Enders Game With Artistic BUT Homophobe Orson Scott Card-Applause Pleaseee
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| Long History of Homophobia but artistic Orson Scott Card |
Some straight people in the entertainment industry even those to say they are gay friendly and a couple gays in the same industry have come to the rescue of Orson Scott Card of “Enders Game” for his anti gay stances (more than one), the latest being his anti gay marriage. The save me line thrown to him by this bunch is that his artistic work has nothing to do with what he says. You can also say his homophobia might have nothing to do with the guys he sleeps with and it will make as much sense.
It’s like the saying “It’s Not pesonal” I just fire you but is not personal. Of coarse is personal you did it to a person and he took it the right way personal. If the company is going under is one thing but if you are replacing me with someone else is as personal as it gets. So this bird does not fly.
Now that is hitting people’s pocket is getting pretty personal I will say to you and I hear squicking and squilling ( I know they r misspelled) coming from several industries attached to the movie, games and other projects involving Orson Scott Card. The more it is said the bigger the controversy simply because it makes no sense to say, I know you hate me and think Im not in pars with you, but because there is nobody like you, because you are so good and terrific and people like you love you, I am going to give you my money. Let him be a homophobe, but he is going to a less rich of a homophobe…Not on my money. {{Adam}}
Below is an article from WIRED by ANGELA WATERCUTTER
SAN DIEGO – As far as pre-Comic-Con publicity kerfuffles go, the lead-up to Ender’s Game‘s arrival at the annual pop culture convention’s was a perfect storm.
First, there was the incident in February when Orson Scott Card—the author of the book on which the film is based—found himself the subject of backlash when fans—citing his anti-gay-marriage views—decried his selection as the author of an upcoming Superman story. Then, at the end of June, the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act and declined to rule on California’s Proposition 8 case—effectively extending many benefits to same-sex couples married in states that allow it and permitting those unions to resume in California.
Shortly after the ruling, a group called Geeks OUT launched an online campaign called “Skip Ender’s Game,” which called on sci-fi fans to not give money to a movie based on Card’s work. The award-winning sci-fi author subsequently issued a statement to Entertainment Weekly calling the same-sex marriage issue “moot” and making a somewhat ironic plea for tolerance. Eventually even Summit Entertainment and its parent company Lionsgate even had to issue a statement distancing itself from Card’s views.
“When Ender’s Game started to go into pre-production there was a lot of chatter about what this meant in terms of his role as a producer,” Geeks OUT board member Patrick Yacco told Wired. “Obviously it was too late to get Lionsgate to change their mind about doing the movie so going into it we knew thatEnder’s Game was happening. So we decided in early 2012 to think of ways to draw attention to his homophobia.”
Then the dust-up came to the Comic-Con International floor. During the film’s big panel at Hall H Thursday—essentially it’s coming out party for its core fanbase—right after the requisite exclusive clip and banter with moderator Chris Hardwick the first fan to ask a question, who butted in line to ask it, got right to the point. “There’s actually been a lot of controversy about the author of the book,” the young woman said. “How involved was he in making the film?” The response, from the film’s producer Roberto Orci, was direct. |
“Obviously, we were first concerned with anyone who might be hurt by anything we were associated with,” Orci said. “But we’ve decided to use the attention to … completely and unequivocally support Lionsgate and Summit’s statement in defense of LGBT rights.”
The room broke out into applause.
But beyond the scene that played out at Comic-Con, the controversy over the adaptation of Card’s book has brought up a whole other host of questions about the relationships between fandom and media. Like, for example, how much does a creator’s personal politics affect how fans feel about the things they create, especially if those things don’t contain said personal politics? Or, say, is it fair for the the results of a movie boycott—lackluster opening weekend, overall loss of revenue—effect people beyond the intended target, like the studio, stars, and filmmakers? And, ultimately, do boycotts get a message across?
In an interesting turn last weekend, LGBT rights advocate and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black—who penned the Harvey Milk biopic Milk and the Prop. 8 play 8–came to the film’s defense saying “boycotting a movie made by 99 percent LGBT equality folks in an LGBT equality industry is a waste of our collective energy.”
And Lionsgate, the studio behind the film, has come out and said, “we obviously do not agree with the personal views of Orson Scott Card.” The studio’s statement also pointed to the discrepancies between Card’s politics and the fairly humanist viewpoints of his novel. “The simple fact is that neither the underlying book nor the film itself reflect these views in any way, shape or form,” the studio said, adding that it planned to host a premiere to benefit the LGBT community.
Director Gavin Hood puts a finer point on the disconnect between Card’s views and his work.
“For me the great themes of the book were, ‘Boy, I need to take responsibility for my own nature. I better find a way to be tolerant, compassionate, empathetic, and empathize with people who are different than me,” Hood told Wired. “Then I find the author is now expressing these very, in my view, intolerant views—where did all of that empathy go?”
Ultimately, it’s hard to tell what effect a boycott could have on Card himself. Originally Stop Ender’s Game‘s website asked “Do you really want to give this guy your money?” But it’s unclear if in giving over the rights to his book for a film adaptation he made a deal that will give him proceeds from ticket sales (Orci told Wired he was unsure of the particulars of Card’s book-option deal). Yacco notes, though, that if the film does well it could lead to future Card books getting optioned.
But there’s another side to the coin, Orci notes. “If people are going to do a cost-benefit analysis of who profits it’s the 667 people on this movie credited directly plus the other couple thousand that are part of the industry that helped release it,” he said – people that Hood added were “gay and straight, male and female, old and young.”
And a boycott, if successful, could potentially have another side effect in that if the movie performs poorly at the box office it may be hard to parse if that’s because LGBT rights advocates stayed home or because it was of a certain flavor of sci-fi that audiences just didn’t go for. It’s the same fear that’s crept up this summer amidst lackluster ticket sales for movies like Pacific Rim: If genre pictures cease performing well, eventually studios might just stop funding them. Then no one wins.
But with Ender’s Game, winning is kind of a big deal. There are many ways the film and the boycott against it could succeed or fail. The movie could do well—leading to more sci-fi films, potentially even those originally penned by Card, getting green-lit. LGBT rights advocates could not exercise the “tolerance” Card asked for and succeed in a boycott, causing the film to flop. All this heat on Card for his anti-same-sex-marriage views could even lead to an examination of conscience on his part. But that seems less likely.
However, regardless of the outcome, yesterday—at a panel for the movie adaptation of the most well-known book by the man who has become sci-fi’s most well-known crusader against gay marriage—someone said “LGBT rights” and the largest meeting room at Comic-Con broke out in applause.
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