ENDER'S GAME - First Look at Harrison Ford and Asa Butterfield

We finally have our first official photo from the long awaited big screen adaptation of Orson Scott Card's Ender's game! It features Harrison Ford as Colonel Graff and Asa Butterfield as Ender facing off. The photo features some of the other new Battle School recruits known as "Launchies". In this scene Graff is confronting Ender on whether his emails to home are being blocked. 

The movie is being directed by X-Men Origins: Wolverine director Gavin Hood who talks about the relationship between Ford and Butterfield saying,

The relationship between [Harrison] and Asa was very close, but he didn’t overly befriend him off the set. He helped Asa by allowing that slight sense of intimidation to be there. The kids have to attend school for at least three hours of class every day, plus do homework, so you can only shoot with someone like Asa for five hours of your day. There was no time for fooling about or not knowing your lines or being unprepared.

The director goes on to talk about the characters in the film being older than what they were in the book,

I discussed this at length with Orson. The decision was made very early on to compress the time period into about a year, so that we could have the same actor from beginning to end… We were trying to hit that sweet spot right around 12, which Asa fits in very nicely. When you sit down for two hours, you’re just beginning to bond with an actor, and then he changes and suddenly you’re bonding with someone who’s meant to be the same person, but you know he’s a different actor.

Now I'm a huge fan of the book, and I personally think there was a better way to tackle this story and these characters and still stay completely true to the story and characters. But still, as a fan I'm excited to see how this movie turns out! Hood also talks about his fandom saying, "I am a fan, and I have had a desire to do this and have been working on this now for nearly four years." He then promises that the ending of the book, which is pretty dark, will stay the same,

That ending — and the complex moral questions that it raises — is one of the reasons why I love the book. I promise you that it is very much there.

So that's a plus for fans! I really hope this movie turns out to be what fans have been waiting to see all of these years. 

The movie also stars Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Viola Davis, Nonso Anozie, Stevie Ray Dillmore, Andrea Powell, Moises Arias, Conor Carroll, Aramis Knight, Brendan Meyer, Jimmy "Jax" Pinchak, Suraj Parthasarathy and Khylin Rhambo. It's set to be released on November 1st, 2013, and here's the synopsis... 

In the near future, a hostile alien race (called the Formics) have attacked Earth. If not for the legendary heroics of International Fleet Commander, Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley), all would have been lost. In preparation for the next attack, the highly esteemed Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) and the International Military are training only the best young children to find the future Mazer. Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy, but strategically brilliant boy is pulled out of his school to join the elite.

 

Arriving at Battle School, Ender quickly and easily masters increasingly difficult war games, distinguishing himself and winning respect amongst his peers. Ender is soon ordained by Graff as the military's next great hope, resulting in his promotion to Command School. Once there, he's trained by Mazer Rackham, himself, to lead his fellow soldiers into an epic battle that will determine the future of Earth and save the human race.