Giant Freakin Robot

Orson Scott Card wrote Ender’s Game in 1985. It is, almost without question, one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written. And he’s been doing everything he can to undermine it ever since.

He’s not doing it on purpose, mind you. But the endless cash-ins on the story in the form of mostly inferior and unnecessary sequels (Ender’s Shadow excepted) haven’t exactly helped cement its legacy. Perhaps even worse than those are the man himself. Card is, to put it bluntly, kind of an asshole.

Even his assholery isn’t, in and of itself, exactly news. A lot of authors are grade-A jerks. Harlan Ellison for instance is one of the all time biggest assholes, but people are still able to acknowledge his genius. What’s really making it tough for people to keep enjoying Card’s brilliant writing is the specific focus for some of his assholery. In short, he’s a homophobe.

We’ve just gotten our first ever look at Andrew “Ender” Wiggin in the Ender’s Game movie. Granted, it’s only the back of his head, but it’s really him.

Here’s the photo, see you afterward for an explanation of what the image depicts…

Asa Butterfield as Ender Wiggin in Ender's Game

It’s hard to believe that they’re really finally making an Ender’s Game movie. It’s been in the works, and in so many different iterations, for so long that I was afraid it was going to be banished to the same level of development hell as the Rendezvous with Rama movie. But now it’s really happening, and while we’ve got a long, long wait until the 2013 release date, the production continues to offer up fun little tidbits to keep our interest. We’ve seen Ender’s (or rather, Asa Butterfield’s) chair, we got a look at a sign from one of the sets, and now they’ve provided a look at Ender Wiggin’s room before he’s shipped off to Battle School.

The Ender’s Game movie is underway and filming with Hugo’s Asa Butterfield in the lead as Ender. We haven’t really seen much from the set so far, other than Asa’s chair, but that changed today with our first actual picture of the set. Here it is…

It may not seem like much but this is actually kind of a big deal. Modern movies tend to skimp and instead of building sets just throw a bunch of green screens up which they’ll fill with CGI vomit later. It never looks quite as good as when they actually build something and this is proof that Ender is actually building.