To show the importance of staging in filmmaking, director Steven Soderbergh reworks Steven Spielberg’s classic adventure Raiders of the Lost Ark into a moodily, affective black and white silent film. The film is essentially stripped of many surface elements to highlight the deeper ones (at least for Soderbergh). No more color or witty banter from Harrison Ford, and we lose John Williams iconic score. Soderbergh replaces all of the soundtrack with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ score from The Social Network, not to draw comparisons between the two films but rather to provide audible accents to the staging.
Gavin Hood’s (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) has not been without its media attention, and not always for the best reasons, but following on from the promotion we saw at SDCC, there has been a new set of poster released ahead of the November 1st opening. These new promotional posters use the tried and tested propaganda style that the likes of X-MEN: Days of Future Pasthave also adopted.
There have also been some new stills released from the movie detailing what looks to be some great visual effects. The posters and the stills do not reveal much that we don’t already know about the movie, which has been adapted from the award winning novel by Orson Scott Card.
Ender’s Game, starring Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, with Abigail Breslin and Harrison Ford, is set in the near future when a hostile alien race called the Formics have attacked Earth. If not for the legendary heroics of International Fleet Commander Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley), all would have been lost. In preparation for the next attack, the highly esteemed Colonel Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and the International Military are training only the best young minds to find the future Mazer.
With the central characters of the movie being young heroes, distributors Lionsgate will be hoping to build another successful tween franchise to rival the likes of Twilight and Harry Potter, much like they did with the successfulHunger Games. Hopefully Hood will keep some of the tone and focus of the novel to keep adults on board and get them buying tickets too. The novel has also become suggested reading for many military organizations, including the United States Marine Corps.
[box_dark]Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy but strategically brilliant boy, is recruited to join the elite. Arriving at Battle School, Ender quickly and easily masters increasingly difficult challenges and simulations, distinguishing himself and winning respect amongst his peers. Ender is soon ordained by Graff as the military’s next great hope, resulting in his promotion to Command School. Once there, he’s trained by Mazer Rackham himself to lead his fellow soldiers into an epic battle that will determine the future of Earth and save the human race.[/box_dark]
In this week’s “Old Man News” we have Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis. With a little Harrison Ford thrown in for good measure. Sylvester Stallone has this film franchise that he stars in, you might have heard of it – The Expendables? Yea, that one. Well Sly is currently gathering up people for the third incarnation of The Expendables and was in talks with Bruce Willis to return.
Apparently things didn’t go well as Stallone sent out these two tweets in short succession.
WILLIS OUT… HARRISON FORD IN !!!! GREAT NEWS !!!!! Been waiting years for this!!!!
Looking past Stallone’s fangirling over Harrison Ford, what exactly happened?
Turns out, Bruce Willis had been offered $3 million for the third film and instead wanted $4 million. Well, from the outside looking it, it seems a little ridiculous to pass up a job over a million dollars but hey, it’s still a million dollars. But wait! That’s not the whole story.
Get this, Willis wanted $4 million for four days of work. FOUR DAYS! One million dollars for each day of work. That sound you are hearing is everyone in the known world rolling their eyes. Good riddance Mr. Willis.
Thankfully Sylvester Stallone had another guy in mind for the job. A man who has a source for The Hollywood Reporter said is “a better actor, a much nicer person and a more interesting direction for the film.” That man is none other than Harrison Ford.
That isn’t the only Harrison Ford news of the week. Nope. Earlier in the week Ford was asked about a fifth Indiana Jones film.
[box_light]”To me, what was interesting about the character was that he prevailed, that he had courage, that he had wit, that he had intelligence, that he was frightened, and that he still managed to survive. That I can do.”[/box_light]
So he’s signed on for action film The Expendables 3, and he’s okay with another turn as Indiana Jones? Maybe 70 is the new 60 after all.
The marketing push for Gavin Hood’s (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Tsotsi) upcoming sci-fi movie Ender’s Game is under way, with the launch of a viral campaign designed to make the audience feel like a trainee of the International Fleet. The latest piece of the campaign has just been revealed, consisting of a short propaganda video featuring Harrison Ford in the role of Colonel Hyrum Graff. Watch the clip from SuperHeroHype below:
While the world looks a lot more sterile and shiny than I’d imagined from Orson Scott Card’s novel, the focus on the IF and its “Last Stand Against the Buggers” philosophy is right on point. I’m anticipating Ender’s Game with some caution, but it looks like it could be a decent action flick if not something as special as Card’s Hugo winning book series.
