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100% CGI - It would almost eliminate trying to find several good actors to play the main characters, and make the battle room sequences a little easier to work with. (I can't quite see child actors working too well with wire rigs)
And certainly it doesn't have to end up looking cartoonish either, see Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children - Linky linky check out the trailers, plenty of 'children' in the movie, though few had speaking parts, same as it would be in the battle school too.
Just thought I'd throw that thought out there, in case it wasn't out there already. Posts: 1 | Registered: Jul 2008
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I think a mocap would be ok. But I just enjoy live action movies more and Im a 3d animation teacher.
Side note, I've seen Freddie Highmore in a bunch of movies and I think he looks young and innocent enough to play Ender though his American accent needs work.
Posts: 143 | Registered: Feb 2008
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Yes perfect! but the should do 2 movies instead of 1 Shadow and Game. I can see it now "One came from a beutiful home, the other from dirty streets one through murder one thru witto save the earth!!"
Posts: 1574 | Registered: May 2008
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While I would like to see Ender'S Game as a live action film, I wouldn't mind seeing some of the short stories done or new stories about the EG universe told in CGI.
posted
It'd be hard to pull off without being cheesy or making it look like a cop-out, but if done well, I wouldn't mind a movie with live action sequences outside the battle room/battle simulator, that switches to animation for the battles. I don't know enough about animation styles to describe what I'm picturing...semi-cartoony but with attention to physics and keeping things in the right proportions. It'd have to support the idea that battle is a separate reality for these children, eclipsing everything else - and therefore perceiving it in starker, simpler terms (via animation) makes sense.
Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
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A few years ago there were several discussions about doing it as an anime series.
Just discussions amongst folk, like this one, not with anybody who has anything to do with the making of it.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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CGI animation that tries to do realistic humans is still having trouble hurdling the Uncanny Valley effect. I don't think EG would probably want to handle straddling that one in addition to its other themes (and the possibility of a franchise.)
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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Yeah. During the entire time I read the book I'm thinking of what everything would look like. An Ender movie would be so cool. I wouldm't playing Petra myself. That would be sweet.
Posts: 13 | Registered: Jul 2008
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You would still definitely, DEFINITELY need to find extremely good child actors if the entire movie was CGI/motion capture.
In fact, it would be MORE important to find them. Without having use of their own eyes to show the emotion, sincerity, and depth of their characters, the actors would have to emote all the more perfectly through the use of their voices. For the rest they would be at the mercy of the animators. All of a sudden the nuances of timing, voice timbre, rhythm, and delivery would all become of paramount importance.
These actors would be in a tiny soundproof studio reading lines, often without their scene counterparts being present, but would have to SOUND as if they were breathlessly duking it out in the Battle Room, or locked in a ferocious power struggle on Earth, or bleary-eyed and confused in the Battle for Eros. All without anyone ever, EVER seeing the pain in their eyes, the twists of anger on their faces, the shaking of their hands...
You're right, good actors would no longer be necessary, but PHENOMENAL actors would be ESSENTIAL.
Posts: 2532 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Personally, I for one am glad it has taken so long for the movie to get made. A few more months and I'll be out of the navy, and If it takes much longer, I'll be darn near old enough to play Colonel Graff or somebody Posts: 2532 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Oh yes, the CGI again. I suppose it's an inevitable proposal for any science fiction movie.
Kudos for bringing up the uncanny valley effect, Sterling. I think that's one of the reasons I dislike CGI so much...it's just OFF. I know a lot of people who are okay with it, but generally CGI bothers me where human characters are involved.
I think CGI works more effectively when it is stylized, e.g. "The Incredibles" compared to "Polar Express"... I still don't think I'd want a 100% CGI Ender's Game. Depending on the balance of realism (and that's a very fine balance) it could easily become either cheesy or creepy.
I also agree with odouls...with CGI you need excellent voice actors. The only pro I see actor-wise is that the age of the characters can be manipulated in the movie and the voice actors could be any age at all (think how many cartoon voicers are far older than their animated counterparts).
CGI done superbly WELL would be great for an EG movie. It's just that there are so many ways it could flop. I think we should all watch the Clone Wars movie this fall and consider it a cautionary tale.,, Posts: 973 | Registered: Apr 2005
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my husband and I were talking about this, after watching the Avatar series finale last Saturday. Avatar was a *great* animated series, but I'm not sure it'll work as a live-action film. For one, you're expecting adolescent children to do kung fu scenes...without the right children, director, writing, and stunt work, it could look completely awful.
Battle room scenes could go the same way. But the medium of animation provided a great way to tell this story of these very adult kids who have to save the world (in the case of Avatar). I think it has just as much potential for EG.
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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"Uncanny valley" is something to avoid, definitely. That final fantasy movie that came out years ago was creepy even though it was impressive. Same with Beowulf (although Beowulf was much closer to being fully realistic - when characters were not moving, sometimes I was unable to tell I was looking at CGI).
Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
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I came across this article (http://logiclane.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/enders/) that was interesting; maybe we don't need an Ender's Game movie because it is being acted out in real life.
Posts: 3 | Registered: Jul 2008
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I've thought about this off and on for a long time, and so since I actually have something to say now I finally registered so I could make a post
Here's the biggest benefit to doing a film like Ender's Game in CG- within the look-and-feel of the form, you can realistically and convincingly age the children as much as you need to. With live-action photography, to alter age you resort to makeup or CGI over the principal photography. This works pretty effectively for adults - it's not too difficult to take a 30-year-old and make him look 20 or 60 with the proper makeup. Try taking an 8 year old, and making him look 5 or 12, though... it just doesn't work the same. Kids grow too fast, their looks change more rapidly than adults. Trying to get a kid who could both do launchy-Ender and Ender-on-Eros would be pretty close to impossible, and swapping out actors ruins immersion to a degree.
Of a lesser note, I'm sure the logistics of doing Battle Room scenes would be about a billion times easier to handle in an animated format, than trying to stage in real life. IIRC Ron Howard spent a ton of money in Apollo 13 to get just the few 20-second scene snippets of true zero-g that he needed and couldn't be faked.
Posts: 1 | Registered: Aug 2008
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Welcome, nlshelton. IIRC I think that OSC is condensing the story for the screenplay into a smaller time period so that the children don't need to age.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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just wanted to say that freddie highmore seems like a perfect ender wiggin to me. he's got the "dark tousled har" that both ender and peter had. Posts: 1 | Registered: Jul 2008
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