Postby ClotharTheSeeker » Sat Jan 30, 2010 1:38 pm
Ender's Game is a novel whose "magic" can only be truly conveyed if the delivery is tuned perfectly. Having said that, I don't know for sure what that tuned delivery would look like, but here are my thoughts.
[1] Who to play the roles?
With the most recent release of Avatar, I believe technology can now override the lack of child actors able to fully represent each of the characters played out in Ender's Game. I don't believe that it is a good thing to ask children to try to play out roles of individuals who have been subjected to extreme circumstances (as in the book), and then to expect them not to be psychologically affected. This is just one opinion.
[2] Dénouement? How much?
The method and sequence of presentation of situations, issues, challenges, soul-searching, choices and consequences is paramount in ensuring the film remains true to the original novel. For this reason, I am not convinced, that a single standalone movie can do proper justice to what Ender's Game .... unless.... as was done for the Dune version made in 2000, which was 4.5 hours. I haven't given it much thought, but trying to find break-points for multi-episodic movies, to properly cover just the first book, would be very difficult. This is why the most recent Dune movie should influence the approach to presentation. My sense of the break-point would be when Hyram calls Ender to his office to tell him hes is stripped of his original team and forced to start anew. There is a real sense from the story that Ender had to figuratively step back, take a deep breath, and regroup his energies. Everything after that builds up to the final battle and the end.
[3] The unspoken word
Thought processes are difficult to convey in movies: real thought takes a small fraction of the time it does to recite the thought process aloud. Sometimes it can't be "said", it is a checklist, or a conscious feeling or a subconscious instinct. Such thoughts presented in the book are critical for readers to get into the minds of the characters and their intentions. The only way to get these thoughts out there is by using narration.
I've seen comments by others where the idea of narration is anathema. If there was too much of it, I would agree. But again, looking at the recent Dune movie, very strategic usage of narration, remaining true while in condensed form, would ensure viewer perceptions are directed where the author intended, thereby maintaining the fidelity of the presentation medium for the story and its messages.
-*-
Those are my thoughts. Having only discovered this late that an Ender movie was in the works, it may be too late for any of this to matter ... but you never know.
Good luck with the creation process!
Sir Orson, I await this film child with baited breath!
Eric M.
