Brooke Bunny
Harrison Ford. He was next to me. Right next to me. A couple of times today, in fact.
And yes, he even gladly spoke to Moviehole.
What a life we leave.
Before sitting down with Katie, Ford promoted his new film “Ender’s Game” at the film’s ‘very successful’ panel; I say ‘very successful’ because the film – if the online buzz and general consensus means anything- was deemed to be ‘just another movie’ before today. It definitely wasn’t on my radar. But Summit pulled out all the stops for this panel – not the least bringing Harrison Ford out to San Diego (his second time at Comic-Con; the first being “Cowboys & Aliens” a couple of years ago) – predominantly, unveiling some amazing, spectacular footage that promises one hell of a blockbuster from the feature adaptation of the book.
The footage featured Ford’s Hyram Graff in a tuffle with Ben Kingsley’s Mazer Rackham over the way a child is being treated. The child has been “bred” as man’s last great hope in beating the aliens who out to obliterate earth, but yet Kingsley’s character believes the child should be treated better. As he should.
We also see Major Gwen Anderson (Viola Davis) questioning what effect all this will have on Ender, as well as Ender’s sis Valentine (Abigail Breslin) informing her brother that he’s mankind’s last and only hope. Also some more from Graff, who basically states that he doesn’t much care what happens to Ender so long as he saves the day.
The footage was wrapped up in a great ball of heavy effects – and they looked terrific. Also loved the visuals. The tone, too, also seemed to be pacey and captivating. I haven’t read the book, so I don’t know whether the filmmakers have emulated everything to the dot point, but they’ve definitely gone out of their work to make the film play… big, for lack of a better word.
A couple of days ago “Ender’s Game” author Orson Scott Wells said he was against gay marriage. Naturally, this was going to come up today.
“Obviously our first reaction was concern” said director Gavin Hood. “We decided to use our position to support Summit and Lionsgate statement in support of LGBT rights and human rights. A lot of people worked on this movie to put it out, and I would hate to see them suffer for the views of less than a percentage of the person above, especially since the message of the book and the movie is compassion. So no matter how we got here we’re happy to use this moment to say that we support LGBT rights.”
A statement near as impressive as the footage.
Look for Katie’s interviews with Ford and other “Ender’s Game” cast-members shortly.
