After foundering for years in development hell, the casting for director Gavin Hoodâs (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) adaptation of Enderâs Game is starting to fill up. Weâve previously reported that Asa Butterfield (Hugo) is confirmed to play the title role of Andrew âEnderâ Wiggin and both Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) and Ben Kingsley (Schindlerâs List) are in talks to play Petra Arkanian and Mazer Rackham respectively. Harrison Ford has also been mentioned as a prospective Colonel Hyrum Graff. Now, Canadian teen star Brendan Meyer is reported to be playing the small but pivotal role of Stilson in the upcoming adaptation of Orson Scott Cardâs award-winning novel. For those of you unfamiliar with the source material, Stilson is a classmate of Enderâs who bullies him and is an essential part of Enderâs path to Battle School. Hit the jump for more.THR reports that the 17-year-old Meyer will be playing Stilson, an early antagonist of Butterfieldâs Ender. Meyer is currently playing the title role of Adam Young in the TV series Mr. Young, where he portrays a child prodigy who is returning to 9th grade as a teacher at the age of 14. He can next be seen in This Means War, which also stars Reese Witherspoon, Tom Hardy and Chris Pine.Enderâs Game will hit screens on March 15, 2013, but theyâve still got some casting to do. While fans of the novel will appreciate the news of Stilsonâs casting, Iâm sure that, like me, theyâre also anticipating the choices for Peter, Valentine and Bean. Keep up with all of our Enderâs Game coverage here. Check out the synopsis for the Enderâs Game novel below (via Amazon):
In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien raceâs next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew âEnderâ Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didnât make the cutâyoung Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.
Enderâs skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers, Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.
Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Enderâs two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If the world survives, that is.