16 year-old Asa Butterfield was 13 or 14 when he began shooting Martin Scorsese‘s Hugo, when he had a wide-eyed innocent look. Now as the titular, pint-sized hero in Ender’s Game, he looks like a young Elvis Costello. (Offscreen he wears Costello-styled glasses.) Dystopian sci-fi CG pic costars Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, Hailee Steinfeld and Abigail Breslin. Obviously cookie-cutterish. A cousin of Oblivion and Elysium with a “precocious Luke Skywalker-ish kid becoming a warrior” storyline.
Directed and written by Gavin Hood and based in Orson Scott Card‘s 1985 sci-fi novel, Ender’s Game will open on 11.1.13 via Summit Entertainment.
Wiki synopsis: “After an alien race called the Formics attacks Earth, the International Fleet prepare for the next invasion by training the best young children to find the future leader to lead the International Military. Ender Wiggin (Butterfield), a shy but strategically brilliant boy, is pulled out of his school to join International Fleet and attend the legendary Battle School. After easily mastering the increasingly difficult war games, distinguishing himself and winning respect among his peers, Ender is soon ordained by Colonel Graff (Ford) as the military’s next great hope, resulting in his promotion to Command School. Once there, he’s trained by Mazer Rackham (Kingsley) himself to lead the military into a war that will determine the future of Earth and the human race.”
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