To head off the growing boycott of the upcoming Ender’s Game film due to antigay comments made by the book’s author Orson Scott Card and opposition to marriage equality, the film’s director, Gavin Hood, and stars have have made their support for LGBT equality clear today at San Diego Comic Con.
“My view is I’ve been a member of the Courage Campaign (a pro-equality group organization in California) for many years,” said Hood to the Associated Press. “I’m a little distressed by his point of view on gay marriage.” Hood, who won an Academy Award for directing the 2005 film Tsotsi, then reminded that the book isn’t about that marriage equality.
He added: “I hope people can still appreciate the book because I think he wrote a great book, and the themes and ideas in the book, I think, are universal and timeless and applicable, and I hope the book will still be appreciated as a great work of art, even though I don’t agree with the author. I optioned the book, not an author, and I love what the author said in that book.”
Although Card, a Mormon board member of NOM, turned down an interview request by AP, he released a statement to Entertainment Weekly recently in which he claimed the issue surrounding his opinion on marriage equality is now “moot” given the Supreme Court’s recent ruling. “Now it will be interesting to see whether the victorious proponents of gay marriage will show tolerance toward those who disagreed with them when the issue was still in dispute,” Card said.
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Asa Butterfield, who plays the film’s title character, offered “I agree with rights for everybody” and insisted that Card’s views shouldn’t change how audiences receive the film or book. “You can’t blame a work for its author,” the 16-year-old British actor said.
“I think it’s slightly bitterly ironic that [themes of kindness and compassion] that are present in the book are not carried through on [Card’s] particular view on gay marriage,” Hood added.
mykelb
No one has yet to reveal what Card was paid or what he will get paid as the film is released. Until I have those facts, I’m not going to be seeing it or buying any of Card’s books.
Jared MacBride
I wouldn’t buy anything from a homophobic organization, and I won’t knowingly give a dime to a board member of a homophobic organization. In my world, those things aren’t open for discussion.
Deepdow
It’s not just his view on gay marriage that this clueless dickbag should be distressed by, but the fact that Card has advocated for imprisoning gays in the past, among other things. I knew about Card’s gay hate for some time now. It’s pretty surprising that no one involved in the production knew about it, or cared.
1EqualityUSA
disCard
redcarpet
Ya’ll better tell your nerd friends then. Cuz they are all up in arms that they can’t go see their kiddy sci-fi space opera. Just look at the comments section on theverge.com
No one wants to admit that OSC was paid for the rights to his novel. Seeing this movie is paying for that, even if it is just a penny from every ticket sold.
And that 16 year old needs to learn to keep his dumb mouth shut. If you can’t blame a work for it’s author then who the fuck DO you blame!? OSC is still making money off it.
ncman
The director is a bit uninformed if he believes the recent court decision has made the issues of LGBT equality moot. Marriage equality is not the “law of the land”, not by a long shot. And it is still legal to discriminate against the LGBT community in employment and housing, etc…..
Further, if this film is successful, it is part of a trilogy and Card will benefit with MORE MONEY for MORE FILMS. And, he will use that money through both NOM and the Mormon church to continue to fight against the LGBT community.
Will the production company and this director come out RIGHT NOW and guarantee that they will not make any more films in the future of this author’s work? there will be no parts 2 and 3 of this trilogy?
AshNYC
@ncman: CARD (the author) was the one to say the recent court decisions have made the equality issues moot. Not the director. Other than that I agree, the more successful the movie is the more money for Card to use against us.
SewperDewper
@ncman: Card stated that the issue was “moot,” not the director.
@Jared MacBride: Would you see the movie if the ticket was given to you for “free”? Even then, there’s still the opportunity cost of watching the movie…
That being said, if someone isn’t going to buy a ticket to the movie, cool. Don’t “support” Card. But then don’t read articles related to the movie, or watch the trailers, or end up watching the movie when it hits Netflix in 18 months. All of those things have come, and will come about because he was “bought off” with the rights from the studio, which are only possible because he did that, and thus, he is indirectly profiting from it.
I, on the other hand, will be seeing the movie on opening day, because I’m a fan of the book and I am going to support the filmmakers and the company producing the movie… even if a buck or two winds up in Card’s pocket. I mean, the person who checks out your bag at Whole Foods could be a Republican. Imagine the horror that the $5 avocado you just bought winds up as .65 cents in that person’s paycheck. Oh dear.
