For the better part of a decade now the film version of the classic sci-fi book “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card has been floundering in the continuous state of pre-production and rewrites.
For those unfamiliar with the story, Ender is a child genius of sorts in the future who is recruited by the military to begin training to help defend the Earth from bug-like alien invaders. The recruits at battle school are children, and Ender is the smallest and youngest of all of them.
The book is considered a modern classic of science fiction, and the movie (if it ever gets made) has the potential to rank among the greatest space stories on the big screen. The biggest problem facing the potential filmmakers is the psychological themes that wind their way through the plot. They are perfectly explored in the books, but may not be as easy to convey in a movie with child actors. Next to that, the zero gravity laser tag battles in the academy will be easy to pull off.
Wolfgang Peterson was attached at one time and hopefully will return to direct. This is one book adaptation that I am cautiously optimistic can succeed on the big screen.