CraveOnline: But in the book, and you wisely cut this out, there’s a subplot with Ender’s brother and sister…
Gavin Hood: Yes. I don’t know that I “wisely” cut that out. I think I had to cut that out, given two hours, and secondly, the fact that if you go into that plot in two hours I’m losing time with Ender. So on balance I felt if I don’t stick with Ender throughout the whole movie I won’t understand his journey. I’ll say one last thing on that. The last thing on that, of course as much as I do love Demosthenes and Locke, they are two kids typing into a computer which is not very cinematic. So some things books do better than movies and some things movies do better than books, and I don’t think I could do justice to that subplot in the movie, to be perfectly honest.
That part of the book was written before we had Blogspot. It’s a naïve subplot now. “We’re going to sound really smart and they’re just going to put one of us in charge.” That’s just trolling online, and nobody respects people who do that today.
There you go. You’ve got a better way to put it. I think that’s even a better reason. It was incredible in 1985 to think of the internet, calling it “the net,” and that people could amass a following by writing – which they have done – but as you say, everybody does it.
It doesn’t make you inherently special and no one’s going to make you ruler of the universe.
No. That’s a good point.
One of the things you reduced in the film, and the geek in me kind of wishes we’d seen more of it… there are fewer zero-gravity games.
There are. There was another one I had in my original draft, Rat Army, which I was really sad to lose. It’s interesting because the people who wanted less were not people who had read the book. So it was a tricky thing because, yes, yes, we get this battle stuff, but what’s going to happen to him? And now… I could have happily made this into a fucking four hour movie, and you and I would have probably loved it [laughs], but the human bladder lasts a certain amount of time. And frankly the other problem, I’ll be really honest, was fucking money. I mean, the studios did not want to make the movie.
Really? Even the one you were making it with?
They came on at the end. I say this… I’m very grateful that Summit came on board. Let’s be clear. We financed this movie through Gigi Pritzker’s Oddlot, Digital Domain initially. No one else was on board. We went to a number of studios… Here’s a lovely story for you, quickly. We went to one studio who said, this is in a meeting, “Gavin, we really love your script but what’s with this whole moral conundrum he has at the end? Why….” Here’s the quote, “Why can’t he just kick the aliens’ ass? That’s how these movies work.” I thought, “Oh Jesus.” I got outside in the parking lot and before I could lift my fist Gigi Pritzker said to me, “Gavin, Gavin, it’s okay. We’re not going to make the movie here, but we’re going to have to find independent money.”
So we found Digital Domain, and Gigi Pritzker’s Oddlot came on board, and paid for us to develop a little teaser piece, which we then took all the way to Cannes and showed to 250 international buyers, and the Germans and French and I can’t tell you how many of these people put money into this movie. And then Summit came in at the end and put in the last piece, and then agreed – which I’m deeply grateful – to marketing spend, which you need. So Summit owns the film in North America, but the film is owned by all kinds of people around the world, without whom we would never have made the movie.
So we got to a certain place where it’s like, “Yeah, this is how much we got, buddy.” So then we go into the Battle Room and this is fucking expensive. Let me rather do less really well, then try to do too much and not be able to deliver, because I’m trying to work out, where do I spend?
It seems like you put the money in the right place.
It was a tough choice though. I hated losing Rat. In the end I thought, okay, I’ll lose Rat because I need money also for the simulation room. Filmmaking is a weird balance. I could have spent more money on world creation on Earth. I had these futuristic cities I had! Wait… the fans love the Battle Room. Don’t short change them there!
So you never, ever as a filmmaker have everything you want, but what’s that old thing? You might just get what you need. I think we had what we needed, the core stuff.
Were you serving any masters on this, because you found all that independent financing? Were there studio notes?
I was serving some masters.
What was your biggest compromise besides the Battle Room?
I’m sad to have lost, but it will be on the DVDs, a few scenes that were the subplot… There’s a scene in the book that I love, and I think you probably do, between him and Mick in the dining hall where they talk about… Like Mick says, “Why are you doing this? I’ll be out of here in a week. A couple more sessions with the shrink. What are they going to do, spend millions of dollars on a loser?” And Ender quotes that line to Graff. Well, I have that scene, and I have the scene between Ender and Dink where they talk about, “Why, Dink? You’re so much smarter than Bonzo. Why don’t you lead?” And I like that conversation intellectually, about the nature of leadership, and when do you step up to the plate and when is it okay to say, “Listen, I’m not going to lead, even if you think I’m smart, but I’m happy to follow.”
Those ideas are really cool, and they’ll be on the DVD, but the truth is in test screenings they slowed the film down. You know that cliché? [Lowers voice] “You’re slowing the pace. You need more pace. Keep the pace going.” And when you’re making it for a big audience that hasn’t read the book, those scenes, I was told, were feeling a little didactic. So let’s keep them for the fans and put them on the DVD. But these are minor things, mate.
The fact that I was able to get enough money to make the Battle Room the way I wanted to, the fact that I got enough money to make the simulation cave… Frankly, the book’s about kids playing on a computer. I’m like, “How am I going to make that cinematic? I want a lot of money to turn it into this giant, super-cool video game.” It’s like, “Okay, you can have money for those things, but you’ve got to give up one of these battles because the budget…”
Each one of the Battle Room scenes is like millions of dollars. They’re fucking expensive! [Laughs] There are four-second shots that are worth $120,000. It’s amazing. There’s one shot where Petra pushes off backwards and pushes Ender away. There’s more than 75 layers of artists’ work. It took eight months.
Now we’re talking about very practical [things], which no audience should give a shit about. You try and say, “Where can I use my resources most effectively, and what am I going to have to lose?” Painful. Painful.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
