the next attack, the highly esteemed Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) and the International Military are training only the best young children to find the future Mazer. Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy, but strategically brilliant boy is pulled out of his school to join the elite.

Arriving at Battle School, Ender quickly and easily masters increasingly difficult war games, distinguishing himself and winning respect amongst his peers. Ender is soon ordained by Graff as the military’s next great hope, resulting in his promotion to Command School. Once there, he’s trained by Mazer Rackham, himself, to lead his fellow soldiers into an epic battle that will determine the future of Earth and save the human race.

November 19, 2012: Ender News released the second part of our SDCC 2012 interview with Orson Scott Card where he speaks a lot about the upcoming film. Before you start reading, you might want to check out Part 1 in which he talks about his novel Earth Unaware!

November 23, 2012: Jimmy Jax Pinchak and Ender's Game stunt coordinator Garrett Warren faced off in their annual Thanksgiving football game. Guess who won. Thanks for the pics, guys. :)

November 30, 2012: We reported on a book signing and extensive Q&A session in which Orson Scott Card participated, where he gushed over the film's Battle Room scenes and clarified his semi-infamous "very few of the scenes in this movie [come from the book]" quote.

December 05, 2012: Entertainment Weekly unveiled the first official Ender's Game still which we later broke down for fans.

December 13, 2012: Crystal from EnderWiggin.net and I officially launched our Ender's Game podcast: EnderCast! 14 episodes in, we are still running strong.

December 15, 2012: The cast attended Hailee Steinfeld's 16th birthday party in LA.

January 17, 2013: EnderSpeaker discovered that Amazon.com is accepting pre-orders for an official Ender's Game 2014 calendar.

February 06, 2013: Brandon Soo Hoo sat down with teen entertainment magazine J-14 to speak about his role (Fly Molo) in Ender's Game and what it was like to work with some of his teenage co-stars.

"My character, Fly Molo, is a veteran soldier in Battle School. At first, he is introduced as Bonzo's lackey, but he eventually comes to recognize Ender as the superior commander. I can definitely relate to Fly's second-in-command role. A leader will always feel the majority of the pressure in a high-stakes situation, whereas the lieutenant is usually allowed to function below the radar. However, I'd say that unlike Fly, I would have a bit of trouble putting up with Bonzo. I have mild authority issues."

February 11, 2013: Suraj Partha covers Phillip Phillips' "Gone Gone Gone" and posted the video on his personal YouTube channel. A must watch! Since everyone is so musically talented, I'm still waiting around for an Ender's Game cast band to pop up.

February 12, 2013: We announced that Cryptozoic Entertainment had obtained the rights to produce not only an Ender's Game board game, but a trading card series as well!

February 19, 2013: Four of the Ender's Game army insignias were exclusively revealed by the fan sites who visited the set last year - including Ender News! Check out Salamander, Rat and Asp -- as well as Dragon Army to the left.

February 20, 2013: Just a day later, those same fan sites unveiled an exciting still of Ender and Petra in the Battle School mess hall. We also included a set visit preview -- with promises of much more to come! No worries: we haven't forgotten.

February 24, 2013: Aramis Knight and Khylin Rhambo smartened themselves up for a night on the town at Hollywood's Oscars after-party.

February 28, 2013: Hailee Steinfeld signed copies of Ender's Game while out in support of Our Military Kids in Phoenix, AZ.

March 01, 2013: Ender News turned 1! 

March 19, 2013: A sneak peak of the Ender's Game trailer was shown to lucky professionals at the GAMA Trade Show in Las Vegas - to raving reviews!

March 22, 2013: Rames from Ender News posted a great overview of what he believes when can expect regarding  Ender's Game movie marketing.

March 24, 2013: Director Gavin Hood posted a sneak peak of the teaser poster over on the official production blog.

"Without exception, every person who works on this wonderful film brings more than just skill to the table. They bring passion."

March 25, 2013: Yahoo! Movies unveiled the first official Ender's Game teaser poster alongside an exclusive phone interview with Gavin Hood.

March 25, 2013: Producer Bob Orci casually mentioned on twitter that the Ender's Game trailer would make its cinematic debut in May in front of Star Trek Into Darkness. Way to make it no big deal, right?

March 27, 2013: Harrison Ford spoke with Entertainment Tonight and admitted that he believes Ender's Game "could be great."

April 1, 2013: Many of Asa Butterfield's cast and crew members rose to the occasion and sent in photos wishing him a very happy birthday! Thanks again to everyone who participated!

April 18, 2013: Ender's Game cast members Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, and Harrison Ford hit CinemaCon, where they were honored with awards -- plus, the trailer was shown during Summit's 2-hour 2013 project presentation.

