Will 'Ender's Game' be the next 'Hunger Games'?
Posted Tuesday, August 6, 2013 at 5:20 PM Central
by John Couture
When Lionsgate acquired Summit Entertainment early in 2012, it was heralded as the potential birth of a strong seventh studio to join the "big six." Buoyed by the success of the Twilight franchise and the soon-to-be realized phenomenon that is The Hunger Games, experts pointed to Ender's Game as the franchise that will launch this new combined company into orbit (pun most definitely intended).
Unfortunately, they failed to take into consideration the rather strong feelings of author Orson Scott Card towards the current hot button topic of gay marriage. In fact, Card's remarks overshadowed the film at Comic Con and caused the director and stars to respond to the comments and reaffirm their film in light of said comments.
Whoever said there's no such thing as bad publicity never tried to delicately balance the family friendly values of a potential franchise aimed at children with an outspoken author calling for a boycott. Lionsgate is doing all of the right things, such as holding a benefit premiere to benefit LGBT causes, but one has to wonder what effect this will have on the film.
As many have said, a film should be judged on its merits alone and shouldn't be held captive to the viewpoints of the novel's author. Of course, it does beg the question as to how much those viewpoints are reflected in the final product. It doesn't help when said product is a film about a post-apocalyptic Earth that turns to its children to fight the final alien invasion that may finally decide humanity's fate once and for all.
Don't worry, the franchise has spawned 15 books (and counting), so there's plenty of source material to pull from moving forward, but the first film has to be successful or it doesn't make financial success to produce the sequels. And that's why Lionsgate has been proactive in this case, playing a most risky tightrope act so as not to alienate either side of the issue.
At the end of the day though, the film itself will most likely decide its own fate. From the look of the new trailer below, things certainly look impressive, but I'm still left wondering if there's enough story to hook all of the action onto it. Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley are strong actors to give the project some weight, but is it just me or do they look a tad out of place?
Ender's Game is set to open on November 1, so the wait is almost over. If I had to guess right now, I would say that it fails to live up The Hunger Games standard. Fret not though, Catching Fire will open up a mere three weeks after Ender's Game.
That's what you call hedging your bet Lionsgate.