Ender’s Game Could Be Reborn As A TV Show
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Gavin Hood’s adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s beloved novel Ender’s Game may have won the box office war on it’s opening weekend, but with the likes of Thor: The Dark World this weekend, and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire on the horizon, that’s a thing of the past. While it brought in a respectable $28 million ($32.5 over the first five days), that wasn’t nearly as much as Lionsgate hoped for, especially considering the $110 million price tag. With these numbers, the future of what the studio had hoped would be their next big young adult franchise, is in some doubt. One option that recently reared it’s head, however, is the possibility of an Ender’s Game television series.
From the way they marketed the film to the age of the characters and the story, it was obvious from work one that Lionsgate was positioning Ender’s Game as the embarkation point for a lucrative new franchise. Card even announced that he is working on additional novels that are both more traditional sequels than the rest of the expansive Enderverse, as well as being targeted more acutely at a YA audience. More films are not completely outside the realm of possibility, but the numbers weren’t as big as anyone hoped, no matter what they say. Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said that they will “wait another week or two” before deciding on the ultimate future of the series.
Feltheimer noted that one possibility currently being kicked around, is an episodic series based on Ender’s Game. Imagining what a TV show would look like is an interesting exercise. Set in a future full of aliens, spaceships, and all manner of futuristic gizmos, the production budget would have to skew towards the high side in order to make it work. Then again, if you set it on Earth, perhaps exploring some of the dystopian elements inherent in the world, you could probably pull it off without breaking the bank, special effects wise.
And would this be an Ender specific series, or would it take a different approach. One element missing from the movie was the thread that follows Ender’s siblings, the compassionate Valentine and the cruel Peter, as they become anonymous, and opposing political pundits. That side of the world could make for an intriguing basis for a show. There are a lot of options and potential paths they could follow, if indeed this is the way they go. Let us know what you think of the idea of an Ender’s Game TV show in the comments.
As for Lionsgate, no one feels too bad for them. After the massive success of the Twilight films, they’re smack in the middle of a Hunger Games world takeover, and have a new potential franchise in the near future with Neil Burger’s upcoming adaptation of Veronica Roth’s Divergent novels. Don’t worry, they’ll be okay.