April 20, 2013: Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston spoke at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books where Card admitted that he believes Speaker for the Dead to be unfilmable:

"'Speaker for the Dead' is unfilmable," Card said in response to a question from the audience. "It consists of talking heads, interrupted by moments of excruciating and unwatchable violence. Now, I admit, there's plenty of unwatchable violence in film, but never attached to my name.

"'Speaker for the Dead, I don't want it to be filmed. I can't imagine it being filmed'."

April 27, 2013: While making promotional rounds for Iron Man 3, Sir Ben Kingsley (Mazer Rackham) spoke to Coventry Telegraph about his other upcoming projects, Ender's Game included:

Mazar Rackham [is] a combination of historically ancient warrior in that he is descended from Maori and has Maori tattooed on his face. And at the same time he is teaching children how to operate drones. So he is very advanced and also rooted in an ancient warrior tradition.

May 01, 2013: Enterrtainment Weekly gave the world its first look at Sir Ben Kinglsey as Mazer Rackham - in full makeup! Check out those Maori tattoos.

May 02, 2013: Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford previewed the first trailer for Ender's Game on YouTube with a 10-second teaser of entirely new footage. They also announced an exciting live Google Hangout with Bob Orci, Gavin Hood, and Asa Butterfield before the debut of the trailer.

May 03, 2013: Thanks to @BKilek, we gave you your first look at the Ender's Game movie tie-in book covers. You can pick one up at Barnes and Noble - Hardcover and Paperback!

May 06, 2013: Summit unveiled the official movie website, the IF Sentinel: a communication hub of the International Fleet with the fictional public of Ender's world.

May 07, 2013: The first Ender's Game trailer debuted on Google and YouTube. With over 4 million views already, it won't hurt to watch it again, right?



Asa Butterfield also spoke with Hollywood.com about Zero-G, Space Camp and what makes the character of Ender Wiggin so special.

May 08, 2013: Asa Butterfield participated in a Reddit AMA.

May 09, 2013: Summit confirmed that Steve Jablonsky (not James Horner) is to score Ender's Game.

May 13, 2013: Cryptozoic's Ender's Game trading cards are most likely to include cast/crew autograph cards. Can't wait to get my hands on these.

May 17, 2013: Producers Bob Orci and and Alex Kurtzman briefly addressed the sensitive issue of Orson Scott Card's controversial views on gay marriage and how these views may or may not affect the reception of the film:

"The book is beautiful. It’s about tolerance, it’s about responsibility, it’s about growing up. We just tend to judge a book on its own merits. Nothing that anyone could say is going to remove our original reaction of how we perceive this beautiful book. For us, it’s just about the book."

 May 21, 2013: Summit released a new promotional photo of Colonel Graff and Ender -- with a great look at Dragon Army's flash suit helmet.

And we're back to today. Only 162 days to go, Launchies. Did you know it was 364 days to go last time I posted a timeline? Look how far we've come!

How's everyone holding up?

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Video: Asa Butterfield Talks "Ender's Game" at CinemaCon 2013

Showbiz Junkies has come through for us once again as we now have a full video of Asa Butterfield's CinemaCon Q&A session which took place this past Thursday at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Confident and well-prepared, Asa spoke quite thoroughly on his experience filming Ender's Game as well as the Academy Award winning Hugo and what it was like working with big name actors and directors such as Harrison Ford, Gavin Hood, and Martin Scorsese -- who he affectionately calls "Marty," much to the crowds amusement.

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Last year, Asa Butterfield moved to New Orleans with his mother and sister for 5 months to film Ender's Game, a decision that he refers to as "a big step in his career." And while Asa himself hadn't read the book until he found out they were casting for the movie, he is fully aware of the story's fan base and huge cult following: "It really meant a lot to me to be able to play that character who so many people love." And the role had other perks as well:

"I think I can speak for the large majority of teenage boys that the character of Ender is just a dream. I mean leading the human race and fighting in zero gravity with laser guns - what more could you want? I mean, that was the main sort of draw for me to want to play this role and then when I heard who else they were thinking of casting it was just like... it blew my mind, really. And I spoke with Gavin a lot of times on Skype about the character and we shared out thoughts. It really gave both of us I think an insight into how this was going to work. When I got the role I was over the moon."

One reporter mentioned that Asa was not following the path of the typical child star and asked to what he attributes his success so far. The teenager assured the audience that a lot of it was just luck and that he's a perfectly normal 16-year-old boy who attends school when he's not filming. "This is like my other life," he laughed.

Like Batman, his super hero of choice. Because, unlike other super heroes, Batman is possible.

