Bob Orci Talks Theoretical "Ender's Game" Sequels

In an exclusive interview with Crave Online, producer Bob Orci recently addressed a couple questions currently weighing on the mind of every Ender's Game fan: Will there be sequels? If so, will the sequel be Speaker for the Dead? From the article:

"They have rights to certain of the books," Orci said. "I'm not sure which ones, and it's two companies so I'm not sure who controls it."

So the sequel could be another book in the Ender series, but in a different order. Card did write Ender in Exile in 2008, long after Speaker, Xenocide and Children of the Mind. A War of Gifts takes place during Ender's time in Battle School. Orci had another promising option too.

"Or it could be potentially original because in Speaker for the Dead you pick him up when he's already a man. There might be an in between step if that happens."

Speaker does jump ahead into Ender's adulthood, so an original sequel would give them the option of sticking with the cast of Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld and Abigail Breslin.

"That's why I think the rights that they worked out is it could either be one of the books or it could be original or a mix so that you can do what you need to do for a movie," Orci said.

Here's the current what's what regarding Ender's Game sequels: none of the fan sites have any idea, most of the "facts" you'll find on Twitter and Tumblr are intensely fictionalized, and anyone who might know for sure isn't talking.

Does that keep us from hoping? Of course not. And speaking for myself, I would be perfectly happy if any potential sequel involved book mash-ups or original stories involving Ender and his Battle School best. The possibilities are essentially endless -- and I'm certain, whatever happens, those possibilities are in the right hands.

Here's a big shout out to Bob Orci for helping keep the Ender fan flame alive!

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Best of Ender's Game: Ender News Highlights from 2013!

January 17, 2013: The first piece of Ender's Game merchandise was unveiled, a 2014 wall calendar! Filled with loads of stills from the film and production tidbits. What could be a better way to start off the new year than grabbing one for yourself?

February 19, 2013: The Ender fansites unveiled four of the Ender's Game battle school logos, with Ender News debuting the insignia for Dragon Army.

© Summit Entertainment LLC

February 20, 2013: The next day, we unveiled a still of Ender and Petra in the Battle School messhall along with a preview of their upcoming set visit pieces. Remember how the release date for the set visit reports kept getting pushed later and later? We sure do! Read ours here.

March 1, 2013: Ender News turned 1 year old!

March 19, 2013: A sneak peak of the first Ender's Game trailer was (accidentally?) shown at the GAMA trade show in Los Vegas, to rave reviews -- and all of us not in attedence lost our minds.

March 20, 2013: Summit Entertainment launched the official Ender's Game movie twitter and and teased the website, IF-Sentinel.com.

March 25, 2013: The first teaser poster was unveiled, with a  teaser on the official production blog the day before by director Gavin Hood. He also participated in a phone interview with Yahoo! Movies and spoke extensively about the creation of the Battle Room.

April 1, 2013: The fansites and fellow members of the cast wished Asa Butterfield a very happy 16th birthday -- in pictures!

April 18, 2013: The first Ender's Game trailer debuted at CinemaCon with many of the cast members in attendance for panels, including Harrison Ford! (Videos: Harrison Ford | Asa Butterfield)

May 7, 2013: The trailer finally arrived after being teased a few days earlier via a 10-second preview -- which included an intro by Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford.

To launch the trailer, fan site admins and fans participated in a "Meet the Fleet" hangout with Asa Butterfield, director Gavin Hood, and producer Bob Orci!

May 9, 2013: It was confirmed with Summit that Steve Jablonsky would be composing the Ender's Game score, squashing all rumors that Avatar composer James Horner was attached to the film.

June 10, 2013: Aidan published the first in her series of posts following the creation of her Battle School flight suits.

June 22, 2013: We met the winner of the Ender's Game premiere tickets, Kelson Record -- whom I had the pleasure of meeting in Los Angeles later in the year!

June 25, 2013: The IF-Sentinel relaunched with 3 very cool propaganda posters, one of which you can see to the left. And did we ever figure out who the soldier is in the Next Generation poster? Crystal from EnderWiggin.net pointed out that there is a very familiar photo of Fly Molo in Ender's Game: Inside the World of an Epic Adventure...

July 10, 2013: Colonel Graff and Ender Wiggin were on the cover of Endertainment Weekly.

