Will Poseidon Impact Ender's Game?

Wolfgang Petersen's Poseidon opened last weekend to a lower than expected $22.2 Million dollar opening in the US and less-than-stellar reviews. The film, which costs more than $160 million dollars to make, is currently 29% Rotten at RottenTomatoes, which critics blasting the cardboard characters, cheesy dialogue, and un-inspired directing by Petersen.

Warner Bros is the studio behind both films, along with Petersen's last effort, Troy, which made up for it's disappointing US box office results by doing well overseas. Studios frequently reward directors of their successful films by allowing them to make riskier movies. But will that happen with the Ender's Game movie?

Will the failure of a popcorn flick like Poseidon finally send a message to Hollywood that movie goers want more than mindless action and special effects? Or will Ender's Game seem to risky for Warner Bros after costly flop like Poseidon?

R-Rated Ender's Game?

Is it possible that Wolfgang Petersen is planning for an r-rated Ender's Game movie? It looks that way, according to MTV.com:

Now that he's done treading water with "Poseidon," director Wolfgang Petersen is turning his attention to "Ender's Game," a passion project he envisions as an R-rated version of one of Hollywood's most successful franchises. "I think 'Harry Potter' was inspired by 'Ender's Game,' " Petersen insisted, citing the 1985 sci-fi novel he's adapting.

Petersen cites "Potter" and the ultraviolent Japanese cult flick "Battle Royale" to give an idea of the tone he's leaning toward. "It's one of the projects at the top of my list of what I want to do next. I've been involved with it for quite a while," Petersen said, crossing his fingers. "We're getting another script for it in a few weeks, and then we'll see what we can do with that." ...

Pre-Production to Start in September?

According to the April 27, 2006 print edition of Daily Variety, Wolfgang Petersen is eager to get started on pre-production of his next film. The problem is that he's not sure what film that will be, but Ender's Game is one of his options:

Petersen's name has been linked to sci-fi epic "Ender's Game," but the helmer says he's only sure that whatever he does, he'll do it soon. "I had such a great time on 'Poseidon,' I told the people in my office I'm going to do promotion on 'Poseidon,' move into my new house and start pre-production in September. On what? I don't know. We have to look at scripts. We'll do that over the summer."

Next Up for Petersen?

Wolfgang Petersen told Scifi.com that the Ender's Game movie could be his next project:

We're getting the script in a few weeks, and if everything goes fine and that script goes in the right direction, it could indeed be my next one," Petersen said in an interview while promoting his upcoming upside-down cruise ship movie.

Petersen added that he anticipated having to audition at least 1,000 young actors to find the right person to play Card's boy genius, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, who is in training to defend Earth against an alien invasion in the late 21st century. But Petersen thinks Ender's Game could be as successful as the Harry Potter franchise. "I think Ender's was a little bit of an inspiration for Harry Potter," he said. "It could also be a great 3-D version of Ender's, with all that fighting in the battle stations."

Hopefully Petersen likes Orson Scott Card's latest version of the script and they can finally get the ball rolling!