Logline Central - Ender's Game

Logline Central is an irregular segment that takes a deeper look at loglines of scripts or projects that have just been purchased, as listed on DoneDealPro.

I don't actually have a ton to say about this week's logline. It's fair to middling as a logline in and of its own, but it's more the project and director that I'm excited about.  Just a SPOILER ALERT warning to anyone who has not read (the awesome) Ender's Game and plans to some day - the logline pretty much gives away the ending, twist, and oomf of the book.

Title: Ender's Game

Logline: Set in a world in which humans face a serious threat from an alien race known as the Formics and begin training elite military units in response. Andrew Wiggin, also known as Ender, a child becomes a top-flight solider and helps to save Earth by fighting simulations that turn out to be real.

Writer: Gavin Hood

 More: Rewrite. Adapted from the Orson Scott Card's bestselling books. Gavin Hood will also direct. Last set up in February 2004 at Warner Bros.

If the name rings a bell, Gavin Hood is the filmmaker who directed X-Men Origins: Wolverine and gets most of the blame for the consensus that the movie generally sucked. (To be fair, I didn't think it blew that bad, but I also saw it after hearing how awful it was for about three weeks.) Still, whether he ruined your X-world or not, Hood deserves much more credit - and more chances - in my book. A few years ago, the South African native directed one of my all-time favorite films, the beautiful, under-appreciated gem TSOTSI. It was such an incredibly powerful character story focused on redemption and salvation, that Hood earned my $12.50 for his next few films. I'd like to see what he does with Ender's Game, since there's a lot there about the the characters (hopefully he can mine their emotions a bit deeper than he did in Wolverine).

It's always interesting to me when a filmmaker breaks into the American market with a beautiful, small film, and then almost immediately heads franchise pics like Wolverine and Ender. That must be a tremendous amount of pressure on someone who is not of the system originally and not accustomed to the kind of budgets handed over to them. Still, despite the widely-accepted notion that Wolverine sucked, Hood got Ender, which I know holds a special place in a lot of fans' hearts. Hell, I haven't read a lot of sci-fi (despite the fact that I tend to write it these days), and even I hold Ender's Game in very high regard. I was even just talking about it this weekend, as a matter of fact. 

Let's just hope that Hood guides the ship successfully to the screen. Ender's Game is difficult material in the sense that an adaptation has a lot to live up to, but I like to think that Gavin Hood is up to the challenge. If it makes it to the screen, I'll be there.