Sci-fi thriller Ender's Game sparks controversy
Ender's Game is based on a classic science fiction novel, but the homophobic views of its author could be a turn-off for audiences, writes James Mottram
BASED ON THE 1985 science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game has the potential to be the next major teen franchise after the Twilight series and The Hunger Games. Or that's what the film's producers want you to think, anyway.
Just don't mention it to director-scriptwriter Gavin Hood. "The whole world is focused on goddamned sequels," he says. "Do you need a sequel to Lawrence of Arabia? Do you need a sequel to Blade Runner? This film has to stand on its own. If it generates a sequel, then great."
The South African-born filmmaker admits he's "oversensitive" to the topic - partly because his last outing, 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine, was a so-so spin-off in the Marvel Comics franchise: "I'm not sure it was my finest hour."
As with X-Men, the audience is inbuilt for Ender's Game. The first of the 12 books alone has sold more than seven million copies and has been "read by multiple generations", says Hood.
Published in 1985, it won the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel, and two years ago it was voted on the NPR (formerly National Public Radio) website as the third greatest sci-fi/fantasy novel of all time, behind only The Lord of the Rings and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
"It's a book that will last forever," says Asa Butterfield, the 16-year-old British star of Hugo, who plays the gifted Ender. And there is an undoubted universal quality to a story set on a futuristic earth, 70 years on from an alien invasion. In a plot that feels part Full Metal Jacket, part Starship Troopers, Ender is the next great hope, recruited into a military academy designed to forge a new generation of leaders to help combat further attacks.