July 17, 2013: The character banners which hung in the Ender's Game experience at Comic-Con were unveiled to the public. (Video: Watch Asa and Hailee walk though the experience here.)

July 24, 2013: Gavin Hood and Bob Orci reenact a tender scene from Ender's Game during our interview with them after the Comic-Con panel in San Diego.

July 29, 2013: Crystal and I via EnderCast published our podcast interviews with the guys from Ender's Game: our first interview was with Conor Carroll (Bernard) and Caleb Thaggard (Stilson), the second was a huge group interview with with Aramis Knight (Bean), Jimmy Jax Pinchak (Peter), Suraj Partha (Alai), Khylin Rhambo (Dink Meeker), Cameron Gaskins (Pol Slattery), Conor Carroll (Bean), Caleb Thaggard (Stilson), and Brandon Soo Hoo (Fly Molo)

August 8, 2013: The final trailer debuted. Shoot straight, stay calm.

August 28, 2013: The Ender's Game fansites unveiled the first of their set visit reports!

Part One: The Production Art Tour
Part Two: Interview with Gavin Hood
Part Two B:: 20 Exciting Ender's Game Props
Part Three: Interview with Christine Bieselin Clark 
Part Four: The Cast Talks Stunts, Buggers, and Pop Tarts
Part Five: Interview with Stunt Coordinator Garrett Warren

September 12, 2013: Two brand new IF propaganda posters were unveiled by Summit Entertainment.

September 21, 2013: The Ender's Game soundtrack cover and details were released. Order it now on Amazon!

October 2, 2013: The IMAX poster and absolutely kickass fan collage were unveiled by Fandango!

October 5, 2013: Your Ender's Game fansites exclusively unveiled the first clip from the film entitled "Ender's Army." More clips:

Command School Ice Battle
Graff Recruiting Ender
You Will Be the Last
Ready Enough
Nothing Left at All
Welcome to Battle School

October 17, 2013: The beautiful Ender's Game posters by Mondo were unveiled and later made available on October 24th.

October 19, 2013: Ender Wiggin actor Asa Butterfield stopped by EnderCast along with producers Bob Orci and Gigi Pritzker!

October 25, 2013: We launched the Ender News Review-o-Meter where tracked all English-language Ender reviews and rated them a la Rotten Tomatoes.

October 28, 2013: Kelly and Aidan from Ender News, the ladies from other Ender fansites, and CharityBuzz auction winner Kelson all attended the Ender's Game premiere in Los Angeles. Read Kelson's report here.

© Ender's Ansible

November 1, 2013: Ender's Game hit US theaters! Read my review here -- needless to say, I loved it.

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Happy New Year, Launchies! What was your favorite fan moment in 2013?

Here's to more Ender in 2014!

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And the Happiest of New Years!

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"Ender's Game" DVD, Blu-Ray Available February 11, 2014

Heads up, Launchies! Earlier today Crave Online unveiled an exclusive preview of the box art and special features of the Ender's Game Blu-ray and DVD which will be available on February 11, 2014. According to the announcement, the film "will also be available on Digital HD January 28, two weeks prior to the Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD release[.]"

Check out the announcement video below featuring chats with Gavin Hood, Harrison Ford, and Viola Davis, and producers Gigi Pritzker, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. as well as loads of footage (and spoilers!) from the film and production process:


February 11th will also see the film's debut on Pay-Per-View and Video on Demand.

From the release:

The Blu-ray Combo Pack bonus materials include an exclusive 45-minute "making of" featurette called "Ender's World: The Making of Ender's Game." Both the Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD special features include deleted and extended scenes with optional audio commentary with director Gavin Hood as well as a feature-length audio commentary with producers. The Ender's Game Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $39.99 and $29.95, respectively.

BLU-RAY/DVD SPECIAL FEATURES*

-- "Ender's World: The Making of Ender's Game" 8-part featurette (Blu-ray exclusive)
-- Deleted/Extended Scenes with Audio Commentary with Director Gavin Hood
-- Audio Commentary with Producers Gigi Pritzker and Bob Orci

57 days to go. :)

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"Ender's Game" Trading Cards -- Signers Announced!

While the board game is out, we haven't heard much about the Ender's Game trading card set being released soon by Cryptozoic. But yesterday the company released a list of those Ender actors who have definitely signed for an autograph card -- and it looks like most want to join in on the fun!

