In just two weeks time, the feature adaptation of Ender's Game will arrive in theaters. We've seen quite a bit of promotional content for the film in the recent weeks, including half a dozen new clips, and a preview of the excellent Mondo poster that's set to go on sale next week. And today brings this new featurette, which shows us "Building Ender's World," including the Battle Room, Command School, alien worlds and more.
Ender's Game is based on a sci-fi novel from Orson Scott Card and takes place in the future when humanity is preparing for a war against an alien race. To do that, the International Fleet is recruiting the most gifted children from around the world to attend a space-set Battle School where they play games and participate in other training to prepare for the war. That includes tumbling through the zero gravity Battle Room. The above preview gives us a couple looks at the Battle Room and some hints as to how they're going to make Ender and the other kids float in zero gravity.
The video also gives us a peek at Ender using a futuristic tablet device. In the book, which was written in the 80s, long before iPads and Kindle Fires, the "desk" is something kids use for class and to play the "Mind Game," an adventure game that the authorities use to analyze the kids' decision-making and leadership abilities.
Summit hasn't offered us any official looks at the Mind Game, yet, but producer Roberto Orci and director Gavin Hood discussed that with me when I spoke to them at Comic-Con last summer, so we know it's in there. And considering how many clips and TV spots we've seen from this film already, it's kind of nice to know that some parts have been kept relatively under wraps as the film's release approaches.
Speaking of promotional content, I was watching the Being Human marathon on Syfy earlier today and caught a commercial advertising some kind of Ender's Game featurette that's set to air on Syfy this weekend. I only caught the tail end of the advertisement, but I'm pretty sure this featurette is set to air some time on Sunday night during Syfy's broadcast of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which is showing at 9/8c as part of Syfy's 31 Days of Halloween. Temple of Doom might not be particularly sci-fi, but Harrison Ford certainly has enough associations with the genre, between Star Wars, and now Ender's Game, so that works.
Ender's Game arrives in theaters November 1.