Sparkyu1
This man campaigns for sodomy laws to be put back on the books. He wants us locked up in prison for who we are. I’m a damnsite more that “distressed” by that
And Lionsgate is paying this man money, a great deal of money, knowing what Card espouses and that he puts his money behind those actions. They can line up and say what wonderful allies they are, honest, but they’ve made it clear how little that means – how little we mean – to them.
I won’t be seeing this film, I won’t put money in the pocket of a man who uses it to try and oppose every right we have. I won’t add my presence to the watches to increase the liklihood of more of Card’s works becoming films and handing him more money. I won’t be watching this film because I don’t want companies like Lionsgate so easily dismissing bigotry. I won’t be watching this film because I want companies like Lionsgate to be as unwilling to work with Card as they would be with an avowed KKK member and as quick to drop him as companies were (rightly) quick to drop Paula Deen. I won’t be watching this film because I don’t want to increase Card’s profile within the mainstream and downplaying his hatred while giving him a platform from which to spout it.
Gavin Hood is doing his best to paint over the homophobe; which is reason enough for me to boycot him as well. I don’t want to put money into the hands of those who support, protect and brush over bigotry
MikeE
@SewperDewper: It’s easy to rationalize like that, isn’t it? It helps you sleep better at night, doesn’t it?
If the movie is a success because people LIKE YOU go to see it and pay to see it, then the studio will option the next novel, and the one after that. You will, in effect, be allowing the studio to fund O.S.C in his anti-LGBT crusade.
If the 1st movie is a financial success, then Lionsgate will WANT to make the next book into a film, and O.S.C. will be in a position to ask for more money for the rights to his book.
O.S.C. isn’t a cashier at a Whole Foods. He spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on his anti-LGBT crusade. He has a say in how the fight against equality is fought. He IS a major player in the onslaught against OUR rights. Your comparison to the poor cashier is repugnant, and indicates a painfully low level of comprehension of the stakes involved.
Go see the movie. And remember that you saw it when one day they come for you and take you away to a concentration camp. Because THAT is exactly what O.S.C. would like to happen. He wants all of us, L.G.B. and T to face firing squads.
Caliban
Oh HELL no!
Orson Scott Card is playing the “tolerance” card now?
Where was HIS tolerance when he wrote essays saying homosexuality SHOULD be criminalized, and incarceration for the “extreme cases?”
Does that sound like tolerance to you?
Where was his tolerance when he wrote the BOOK “Hamlet’s Father,” a work of fiction that must have taken MANY months to write and edit, wherein a gay man is not only a child molester but hopes to rape his own son?
Does that sound like tolerance to you?
Where was his tolerance when he joined the board of NOM, the most vocal to oppose gay marriage across the country?
Does that sound like tolerance to you?
But now he has a movie coming out based on one of his early books, and he’s one of the co-producers so stands to make money off the ticket sales, and suddenly NOW he makes a plea for “tolerance” and goes so far to say that if there IS a boycott that just proves how intolerant WE are?!
Fuck him. I hope the movies is terrible, but either way I’d rather nail my dick to floor and do jumping jacks than buy a ticket and give that piece of shit a DIME.
Caliban
@SewperDewper, why not just cut out the middle man and send your check to NOM directly?
I’m so glad to hear that you’re willing to sell out your own rights to see a goddamn MOVIE. How proud of your situational ethics you must be!
thomwatson
What bothers me most about the article in question is the throw-away line: “Card has expressed opposition to gay marriage in the past and that has led some to call for a boycott.”
What a tepid statement and what an incomplete piece of reporting. Card has said that a government that endorses marriage equality should be overthrown; he has said that a gay couple getting married engages in “theft” of what Card “holds most dear” and constitutes a “death blow” upon Card’s own marriage while amounting to just “playing dress up”; has written even that people are not born gay but become so mostly through “disturbing seduction or rape or molestation or abuse.” Card is not just opposed to marriage equality, he actually sits upon the board of the group most directly responsible for fighting against such equality, and which has increasingly been turning its attention to attacking gay people more generally, endorsing so-called conversion therapy, and labeling gay parents as de facto child abusers.
This is more than just merely “opposition to gay marriage.”
Will L
@mykelb: Yeah. If he was paid a flat amount and will get nothing further from the film, I may see it. If there is any chance that he will get a percent of the profits or residuals, then I will stay away from it.
Cam
“”Although Card, a Mormon board member of NOM, turned down an interview request by AP, he released a statement to Entertainment Weekly recently in which he claimed the issue surrounding his opinion on marriage equality is now “moot” given the Supreme Court’s recent ruling. “Now it will be interesting to see whether the victorious proponents of gay marriage will show tolerance toward those who disagreed with them when the issue was still in dispute,” Card said.””
