Awkward. Lionsgate/Summit Entertainment have taken the young adult sci-fi film “Ender’s Game” to Comic-Con to market it to the masses. And the first question to come out of the mouths of audiences? Asking how involved “Ender’s Game” author Orson Scott Card is in the making of the movie. Card has stirred major unwanted controversy around the movie with his bigoted anti-gay comments, something that Lionsgate is doing their best to distance themselves from, and they were probably hoping no on would ask at the gigantic, supposed-to-be-light trade show.
“I would hate to see the efforts of all the people who made this movie thwarted for the less than 1% of the people behind the movie,” producer Robert Orci said the issue, “particularly because the message of the book and the movie is tolerance, compassion and empathy.” Oh, the irony (footage from the panel below via Film Drunk).
The usually inhospitable and taciturn
Harrison Ford was in attendance, seemed like he was in a light mood for once and was quick to dismiss the controversy. “I think we all know that we’ve won. That humanity has won,”
Ford said, alluding to recent victories in gay marriage across the United States. “And that’s the end of the story.”
For more,
Entertainment Weekly has a big piece about the imbroglio in this week’s issues, and one of the best quotes is from a studio chief also trying to deflect the controversy. “If you had an issue, why now?,” a source tells the magazine. “He has sold millions of books.” Be that as it may, a whole new audience is just hearing about this issue for the first time and if they’re offended, well, they have every right to be.
Meanwhile, footage of the movie screened at Comic-Con and if Twitter is to be believed, said footage of the sci-fi movie
looks “epic” (how soon the audience apparently forgets director
Gavin Hood‘s “
X-Men Origins: Wolverine“). But to be fair if you follow Twitter closely, the narrative from each panel appears to be “footage of [Insert Movie Title Here] looks epic!” So there’s that too. (Though nerds were a bit more harsh on “
Divergent,”
which only finished shooting two days ago….)
Co-starring Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis and Abigail Breslin, “Ender’s Game,” the same-sex-friendly movie version that believes in equal opportunity for all members of the LGBT community, will hit theaters on November 1st. New photos and promo clips below.