Asa Butterfield as Ender Wiggin
Harrison Ford as Colonel Graff
Brandon Soo Hoo as Fly Molo
Aramis Knight as Bean
Khylin Rhambo as Dink Meeker
Conor Carroll as Bernard
Suraj Partha as Alai
Nonso Anozie as Sergeant Dap
Jimmy 'Jax' Pinchak as Peter Wiggin
Andrea Powell as Theresa Wiggin
Caleb J. Thaggard as Stilson
Han Soto as Colonel Graff's aide


This doesn't appear to be a comprehensive list as they stated these are the names they've released "so far." We'll keep you updated with any developments!

The trading card set will also include wardrobe/costume cards which show off the film's great costume patches; Cryptozoic gave us a sneak peak at the included Oversized Patch Cards which you'll find below:

Make sure to check out Cryptozoic on Facebook to stay up-to-date on trading card developments!

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Ender's Game Red Carpet Interview: Aramis Knight & Khylin Rhambo

It's always a good time talking to Bean actor Aramis Knight and were pleased when we had a chance to speak with him this past Monday on the red carpet. We had scared him a bit with the threat of a live pop quiz after his hilarious appearance on EnderCast but we're not that mean.



Here is the ICEE reference for those who missed Asa's appearance on our podcast as well.

Khylin Rhambo (Dink Meeker) also stopped by for a quick chat and told us about his favorite scene -- which, if you watch all the videos, you'll find seems to be everyone's favorite scene.



You'll know it when you see it. ;)

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$28 Million Opening Weekend for Ender's Game

Ender's Game won the U.S. box office this weekend with an estimated $28 million in ticket sales from 3,407 theaters. While this is a solid start for the movie - and better than feared - the numbers pale in comparison with similar big-budget sci-fi starts in 2013. Ender's opening weekend was way off from Pacific Rim and Oblivion (both over $37 million), and was about on par with After Earth ($27.5 million).

The $110 million budget film will have to hold strong for a few weeks and play well in Europe to find financial success, which would support additional sequels. Unfortuately it doesn't look that way at the moment. Ender's Game opened very weak in the two biggest markets in Europe, with just $1.87 million in the United Kingdom (opened 5th place last weekend) and $800,000 in Germany where it opened 6th place.

To put these numbers in perspective: Thor: The Dark World, which opens in the U.S. on Friday and will be tough direct competition for Ender's Game, turned in about $110 million internationally last week, opened in the U.K. with $13.4 million and brought in $7.9 million from Germany - on the opening weekend. It is hard to imagine Thor not crushing Ender's numbers and marginalizing its audience this coming weekend in the US. And with The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opening later this month it will be really tough for Ender's Game to show a strong hold with the general audience.

It looks like a decision on possible Ender's Game sequels won't be made before early next year when the movie opens in the world's second and third biggest markets, China and Japan.

The most positive takeaway from the opening weekend is that the audience generally likes the film. The audience score at Rotten Tomatoes climbed from 76% on Saturday (47,869 users) to 78% this morning (53,478 users). Similar at IMDb where the audience rates the film a 7.2 (9,064 votes) now, up from 7.0 (3,438 votes) on Saturday. The Ender News Review-O-Meter is tracking 187 English-language reviews for an average critics score of 68%, which is also pretty decent for the sci-fi genre.

So why is the movie not getting better, bigger numbers at the box office? As I wrote about two weeks ago on this blog, it was my concern that "the most avid group of moviegoers in the U.S., teenagers and young adults age 12 to 24, could have been addressed much better by promoting the young cast beyond what has been done so far," and if we look a bit deeper into the reported numbers, it looks like my concerns were warranted.

According to distributor Lionsgate/Summit, the movie's audience was 58 percent male and 54 percent over the age of 25. Ender's Game did not create much of a buzz with a young audience beyond those familiar with the original story. When we challenged the studio to "make a wide-release Ender's Game trailer with no adults. It's a story about kids, after all," it was for a good reason.

Box Office Mojo summed it up nicely today:

Marketing emphasized Harrison Ford's gruff military commander while failing to show what it is about Ender that makes him worth rooting for. This kept the movie from really connecting with those who aren't familiar with the source material, which is the key to success in the adaptation game.

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