'Ender's Game' Puts Out Casting Calls For Ender And Nine Other Characters

It feels like a film adaptation of Orson Scott Card's sci-fi classic Ender's Game has been in the works for about as long as I can remember, so you'll have to forgive me for my initial skepticism when it was announced last year that director Gavin Hood would be making yet another attempt to translate the novel to the big screen. But the project actually seems to be coming together this time around. Early this year writer/producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman boarded the picture, Summit picked up the project a few months later, and now, apparently, casting is underway. The project has recently put out a casting call, seeking young actors to fill ten major roles including the part of Ender himself. Read more after the jump.

If you haven't read the book, the plot revolves around a young boy named Ender Wiggin who is recruited to attend the prestigious Battle School, a space station used for military training of children. Once there, he and the other young students are trained to fight against an alien race called the Formics that once attacked Earth. (But seriously, you should read the book.)

The characters being cast are protagonist Ender; his sister Valentine; his brother Peter; the bully Bonzo Madrid; student leader Rose the Nose; Ender's friends Bean, Dink Meeker, Petra, and Alai; and some guy named Mick whom I do not recall from the books — any of you remember him?

You can head over to the original story to read more details on the script, but overall it sounds like this draft of the script doesn't change too much from the book. The biggest differences seem to be that Ender is now ten, a bit older than he was in the books, and that Peter is "fully a psychopath" rather than just cruel but basically sane. While I'm not of the belief that a film adaptation necessarily should be totally faithful, it's a good sign that the production seems to have a healthy understanding of and respect for the source material — at least at this point.