Ender’s Game follows Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, a young recruit in the International Fleet’s Battle School, in his training to become a military commander fit to defend against an inevitable attack from an alien species that decimated the Earth in the past. The movie stars Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin and Viola Davis, as well as the aforementioned sci-fi God himself, Harrison Ford.
And over in San Diego, the Ender’s Game Fan Experience invited the huge structure based off of the Battle School, which houses numerous rooms full of props and costumes that Con attendees can move through, as well as an area that allows fans to sit in on a Battle School session hosted by Harrison Ford as Col. Hyrum Graff (not in person, unfortunately). You can check out more on the Fan Experience here.
Movie Fone unveiled three new character posters for the film as well, including this one of Hailee Steinfeld in full Petra garb:
Ender’s Game hits theaters November 1, 2013. Be sure to check out SDCC 2013 for more on our coverage from San Diego!
Indiana Jones and Commissioner Gordon are pissed at each other, or at least I think that’s what this new Paranoia movie is about. Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman headline a pretty solid cast in this corporate espionage flick, with Liam Hemsworth playing the pawn stuck in the middle. Hemsworth is hired by Dracula Oldman to spy on his old mentor Han Solo Ford and steal company secrets. His motivations for doing this are purely altruistic as he just wants to help his ailing old man, played by Richard “I don’t need this, I was in Jaws“ Dreyfus. I’m sure driving the cool car and banging Amber Heard had no baring on his decision-making. Check out the trailer…
I have a confession to make: I’ve never read Ender’s Game. I know, a part of me should have my nerd credentials ripped off, torn into pieces, spat upon and then skinned and turned into some kind of floppy ruck sack. The issue was while in middle school and high school I was too busy reading Heinlein and Douglas Adams, and the contrast between those two types of SF left me a bit frazzled and unable to try anything else for a while, until I found Philip K. Dick and boy did that open a whole new can of worms. Enough my waxing poetic about books I’ve read in the past though, and more about Ender’s Game itself. Sadly, all I have to go on now is how it’s supposedly a great story, written by a man who now unfortunately has tainted his own name pretty horribly. There’s been a pretty large, and justified row about Orson Scott Card due to his incredibly awful personal beliefs, and I’m fairly certain that will affect the perception the public at large has of the film. Especially for folks like me, who haven’t read the novel itself, and only know about OSC’s reputation. Regardless of that stigma however, the trailer is certainly interesting enough.
The problem I have with that trailer is it doesn’t really explain what the story is at all, and relies on the fact that you already know the story to be pumped for it. It makes me think what most non-SF loving people must think of the genre as, because all I see are weird swarm/alien bee-ships, and a little kid using an Mega-Xbox-Kinect (Oh I get it, a GAME okay) to control giant laser beams that are blowing up a planet maybe? And somehow that’s a heroic thing, I think? Plus there’s someone in it named Asa Butterfield, which I swear to god I’ve named an old Dungeons & Dragons character of mine before. Along with Jakk Hornsblood and Magnus Graverock, but that’s neither here nor there. Plus did you see Ben Kingsley’s weird face tattoo? If I didn’t inherently love SF and everything about the genre, I would assume this was a bunch of weird nonsense of The Last Airbender proportions. Then again, Avatar was the biggest hit movie of all time, so what do I know? All I have to go off of is the synopsis give to the film from press releases anyway.
No but seriously. Look at his face. I can barely take that seriously.
“After an alien race called the Formics attacks Earth, the International Fleet prepare for the next invasion by training the best young children to find the future leader to lead the International Military. Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy but strategically brilliant boy, is pulled out of his school to join International Fleet and attend the legendary Battle School. After easily mastering the increasingly difficult war games, distinguishing himself and winning respect among his peers, Ender is soon ordained by Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) as the military’s next great hope, resulting in his promotion to Command School. Once there, he’s trained by Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley) himself to lead the military into a war that will determine the future of Earth and the human race.”
[/quote]
There’s also this preview trailer, which I guess is a trailer for a trailer, which is a thing they do now. How incredibly redundant that is I suppose is up to your personal choice, but I find it utterly dumbfounding.
The only thing worth seeing in that preview was hearing how Asa Butterfield pronounces his name, which hilariously sounds like “Butts field”, which is now going to be a town in my next Dungeons & Dragons game. But enough about my Dungeons & Dragon’s games. This is about ENDER’S Game, (Ooooh segue master!), and if you like Ender’s Game and can ignore how much of a douche OSC is, I suppose you’ll be psyched for this. I’m reserving a cautious “Meh”, just in case it ends up being a weird, homophobic, terrible polemic.
Grizzly Bomb 