Ender's Game Movie Searching for New Director

io9 reports that Wolfgang Peterson is no longer directing the Ender's Game movie and producers are currently meeting with candidates to find a replacement.

Peterson's involvement in Ender's Game has been in doubt since last month when it was announced he would be directing the scifi movie Uprising.

EG Producer Lynn Hendee also gave a number of updates on the current status of the film:

• Orson Scott Card is currently working on revisions to his latest draft of the script.
• Casting will not begin until a director is chosen, so it's too early to speculate on who might be cast to play Ender Wiggin.

In other news, Marvel Comics announced today that there will be an Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow comic book series, written by Chris Yost (New X-Men, X-Force), with art by Pasqual Ferry (Ultimate Iron Man) and overseen by OSC.

This could be a warm-up for the Ender's Game movie, since Card explains that, "I'm hoping Marvel will show [Hollywood] how it's done, because you guys know how to put the story down in a visual way so that it comes to life."

Petersen Still Wants to Direct Ender's Game

Despite all of the problems facing the Ender's Game movie, Wolfgang Petersen is still interesting in directing it and told IGN that he believes that the movie will be made.

Last spring, Warner Bros placed the film into turnaround, essentially giving up on the project. Orson Scott Card said that he and the producers were shopping the script to other studios and that a director could not be hired until the financing had been arranged.

But now it looks like Petersen is still involved in the project.

He told IGN that he is working on developing three films, including Ender's Game, and that he had met with Orson Scott Card recently about it. He called it "a very, very tricky adaptation and an incredibly fascinating concept" and believes that he will some day make the film.

Movie Update From OSC

Orson Scott Card spoke to IGN Movies and gave them the latest on the Ender's Game movie. Unfortunately, it's not good news since it's doesn't seem like the movie will be coming out any time soon. On the other hand, perhaps it is best that the film not be made until it's going to be done correctly.

Ender's Game is currently in "turnaround" at Warner Bros, meaning WB is not going to be doing the film and the rights may be sold to another studio.

Here are the highlights:

Card advised us that Ender's Game has been put into turnaround at Warner Bros., a move that the author said was "a good thing" for the filmmakers since it allows them to shop the project to other studios. He also suggested that the producers behind Ender's Game -- Chartoff Productions and Fresco Pictures -- may try to raise funding independently.

Card said he is now the sole screenwriter on the project, disclosing that he was pulled away from his Iron Man comic book project to work on the Ender's script.

He emphasized that until financing is in place no director can be hired.

He added that there are several "excellent" special effects houses willing to work on the film because they know the book.

The Latest News

It's October, and there was hope that Ender fans would have some news on the movie by now. Director Wolfgang Petersen had said back in May that he had hoped to start work on his next project by September. Petersen hasn't announced that he's starting work on his next project yet, so at least there's hope that it will be the EG movie.

On Philotic there's word that Orson Scott Card is working on a second draft to his latest script. At least the Ender's Game movie is still a high priority at Warner Bros. But if WB doesn't like this draft of the script, they'll call in more scriptdoctors.

Hopefully there will be more substancial news soon.

OSC comments on some changes from the novel (Potential Spoilers)

On Hatrack, OSC briefly mentioned that he's considering writing a new version of EG, and a change he's had to make for the sake of it being a movie:

Ender's Game, while at the moment it is still my most popular, is not my best novel. I've learned a few things since writing it . Indeed, after working on the screenplay, I'm soooooo tempted to create a completely new version of Ender's Game that includes some of the really cool stuff that I've come up with for the film script. (While still not be a movie novelization - for instance, I still like having Ender meet the hive queen on another planet, not on the asteroid Eros, but for the film there's just no way.)