Casting News: Harrison Ford Confirmed for Ender's Game; Four Join Lovelace Biopic
Posted 12.22.11 by Ryan
Earlier this month, Harrison Ford was targeted for the adaptation of Ender's Game, based on the 1985 novel by Orson Scott Card. Coming from the sci-fi/Western mash-up of Cowboys and Aliens, it would seem that Ford would want to stay away from yet another sci-fi movie, as the actor's resume likes to switch genres from project to project. But with Ford being cast in the Jackie Robinson biopic 42, Ender's Game seemed like a good possibility, and finally it's official.
THR reports that Ford has signed on to play Colonel Hyrum Graff, Commander of Training for the International Fleet. In Ender's Game, humanity has been decimated by an insect-like alien race, with the government enlisting gifted children into battle school to train them to aid in the fight against the invaders. Bullied Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield, Hugo) masters a zero-gravity, laser-tag game and Graff sees his potential for saving humanity. Abigail Breslin has also been cast as Ender's sister.
Ender's Game is looking at a February production start under the direction of Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), who also adapted the script. Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) was previously cast as Petra Arkanian, Ender's most trusted ally, with Ben Kingsley (Hugo, Ghandi) playing Mazer Rackham, Ender's mentor. Brendan Meyer (Spooky Buddies) will play one of Ender's bullying classmates. Ender's Game is scheduled for release on March 15, 2013.
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More cast members have joined the upcoming biopic Lovelace, but, with two biopics in the works for 1970's porn star Linda Lovelace, let's be clear about which one this is: it's the one with Amanda Seyfried (In Time) in the title role, not Inferno: a Linda Lovelace Story starring Malin Akerman (Watchmen). While it shouldn't be this confusing — one biopic is called Lovelace, the other is Inferno — confusion abound last month when Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct, Casino) announced her casting as Lovelace's mother in Inferno, but, apparently, Stone was actually cast in Lovelace. The confusion wasn't caused by Stone, but rather the reports about her casting, half of which said Stone was in Inferno, while the others said Stone was in Lovelace (for the record, we reported Stone was in Inferno, and we're cautiously reversing that report).
With that out of the way, Deadline reports that four actors have boarded the project (Lovelace, that is). Robert Patrick will play Stone's husband, Lovelace's father, while Hank Azaria will play Jerry Damiano, director of Lovelace’s iconic adult film Deep Throat. Chris Noth and Bobby Cannavale have also joined the cast as Deep Throat financiers Anthony Romano and Butchie Peraino, respectively.
Lovelace began shooting in Los Angeles this week under the direction of Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (Howl). Andy Bellin (Trust) wrote the script for the movie, which also stars Peter Sarsgaard in the role of Chuck Traynor, Lovelace's abusive pornographer husband, and Juno Temple as Lovelace's best friend.