Everyone seems to be baffled at how the hell to pull this one off. Well, Actually, it always seemed pretty simple to me.
First, You don't want to look for young actors, horrible mistake. You'll never get the right honesty. This isn't Harry Potter, you wont find a match out of any kid that age who gets dragged into an audition by their parents. No, you want to find real kids, and you want to seriously mess with their heads (take a look at what Larry Clark did to his actors in KIDS, a much more exaggerated film but example nonetheless). One could even go so far as to set them up to actually think they are in a military training for geniuses (OK, maybe thats a little too far, plus illegal). But do what Eli Kazan and really get every kid to practically forget their few years with their parents and really be those kids. Without the proper acting training, you'll get a deeper honesty out of these kids. You're not looking for kids with talent ( the boy who played Anakin in Episode 1, he had 'talent', but look at the documentary of that film, and you'll see he wasn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box) no, you're looking for smarts, so regardless of how believable his 'emotions' are, what is realistic is how these kids actually learn the same way Ender learns. Stop looking for actors! Look for geniuses... Now, for a film like this, when you're working with a group of actors with less training, you're not going to want to rely on the script so heavily; you don't need to use the exact preschool insult in the script when you have a preschool kid who sounds twice as convincing making up his own.
So there's a few for now. Anyone with any other solutions to the 'impossible project' feel free to post, or if you just absolutly hate the one's I've got:)
Posted by Katarain (Member # 6659) on :
Who else is getting all FanGirl? Dink posted! Posted by Wesley (Member # 7963) on :
I have a solution. Let me direct. It'll be my first stepping stone to the path of Hegemony.
Posted by Hamson (Member # 7808) on :
Breed a race of super children, and once they are done with the movie, send them to Jupiter before they become to dangerous.
Posted by Mr_Megalomaniac (Member # 7695) on :
quote:Originally posted by Hamson: Breed a race of super children, and once they are done with the movie, send them to Jupiter before they become to dangerous.
But then in a century or so they will create an army and exact vengence upon us, but of course will all be dead by then...
Posted by CRash (Member # 7754) on :
Tsk, tsk. You can't put them all on the same planet. (Especially since Jupiter is not really solid.) Send them to various out-of-system locations and see how mutated they have become by the time they figure out how to get back to Earth.
Posted by Bekenn (Member # 6602) on :
All joking aside, I definitely do agree that the best possible solution would be to find kids who actually do approach the level of genius portrayed in the story. I wonder if googling for "child prodigy" might help....
Posted by lego feet (Member # 8093) on :
There's no way you can get kids to act they way they'll need to , to portray the characters of Ender's Game. The film needs to be an animated feature.
Posted by Jacob Calder (Member # 7945) on :
Ideally it would be great to all unknowns for the Ender's Game movie, create a real Battle School enviroment, but I fear the way movies are shot today, with tight schedules, tons of FX shots, they're going to need very experience professionals child actors who can hit their marks and rememeber their lines.
The boy who plays Ender will have the weight of a 100+ million dollar movie on his shoulders, the kid has to be extremely mature and professional.
Jake Lloyd was only 8 when he filmed Phantom Menace, he was just too young for that kind of a role. Harry Potter's casting was perfect because the kids very much like the characters they play and they were old enough to handle the pressure. More than likely, the same people who did the US Harry Potter casting will cast Ender's Game.as well.
Posted by Hamson (Member # 7808) on :
quote: (Especially since Jupiter is not really solid.)
This is why they're being sent there Posted by Sid Meier (Member # 6965) on :
unless they find out a way to detonate it while living on Eros/Io.... second star anyone?
Posted by Wesley (Member # 7963) on :
Wait just a moment, you see that whole race thing would work, yeah, but you'd have to elect me Hegemon. Vote for Wes, the man who's gonna make a decent Ender film, and then handle the 3 super-Kiddy wars. You see I'll use Metal Gear technology to defeat them......or I could just kill them all when their young. That could work.
Posted by CRash (Member # 7754) on :
You can be Hegemon as long as I can be Strategos.
On the child actors, you don't have to be a genius to act. Many good actors are not all that bright. And many geniuses couldn't act to save their lives. Since the goal is to make a movie, actors and actresses are what is needed. Twelve-year olds are perfectly capable of good performances, thank you. With a good cast, a live-action can be pulled off quite well.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
I want to be Graff, even though I'm not old enough, because he is the one who is really running everything.
Posted by Sid Meier (Member # 6965) on :
i geuss that leaves me as Polemarch...
Posted by Dink (Member # 1185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jacob Calder: Jake Lloyd was only 8 when he filmed Phantom Menace, he was just too young for that kind of a role. Harry Potter's casting was perfect because the kids very much like the characters they play and they were old enough to handle the pressure. More than likely, the same people who did the US Harry Potter casting will cast Ender's Game.as well.
The point I'm making is that regardless of Loyd's acting abilities, as well as those in the Harry Potter films, they really aren't very bright kids, period. Believe me, I'm not talking about some DVD documentary I saw, I know. The strongest advantage this film will have going for it is the silence of the characters; the kids will look the 'deepest' when they aren't talking, but if a kid thinks he has to 'act' constantly, even the silences will be disturbed by dishonesty. You need real genius kids who aren't actors because only then will you get the honesty and easily. It would be as easy as turning the camera on and recording what's already in front of them. There was a film about the national spelling B, and kids were about as young as Ender looked as intense as any adult actor, because these were real, honest geniuses. Hell, they should just get the names of those kids, put them in space suits, and that would be a great film!
Posted by genius00345 (Member # 8206) on :
Dink--you're talking about 'Spellbound', right? I own it.
I was in the National Spelling Bee in 2002. It really is an intimidating experience. The kids were anywhere from about 9 to 15.
Posted by Dink (Member # 1185) on :
Yeah, Spellbound! See people? this guy was in the spelling Bee and look at his name! point proven...
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)