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Butterfield offered title role in Ender’s Game

“Hugo” star Asa Butterfield, 14, has been offered the lead role in “Enders Game”, the science-fiction film that’s lifted from the pages of a Orson Scott Card novel, says Deadline.

“Wolverine” director Gavin Hood is helming the film, which “begins on Earth after an alien attack, when gifted children are recruited by a government desperate to fight back. The kids are taught a competitive game that’s a cross between the Quidditch matches of Harry Potter and the Jedi light saber battles from Star Wars. Only the best and brightest will be chosen. A young boy emerges as a genius strategist, and the planet’s best hope to destroy the alien Formic race.”

Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, of “Star Trek” and “Transformers” fame, are producing.

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