There’s little doubt that Ender’s Game is going to be one of the biggest movies of the fall. It’s a beloved sci-fi novel that’s had a loyal following for many years, and the fans have been anticipating a movie adaptation for a long time.
There’s just one problem: the book’s author, Orson Scott Card. First Card got in trouble for making his anti-gay marriage views known, and it raised the ire of gay geeks everywhere, who called for a boycott of the film when it comes out in November. Then gay screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk) called on the gay community to find something more worthy to boycott, and Game producer Roberto Orci also tried to calm down the masses at Comic Con.
Now the Hollywood Reporter tells us that Card has written an essay for his “Civilization Watch” blog he called “Unlikely Events,” where he’s comparing President Obama to Hitler, another unasked for opinion which is certain to cause him, and the movie, even more trouble. The essay is really more of an Orwellian type fiction story where Obama will rule the country like a “Hitler- or Stalin-style dictator,” with an army of police goons that are “young out-of-work urban men,” and that he will rewrite the Constitution so he can be re-elected repeatedly.
Card wrote, “Obama will win by 98 percent every time. That’s how it works in Nigeria and Zimbabwe; that’s how it worked in Hitler’s Germany.”
Yes, as we often see in Hollywood, we often have to separate the person from the work, and this will certainly be one of those cases. Considering that Ender’s Game is a story about heroism and courage that’s supposed to inspire young people, we may also have to draw the conclusion that Card may be a much better storyteller than role model in this regard.