And it's clear Asa considers Ender's Game director Gavin Hood a bit of a super hero, as he spoke very animatedly about Hood's amazing work on the film and the hands-on techniques he used to inspire the young actors on set:

"Gavin is so enthusiastic and gives so much motivation to the actors. There are loads of kids on the set - extras and cast - and Gavin, partially because he wrote the screenplay, he knew the characters back to front. He knew exactly what he wanted, and when they needed some more 'oomph' to the scene, he was there to come on stage. And he gave it all, he gave more than the actors, he was sweating, he was there. It's inspirational, it really is, not just to me but to the other actors on set as well."

Hopefully Asa will have the opportunity to work with Gavin again on future Ender projects. When asked about sequels, the young actor admitted that it probably depends on how well this film does in theaters. Which book they'll film, he isn't sure, as the linear sequel presents us with an Ender in his 30s: "Unless they want to wait 15 odd years, I dunno."

And what part of Ender's Game will we -- fans of the book -- be most excited about come November?

"Fans of the book? I think, I mean the story has stayed almost entirely true to the book apart from obviously they had to age the characters up for obvious reasons. I think it all depends on what they got out of the book. If they loved the Battle Room scenes then obviously that's going to appeal to them. But if they read the book for the stories and the... not the stories, the morals behind it and the themes, then... that's all still intact in the screenplay I think. It's a really deep story."

 Ender's Game is set to his US theaters November 1, 2013.

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Interview: Harrison Ford at CinemaCon 2013

Thanks to Showbiz Junkies, we now have a clip of one of the Q&A sessions Harrison Ford participated in while at CinemaCon this past week. He speaks about his most recent film 42, dodges quite a few Star Wars questions and, luckily for us, talks a bit about Ender's Game:



When asked if he was always a big fan of Ender's Game, Ford admitted that he hadn't been familiar with the book before he was signed on to play Colonel Graff. "I really came to the project through the script," he said, which he sometimes finds easier. "Books are books and movies are movies. They're not always... the same craftsman is not always involved. I think it's a very interesting book and the film, I think, is going to be great."

One journalist asked what was it about the script he particularly liked:

"I just thought it was something we have not seen. I thought the story was prescient about some of the things we're seeing in our lives right now and it was written 20 years ago, I guess. I thought it had an interesting moral question behind it, which is articulated in the film and I thought it would really be a good summer movie on top of that.

And on filming with such a young cast?

"I've worked with young people before. I have had children of my own; I'm familiar with shorter people."

Hear that, Bean?

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LIVE: "Ender's Game" Hits CinemaCon

CinemaCon 2013 is taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada this week and Lionsgate, the parent of Ender's Game production company Summit Entertainment, is currently holding a presentation on their 2013 projects.

Cast members Asa Butterfield and Hailee Steinfeld are in attendance and met up to send a couple snapshots our way:

And Slash Film just announced that the trailer for Ender's Game will be debuted TODAY at CinemaCon! Keep checking back here and we will update this post as news roles in!

Exciting!

Here are some trailer reactions:

@firstshowing: 3 mins "If you succeed, you will be remembered as a hero." Holy SHIT. Ender's Game trailer will blow you away. Better than Elysium. No bullshit.

@AmyKinLA: The tattoo on Ben Kingsley's face in "Ender's Game" is gnarly. #CinemaCon

@PNemioff Jrust screened the trailer. Loads of Battle Room footage and it's looking good! Full write-up later. #EndersGame

@slashfilm: Enders Game trailer was pretty epic. Starts with an alien battle against jet fighters, Star Wars-esque. Shows more than I expected it would.

@firstshowing: What did I say? New era of sci-fi is here.

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"Ender's Game" Teaser Poster at CinemaCon

Look familiar? CinemaCon is currently underway in Las Vegas, Nevada and Collider has put together a series of images of the variety of movie posters on display -- including one of the Ender's Game teaser we've all been ogling for the past few weeks!

And don't forget, guys: not only is Lionsgate scheduled to present many of their big name projects coming out this year at the convention, but several of the Ender's Game actors are set to receive awards! From our previous post:

Both Asa Butterfield and Hailee Steinfeld [as well as Harrison Ford] will be honored in a big awards ceremony at this year's CinemaCon convention which will be held from April 15-18 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Just a couple of hours before this ceremony, on April 18 at 2:30 PM, an exclusive product presentation from Lionsgate is scheduled at this location, and as it focuses on the studio's "2013 release schedule featuring several special guests," you can bet your house on the fact that Ender's Game will be prominently featured.

Make sure to keep checking back throughout the week as we will be doing our very best to keep you informed on all the exciting Ender happenings at CinemaCon this year!

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