ENDER'S GAME - Brendan Meyer cast as Stilson
The casting for Ender's Game is on a role, and it's just been reported that 17-year old canadian actor Brendan Meyer will be taking on the role of Stilson in the film. Stilson is a classmate of Ender's who taunted him during ground school in the story. I'm not really that familiar with Meyer, but he is on the Disney XD show Mr. Young, which I have never watched. He joins the previously cast Asa Butterfield as Ender, Hailee Steinfeld as Petra, Ben Kingsley as Mazer, and maybe Harrison Ford as Colonel Hyrum Graff.
Here's some Spoiler filled details on who this character is and his relationship with Ender:
Stilson was a classmate of Ender's when Ender was still enrolled in Ground School. He and his gang frequently taunted and assaulted Ender. On the day that Ender had his monitor removed, Stilson and his gang surrounded Ender after school. Ender, seeing that he could not escape the situation without violence, kicked Stilson in the breast bone and knocked him to the ground. To make his victory complete and ensure that neither Stilson nor any of his gang would ever come after him again, he then kicked Stilson several times in the ribs and face. Stilson subsequently died from his injuries (probably from a ruptured lung, as Ender's kick to the breastbone may well have broken his xiphisternum). Ender was not informed of his death until many years later.
The film is being directed by Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and is based on the science fiction novel series by Orson Scott Card. What are your thoughts on Meyer taking on the role of Stilson
Here is an official description of the story:
In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting
Battle School
for rigorous military training.
Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the
Battle Room
, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.
Is Ender
the general Earth needs?
But Ender
is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.