The casting notice for the Ender’s Game movie

Expanding on my post from yesterday…

First problem: the summary posted indicates that Ender is recruited at the age of 10 because of his skills as a gamer.

Second problem: The adults at Battle School are all considered leads, and there seems to be far more emphasis on the trials after the war than the book gave.

Third problem: Dap is listed as a military drill sergeant, and seems to have a beefed up role aside from this completely incorrect characterization.

Fourth problem: They’ve made Anderson a female military psychologist.

Fifth problem: They didn’t even spell Mazer’s name right.

I’m sure there are dozens of other things about this that I could add to this list if I had the script and not just a preliminary casting notice.

Here’s the thing: yes, Orson Scott Card has gone through many producers to get where he is, and yes the party line is that he’s “heavily involved”, but let’s be realistic. Card is a smart guy that has certainly figured out that spending more than a decade unsuccessfully trying to get the movie made in a way true to the book is a good indicator that it isn’t going to happen. So in the interest of just plain getting it made, he’s more likely than not let stuff slide in terms of faithful adaptation.

Oh, and did I mention that Gavin Hood is directing it? Nice guy, but I don’t think anyone would exactly laud X-Men Origins: Wolverine as a great piece of work, and that happens to be the last thing Hood directed.

I’m all for hoping for the best, but Ender’s Game is my favorite book and I’m willing to bet that anyone who loves it like I do will be incredibly disappointed by the movie.

I’d rather they didn’t make Ender’s Game than that they ruin it…

But based on the casting notice that just went up, any fans of Ender’s Game should be really fucking worried about how badly they’re gonna butcher the book with the movie adaptation. Sigh.

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And welcome to Tumblr!

The other day, I was describing to a friend what I would ideally want out of a relationship with a guy, and after hearing what I want, my friend called me misanthropic. In certain ways, I can’t dispute this. I don’t like having anyone in my space, I consider sex more of a physical activity than an intimate one, and I don’t like telling people how I feel. When it comes to dating, apparently I have issues.

I had a long term relationship that was really fantastic for years, but ended with me fucking it up royally. The details aren’t important (well, they are, but I’m not going to blog about them; even when I’m in an emotionally revealing mood, there are still things I’m not going to put on the internet). Suffice it to say, I handled it as badly as was humanly possible, but I learned from it and think it was important to have gone through.

That formative relationship was followed by another that managed to have a large impact on me without lasting nearly as long. This one was never good, even when I thought it was. Or maybe it was, but after it unraveled during a particularly painful and confusing part of my life, it was difficult for me to look at it objectively. Even several years after the fact, I’m hurt thinking about it.

I spent a long time shying away from romantic entanglements after that. The couple times I tried to dip my toe back in the water seemed to backfire fairly quickly, and it wasn’t long before I was gun-shy enough to convince myself I was better off ignoring the entire idea of dating.

Here’s the problem: closing myself off to all that slowly bled out into my approach to all my relationships. I’m certainly not anti-social, in fact I’m part of a community that I consider nearly hyper-social and (unless I’m woefully mistaken) am generally well-thought of within it. But even though I could tell you an awful lot about my friends, part of that community and otherwise, there are very few people that could tell you anything significant about me.

Somewhere along the line, I became a person that’s easy to talk to, yet nearly impossible to really know. I stopped allowing myself to be vulnerable with anyone that hadn’t already seen me through bad times, thus proving they’d stick around rather than bolt if things were anything other than rosy. I lost the ability to trust people with anything other than the surface elements of my life.

Having realized this, obviously I have to change. And I’m trying. I’m answering honestly when friends inquire about what’s going on with me rather than giving a stock “I’m good” and turning the conversation to their life instead of mine. I’m actually considering it when I get asked out rather than turning guys down out of hand (and if I’m honest, this has resulted in some fun dates, though I still have a hard time imagining wanting to date someone seriously). I’m trying to remember that letting people be close to me doesn’t mean they’ll let me down, and that even if they do, it isn’t the end of the world.

If I know I can pick myself back up when I fall (and I do know that), then there isn’t any reason to be afraid of falling in the first place.

Time to play(list) again!

My 2010 playlist:

“It’s Thunder And It’s Lightning” by We Were Promised Jetpacks, These Four Walls
“Romance Is Boring” by Los Campesinos!, Romance Is Boring
“Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” by Stars, Set Yourself on Fire
“Every Star, Ever Planet (The Doctor’s Theme)” by Murray Gold, Doctor Who: Series 5 Soundtrack
“This Modern Love” by Bloc Party, Silent Alarm
“Bored to Death Theme Song” by Coconut Records, single
“Code Monkey” by Jonathan Coulton, Thing A Week Three
“Little Lion Man” by Mumford & Sons, Sigh No More
“The Twist” by Frightened Rabbit, The Midnight Organ Fight
“Mad World (Alternate)” by Michael Andrews, Donnie Darko Soundtrack
“Gunfight Epiphany (Theme from Terriers)” by Robert Duncan, single
“Sweet Disposition” by The Temper Trap, Conditions
“People Were Mean to You” by The Mountain Goats, single

Something interesting: this is the first year ever where I’ve put TV theme music on my list, and in that first year for TV music, three TV themes made the list.

2010 Year in review

1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?
The big achievement of the year: I got literary representation! I also began performing regularly with various improv teams at various venues (including playing a Cagematch), auditioned for Harold teams, discovered I like Indian food, and finally visited the Getty (on my birthday!).

