Ender’s Game Has Big Comic-Con Plans, Minus Orson Scott Card
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The San Diego Comic-Con is so massive at this point, it only seems natural for films to eventually branch away from the pop culture-soaked event to become entirely separate entities. A festival solely promoting adaptations of young adult novels could easily match the audience and hype of the SDCC without much effort. And from there, the highly anticipated adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s celebrated novel Ender’s Game could host its own mini-festival.
But for now, the film is content just to take over its own portion of the convention, setting up huge interactive displays to accompany the standard booth. But all of this will be done without Card present, as the novelist — also a producer on the film — has been completely absent from the film’s advertising thus far, undoubtedly due to the public backlash against the author following another display of his staunchly anti-homosexual beliefs. Though really, it isn’t clear if Summit Entertainment is avoiding Card, or the other way around. They’ll have to bring him out at some point before the film’s release to appease the masses who wouldn’t be watching this movie if they didn’t love the book so much.
So while you may think the huge interactive display is just Harrison Ford wearing a sandwich board that says, “No Star Wars questions, please,” it isn’t. Ford will indeed be on the panel, making this his second SDCC appearance, following his 2010’s Cowboys & Aliens showing. He’ll be joined by stars Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, and Abigail Breslin, as well as director Gavin Hood and producer Robert Orci.
But for fans who want a more immersive experience, Summit is building a specially constructed, eight-room exhibit in the downtown Gaslamp district which will feature “the most iconic environments of Ender’s world, complete with original props and set pieces used in the movie.” Footage from the film will play on big LED screens while fans can walk around taking pictures of themselves integrated with the settings. The 12-year-old in me would like someone to time travel and pick him up please.
The panel will be held on Thursday, July 18.
