Monday 7 October 2013

Ender's Game Q and A with Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Asa Butterfield, Hailee SteinFeld and Gavin Hood



Ahead of the release of Gavin Hood's sci-fi epic Ender's Game, the stars were in London's Leicester Square for a Q&A event and to share some clips from the film with a huge crowd of expectant fans. After screening the trailer and two clips from the film released on October 25th, the stars took to the stage to answer questions from fans.


It got off to a rocky start with some unexpected delays but finally producers Bob Orci, Gigi Pritzker, stars Sir Ben Kingsley, Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld and director Gavin Hood took their seats to much applause. Harrison Ford appeared to be in a good mood, if a little slow sadly these days as he speaks and thinks. Sir Ben spoke at length about his character while Asa Butterfield also had plenty to say on his experience of making the film. While Steinfeld was quiet, she was charming whenever she spoke. Director Gavin Hood and the producers all demonstrated their passion for the film and the book it was based on.


Nothing was mentioned on the whole Orson Scott Card homophobic controversy unfortunately as I would have been interested to see what would have been said on it. I completely understand people wanting to boycott this movie if you feel strongly about what Card has said in the past but on  the other hand, whether the guy is homophobic or not makes no difference to his talent as a writer. It's difficult as I don't want to make the guy even richer or give his views any more publicity but I think the film looks interesting and I hope it has some important points to make about war.


The book is nearly 30 years old and seems to have been very prescient. Gavin Hood gave us Tsotsi and adapted Card's much loved book for the screen. Producer Gigi Pritzker has been trying to get the film made since buying the rights 13 years ago so it's been a pretty epic struggle to get it made. Along with Butterfield, Steinfeld and the big guns Sir Ben and Mr Ford, the film also stars Little Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin and The Help's Viola Davis.


It could be Starship Troopers without the satire or it could be a serious Independence Day with added moral ambiguity and complex themes about the ethics of war. Either way it was an interesting Q&A and I hope you will check out my videos from the event below and at the bottom is the trailer:

Harrison Ford on Special effects from Star Wars to Ender's Game:



Ben Kingsley, Asa Butterfield and Gavin Hood on Ender's Game adaptation



Hailee Steinfeld on Ender's Game characters




Director Gavin Hood talks casting Ender's Game




Ben Kingsley discusses his character in Ender's Game




Asa Butterfield & Harrison Ford talk Ender's Game




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