____________________________________
1. Funny how he says it’s a moot point now, when before he advocated the violent overthrow of the govt. if gay rights advance.
2. Also funny, he claims that him advocating for laws making our existence illegal and trying to jail us and legalize us being fired for being gay is “Disagreeing” with us.
The studio needs to learn that hiring somebody like Card or buying his movie will cause a backlash.
ncman
@Will L: even if he doesn’t get a percentage of this film’s profits, if this film is successful, he will get a second film and MORE MONEY. This story is part of a trilogy. If successful, there will be 3 films in total.
Fitz
If someone had made those kinds of comments about ANY other minority group, there is no way the film would be made, and no way anyone but the least socially aware would see it. If you feel like this film is a make or break for your life, then PLEASE.. buy a ticket to another movie and sneak in.
crowebobby
@Fitz: Good idea. There’s a “teenager” in it who’s under the age of thirty. We may never get to see that again.
Elloreigh
“I’m a little distressed by his point of view on gay marriage.”
Only a little?
Haven’t read the book, have no plans to, and will not see the movie or spend my money on anything connected with it that could possibly serve to enrich its bigoted creator. Don’t care how great it’s supposed to be. I esteem my liberty more than that.
Elloreigh
@mykelb: I don’t care if he doesn’t get a red cent from it – I don’t care to see his reputation enriched either, because it will just aid him in his other endeavors.
tookietookie
@Elloreigh: I caught that too. A little? Slightly? Just code for “Homophobic but give us your $$$ anyway.”
Bellerophon69
If you wish to boycott this movie and anything and everyone attached to it, feel free to do so. But here’s the thing; while OSC has and will continue to make $$$ from this book and the movie, considering how long ago it was written, almost thirty years ago, and that it probably will not spawn a spat of new “Enders” books (and the sequels already written suck) or movies, the die is already cast and the fat is burning in the fire. If you chose to see it, realistically, it isn’t going to make things any worse for us gays. There won’t be brownshirts marching us off to the ovens, gay marriage won’t be repealed, and the Mormon church won’t be any closer to building their anti-gay “Death Star”. The guy isn’t going to get any un-richer, you won’t “cure” him of homophobia any more than he can cure us of “gays”, and the studio, cast, crew and author will probably not make a huge blockbuster profit out of the movie either way because it’s not that generally appealing. I’ll probably wait until it’s out on basic cable in 3 months, partly because I don’t want any OSC/Enders “Bashers” screaming shrilly in my ear, partly because I like Sci Fi and the book was “OK” when I read it but not worth spending $7.50 on. As far as OSCs homophobia goes, Michelle Bachmann and Steve King are way more dangerous!
TxHeat
SewperDewper , I guess some self loathing Gays are still around. I feel sorry for you.
LaTeesha
Free Paula Deen. I mean why is her stuff suddenly unacceptable, but this guy is ok. Oh, because he just said things about gays. Had he said this stuff about black people the call for a ban would be far and wide. But, demand to keep laws on the books so that gays can be imprisoned is no big deal.
ezywonder
@mykelb: The way everyone connected to this f*** is doing a fancy dance is HYSTERICAL. Rots of ruck at the box office, haters. lmao
1EqualityUSA
If this were the last film on Earth, I wouldn’t go see it.
Mr. E. Jones
What I’ve learned from all this is, in Hollywood, you can be openly anti-gay and work, and make money. Yet, you can not be an openly gay man, without having your career ruined.
aubrey
@thomwatson: Exactly, thomwatson. Here’s a clip from Salon re: Card’s homophobic tirades. And Salon notes that OSC has become MORE vocal and feverish in his anti-gay activity and work recently. Not quite the “moot” person he claims to be…
From Salon:
“1990: Card argued that states should keep sodomy laws on the books in order to punish unruly gays–presumably implying that the fear of breaking the law ought to keep most gay men in the closet where they belonged.
2004: He claimed that most homosexuals are the self-loathing victims of child abuse, who became gay “through a disturbing seduction or rape or molestation or abuse.”
2008: In 2008, Card published his most controversial anti-gay screed yet, in the Mormon Times, where he argued that gay marriage “marks the end of democracy in America,” that homosexuality was a “tragic genetic mixup,” and that allowing courts to redefine marriage was a slippery slope towards total homosexual political rule and the classifying of anyone who disagreed as “mentally ill:”
Card went on to advocate for, literally, a straight people’s insurrection against a pro-gay government:
[W]hen government is the enemy of marriage, then the people who are actually creating successful marriages have no choice but to change governments, by whatever means is made possible or necessary… Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down….”