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I’m not much for New Year’s resolutions. I did have a 52 books in 52 weeks project going on last year that I fell off of, but I intend to try again this year. I keep a separate Tumblr chronicling the process.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope, not a banner year for popping out kids, apparently.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
One of my aunts and a very old friend of my dad’s both passed away. They were in very poor health by the end, but lived amazing lives while they were with us.

5. What countries did you visit?
I’m going to be very upset if I have to say none again to this next year as I have to this year and have had to for the past several years.

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
I can finally stop saying literary representation! I will continue to say a duck.

7. What date from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Signing with a lit rep because it’s been a goal for a long time, going to the wedding of two very dear friends from high school because it was a very sentimental occasion, and my birthday because it was very nice.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Have I mentioned the lit rep yet?

9. What was your biggest failure?
Again, I’m pretty happy with how this year has gone. There’s nothing that stands out in my mind as a big failure, let alone a biggest failure.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Again, I had allergies and the occasional cold/flu but nothing too serious.

11. What were the best things you bought?
Improv class tuition, and while I didn’t buy it, I’ve been very happy with the iPhone I got as a birthday gift from my parents.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My writing partner and several of my close improv friends have been amazing this year, as well as a couple friends from the film industry that helped me and my writing partner on the path to getting a lit rep.

13. Whose behavior appalled you?
Pretty much the same people as always, one leaping to an even higher level this year than he has in the past. I won’t name names, though.

14. Where did most of your money go?
As always, rent and car, and UCB class tuition was a reasonably large part of my spending this year too.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Is it annoying if I mention the lit rep again? I don’t care if it’s annoying, it’s true. And finishing the script that we’ve been working on so that it’s ready for next steps, that was pretty darn amazing. I also got really excited about new episodes of Doctor Who, probably more excited than I’ve ever been about any other TV show.

16. What song will always remind you of 2010?
This is always a hard question to answer. I’m gonna go with “Every Star, Every Planet” by Murray Gold.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: happier or sadder?
Definitely happier!

ii. thinner or fatter?
The same or perhaps slightly thinner? I don’t know to the exact pound or anything.

iii. richer or poorer?
Poorer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Writing, painting, improv, and going to movies.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Worry.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
My parents and I always go to my aunt and uncle’s house in Glenview for Christmas Eve, which is a tradition I very much enjoy. Christmas day we stay home and open presents, then have Christmas dinner. This year, the Doctor Who Christmas special was also a part of my Christmas, and my mom actually enjoyed watching it with me despite having seen very little of the series prior to the special.

21.
I think 21 got sucked into a crack in the universe.

22. Did you fall in love in 2010?
Nope. I don’t know how much I believe in the concept, if I’m being honest.

23. How many one-night stands?
I remain not a one-night stand kind of girl.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Doctor Who.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No! Which is great!

26. What was the best book you read?
Yikes. I’m gonna say The Magicians by Lev Grossman. It’s sort of a more organic, mature take on a concept like Harry Potter, about kids in a college for people that have magical abilities. But the characters are what make it, because their experience of college is so real and so authentic and in some parts so heartbreaking that the incredibly well-handled portrayal of magic is just a plus. But check out my aforementioned book blog for more books, as I read a bunch of great stuff last year before falling off my self-set challenge.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
We Were Promised Jetpacks, Mumford & Sons, and Frightened Rabbit. I know that’s 3, but I can’t choose.

28. What did you want and get?
A lit rep, an iPhone, a sonic screwdriver, and a bunch of movies and books.

29. What did you want and not get?
A duck and a trip to London.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Also a very tough question. The Social Network and Toy Story 3 tie for the win here, but Date Night gets an honorable mention since I worked on it and very much enjoyed the end product.

31. What did you do on your birthday?
My dear friend James had the idea to take me to the Getty for the day, which I loved, then I had dinner with him and another dear friend, Jess. Afterward, we went back to Jess’s and my place and put up our Christmas tree (my birthday is December 7). I had a party-type thing the following Friday night at Public House, which was very fun because my friends are awesome and the various circles (old friends, work friends, improv friends, social networking friends, etc.) are all so amicable that they can happily party together without really knowing one another.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasureably more satisfying?
Selling a script, though I can’t complain about not having done this since I made a great stride in the writing career anyway.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
Jeans, hoodies, Converse, boots, the odd dress, and cool stuff my mom brought me from London throughout the year on her various business trips.

34. What kept you sane?
James, UCB, and my parents.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
My list as it stands for the end of 2010:
1. David Tennant
2. Matt Smith
3. John Krasinski
4. Robert Downey Jr.
5. Joseph Gordon-Levitt

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
I’m happy to say that nothing political got my blood boiling this year.

37. Who did you miss?
My parents, especially after a trip home this summer for a wedding made it all the more obvious mid-year.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Beth, Amanda, and David are people I met this year that all exhibited such an open, warm, and sincere willingness to help me toward lit representation that it was genuinely touching. I’m lucky to be able to count them as friends.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.
I always feel like my answers to this question are cheesy. That aside, I think this year for me was about having real faith in my talents and courage enough to ask for help in achieving the things I want.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
“Ships with holes will sink
And I will swim”
- Ships With Holes Will Sink by We Were Promised Jetpacks