Harrison Ford among actors being eyed for Ender’s Game, Hugo’s Asa Butterfield confirmed for the lead

Last we talked about ENDER’S GAME, a casting call had been put out in search of the sci-fi adaptation’s title role among other parts. That role has finally been locked down, as Variety reports that HUGO’s Asa Butterfield has been cast as the film’s young lead.

And now that the wheels of the production are moving, Variety is also reporting that the film’s producers are in hot pursuit of their ‘Colonel Hyrum Graff’, the Commander of Training for the International Fleet which is an elite boys’ military academy. Previously, Viggo Mortensen had been sought out for the role (somebody in charge obviously being a fan of his in G.I. JANE) but that wound up not working out. The producers now are looking at a group of veteran actors, one of which is Harrison Ford. If you don’t count COWBOYS & ALIENS and KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, this would mark Ford’s first attempt at sci-fi since RETURN OF THE JEDI.

ENDER’S GAME is being directed by Gavin Hood and comes written by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman, Hood, and originating author Orson Scott Card. Here’s a breakdown of the story (via Amazon):

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race’s next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew “Ender” 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 didn’t make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender’s 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. Ender’s 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, that is, the world survives.