This is more than just opposition to ‘gay marriage’. And, as Salon notes, OSC is becoming more vicious in his attacks against the lgbt community.
People can turn their heads if they want, but if a person thinks seeing a movie is worth supporting this kind of hate, then there’s not much more to be said.
Ogre Magi
Card is not that good a writer. The aliens in this series are all ripped off from other works. The Buggers came from Starship Troopers and the Piggies are just a rip off of the Gamorrean Guards from Star Wars
Cam
@Bellerophon69: said…
” As far as OSCs homophobia goes, Michelle Bachmann and Steve King are way more dangerous!”
______________________________
Your attempt at Moral Equivalency is pathetic, and if the studio hired you to come in here to try to minimize the damage then they hired the wrong person.
Let’s take a look at what Michelle Bachman and Steve King have done that legally effects gays….oh yeah thats right, NOTHING. They weren’t able to get anything passed.
Lets now take a look at what Orson Scott Card, as a board member of NOM was able to do to harm us.
Gee, anti gay laws passed in multiple states backed by NOM, laws against gays adopting, laws against gays marrying, laws making it ok to fire us, ALL SUPPORTED and funded by the organization that Card is a BOARD MEMBER/DECISION MAKER of.
For you to try to claim that this guy is not dangerou is the worst kind of lie and you should be ashamed of yourself.
Bellerophon69
@Cam: Oh wah wah Mary, get with the 21st Century! In case you haven’t noticed, NOM is losing it’s fight as badly as any political homophobe. I’m voicing my opinion (gee, maybe those idiots on the anti gay right have something when they whine about gay intolerance towards opinions that differ from the “mainstream gay”) and I hardly represent anything remotely “Hollywood”, but since you need something to get your panties in a bunch about, pick something you CAN do something to change. PMSing about OSC and this cheesy little movie that’s already made isn’t going to repeal any of the anti gay laws but it will give you the self satisfied smugness and righteous indignation you apparently crave. As far as shame goes, , I can think of a lot more meaningful and relevant things I’ve done in life to be ashamed of; this tempest in a teapot won’t even make my top ten!
1EqualityUSA
Bellerphone69, I sure wouldn’t mind seeing bigots’ films go unmade, because our voices made directors think twice before investing. This Card, (that ought to be dealt with), will use his profits to harm us. This book is the first, in a series, so this hater stands to succeed even more. NOMskulls are losing, but not gone yet.
Bellerophon69
@1EqualityUSA: On this I can agree with you, I would prefer that this film and possibly any future sequels go unmade. But haters are gonna hate and unfortunately there will always be a homophobic “grain of sand in the vaseline” like OSC and NOM, there will never be a complete eradication of them any more than they can eradicate us. It’s fortunate that OSC is actually a very poor sci-fi author, and I suspect the movie version of “Enders Game”, even if it’s well done, will go the way of another idiot authors work made film, “Battleground Earth”. Our boycotting it will do less harm than the minimal damage we’ve caused in our boycott of Chik-Fil-A because this is a one off film in a summer of one off films. Also, I read the book when it came out, and while the author is an A-Hole to us gays the book does not contain one iota of anti gay sentiment, and neither will the movie. This is not going to produce a “Star Wars” type franchise for OSC, and to be frank, money does not equate to turning peoples minds against or for someones cause. For example look at the Koch Bros., Ham Roves Crossroads GPS, and the Mitt Romney campaign; lots of money spent but the only people it courted were those whose minds were already made up.
ecllips
@Elloreigh: His book is considered one of the classics. It’s a shame you have not read it, I have read it at least 4 times. What other classics have you not read? Nineteen eighty-four? Fahrenheit 451? Little Women? The Great Gatsby? Jane Eyre? Bleak House? Oliver Twist? The Count of Monte Cristo? Have you even read over 100 books that were not for school requirements? I do not agree with OSC views on the gay lifestyle(obviously) but I can still appreciate a work of art. You don’t have to like the artist to like the work the artist produces. If that were the case we wouldn’t watch any TV shows, movies or even read any literature. Look at it this way. Say that a doctor/scientist found a cure to HIV, and lets say that he has the same views as OSC about the gay lifestyle. Would you not pay to be cured of HIV just because of the doctor/researcher’s views and what he said/did? I think not. And before you say “you can’t compare a work of art to a cure” Yes you can. Do you need the cure for HIV? No, not with today’s medicine, you can still live a relatively normal life, but would life be better if you were cured? Yes. Just like your life is more enriched every time you read/hear/view a work of art, it makes your life better.