Ender's Game teasers ignite: original novel popularity surges

As the film version of the story presented in the Orson Scott Card science fiction book Ender's Game gains steam in the teaser and advertising world, the novel appears to be grabbing its own share of attention as well. This week is the 9th week that Ender's Game has been aboard the New York Times Best Seller's list, it currently resting in the #18 spot between A Clash of Kings and A Feast for Crows. For those of you excited about the movie, there's been several teasers unleashed quite recently that you'll want to wrap your head around, not least of these the first teaser poster, Battle Room and all!

What you're seeing in this poster (and it's enlarged vision below) is, oddly, an illustration of what we'll see in the movie theater. While this sort of thing is certainly not unheard of, (see: every single Star Wars movie), it is the first time that this particular movie has had a teaser that wasn't an on-set photo. What we've got here is a battle school student – we'll assume it's Ender himself – standing in front of a new vision for the Battle Room in the Battle School where he'll spend most of the film.

What you'll notice here as a fan of the book is the major differences between the written word and this visual representation, starting with the transparency of the whole thing. While in the book we had to assume that the walls were either black or metallic gray, here they appear to be perfectly see-through, with the Earth shining brightly behind. This makes a whole lot of sense, of course, since these kids are, indeed, training to be battling in space – not in a darkened room.

Click the thumbnail for a full-sized version of the teaser poster.

The "stars" (aka the boxes) appear to be very much the objects written about in the book, and the Flash Suits look just as excellent as they did when we saw them in earlier previews of this film. You'll see our first look at Flash Guns as well as the way the students will be blasting their way through one of the most important elements of the story – the game.

This film has been given a new synopsis in the last few weeks as well, mind you:

In the near future, a hostile alien race called the Formics have attacked Earth. If not for the legendary heroics of International Fleet Commander Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley), all would have been lost. In preparation for the next attack, the highly esteemed Colonel Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and the International Military are training only the best young minds to find the future Mazer.

Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy but strategically brilliant boy, is recruited to join the elite. Arriving at Battle School, Ender quickly and easily masters increasingly difficult challenges and simulations, distinguishing himself and winning respect amongst his peers. Ender is soon ordained by Graff as the military's next great hope, resulting in his promotion to Command School. Once there, he's trained by Mazer Rackham himself to lead his fellow soldiers into an epic battle that will determine the future of Earth and save the human race.

Based on the best-selling, award winning novel, ENDER'S GAME is an epic adventure which stars Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, with Abigail Breslin and Harrison Ford.

Make sure you check this fabulous futuristic epic out on November 1st at a theater near you – and keep your eyes peeled as more website teasers like http://if-sentinel.com/ appear. Hot stuff!

[via Ender's Ansible]