Since Ain't It Cool News is carrying the story, we're certainly not going to deny it here. The director of Ender's Game is Wolfgang Petersen [link]. The studio that is developing it is Warner Brothers. OSC is really happy about both.
The upshot is that all are agreed on a fairly detailed outline of a film that combines Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow in a way that will combine the most important elements of both. Together, the stories make one terrific film.
To fans of the book, OSC offers this reminder: "The movie can't show everything from either book, let alone both. So there will almost certainly be scenes and even plot threads that you cared about which are not present in the film. Fortunately, the books still exist, and so readers will be able to experience those scenes for many years in the future.
"The most important thing for the film, though, is that it be a marvelous movie in its own right, whether you've read the books or not. And I can promise you: If the film we settled on in the past few days' meetings is the film that actually gets made, fans of the books will be very, very happy with it - and so will those who go see the movie without ever having read or even heard of the books."
We will not release details of the film story, however. Not ever. Not nohow. All we'll say is this: Ender is the main character. Bean is also very important and will be a point of view character, too. Both Col. Graff and Mazer Rackham will be major adult roles, and major children's roles will definitely include Petra, Alai, and Bonzo. There will, of course, be many other lesser roles for adults and children.
However, nothing whatsoever will be done about casting or hiring until after the script is finished. The film's release will not be scheduled until the script is fully agreed upon AND the director has finished his next film. So it will certainly be at least two years and more likely three, maybe even four years before the film is released.
Be patient. The longer it takes, the better it's going to be. And in the meantime, we'll try to get some firstrate Ender's Game computer games out on the market so that some of you, at least, can get inside the battle room before the movie is released.
For more details on director Wolfgang Petersen, follow one of these links.
http://www.german-way.com/german/petersen.html
http://www.scene360.com/DIRECTORchair_peterson.html
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Petersen,+Wolfgang
