With both young adult lit adaptations and the science fiction genre each being hot at the box office over the last several years, and Orson Scott Card‘s 1985 novel Ender’s Game existing as it does it at the interstice of the two, its adaptation would seem to be an easy and especially ripe fit for these times. But what took so long for the film version? There were many hurdles over the years, and a variety of scripts and attached talent that never quite fully came together. Mostly, though, Ender’s Game is complicated, in the best sense of the word.
The book’s complex themes (it’s included on the U.S. Marine Corps’ professional reading program list), as well as its unique reflection upon some of the betrayals adults visit upon children in the name of protecting them — all rendered without giving into dystopian bleakness — make it a tough needle to thread as a film adaptation. Talking to the producers of Ender’s Game (of which there are more than a dozen), director Gavin Hood and even co-star Harrison Ford, though, there’s a shared affinity for the source material’s challenging nature. For the full read, from the News & Record, click here.
Monthly Archives: November 2013
The Impaler
The Twilight franchise may have drained its last vein, but vampires of all sorts still remain fairly popular. Indie horror flick The Impaler tries to put a Romanian spin on things, then, taking it all back to the origin story of Vlad the Impaler by dropping a bunch of visiting Los Angeles teens into his old castle, and having the blood flow through an obligatory summoning-gone-wrong.
Some of its budget fixes work okay — at one point director Derek Hockenbrough inventively sidesteps the messy practical requirements of an on-screen stabbing by cutting to just after the moment of violence within a scene — but The Impaler overall doesn’t really have the resources to convincingly pull off its period piece flashbacks with the “real” Vlad, or even sustain tension for long stretches. A plot strand connecting one of the kids to the legacy is both sketchy and familiar, and the actors are all a bit old to be playing high schoolers (it would have been much better to age them up, without any real consequence to the story).
Still, the script — a collaboration by Hockenbrough, Diana Busuioc, Daniel Anghelcev and cinematographer Steve Snyder — at least gets the sense of circle-of-friends joshing and bickering right, as with a mock-argument about the difference between pumps and stilettos. There’s also an interesting idea that the filmmakers basically nip from Seven, about the sins or moral weaknesses of the American interlopers playing into their respective fates. One wishes this had been introduced earlier and interwoven with a bit more devilish flair, as it’s certainly a distinguishing element. For the full, original review, from ShockYa, click here. The Impaler opens exclusively in Los Angeles at the Laemmle NoHo7. For more information on the film, click here to visit its website. (Full Moon Films, unrated, 86 minutes)
Harrison Ford Talks Ender’s Game, Star Wars, Indiana Jones
It seems hard to believe, but for an actor so associated with the science-fiction genre, Harrison Ford hasn’t been “back” to outer space since the conclusion of the original Star Wars franchise. That changes with the release of this weekend’s Ender’s Game, writer-director Gavin Hood‘s adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s Hugo Award-winning novel. Set a generation after the devastating attack of Earth by an ant-like alien race, the book details the selection, training and manipulation of a brilliant young military cadet, Ender (Asa Butterfield), by a forward-leaning colonel (Ford) looking to prosecute his strategy of a preemptive war to end all wars. Recently, the film’s cast and crew gathered for a press day in Los Angeles, to talk about the movie and its weighty themes, as well as some of their upcoming projects. Part of the chat with Ford is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the read.