This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2009)

Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is a fictional character from Orson Scott Card's science fiction story Ender's Game and its sequels (Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender in Exile), as well as in the first part of the spin-off series, Ender's Shadow. The book series itself is an expansion of Card's earlier short story "Ender's Game."

In the upcoming film adaptation of Ender's Game, Ender will be portrayed by Asa Butterfield.

[edit] Ender's Game

Ender's Game is the first book in the series. Andrew "Ender" Wiggin was the youngest of three children, contrary to a strict two-child policy. His existence was called for by a program aiming at producing commanders for humanity's war against the Formics, or "Buggers". He learned how to do so at Battle School, an Earth-orbiting space station that trained similar prodigies. He received the same education as other children, but the military had recognized him as their best bet to be supreme commander and often manipulated its own rules to make sure Ender had not only the necessary technical skills, but also the right character for their ends. Specifically, Ender was conditioned to be entirely self-sufficient from a very young age.

As a child, Ender is bullied at school for being a "Third" (the third child in a society where excessive breeding is frowned upon), and tormented at home by his brother Peter, a sadistic bully who resents the attention Ender gets from the military. His only refuge is with his beloved sister Valentine, who acts as his protector and only friend. When he is accepted into Battle School, he is broken-hearted at the thought of leaving her, but she assures him that they will always have a bond.

At Battle School, Ender is exposed to great emotional and mental anguish and even physical danger. The administration is forbidden from protecting him in order to guarantee that he would never look to anybody else for help.

Ender breezes through academics, his main interest being the centerpiece of the school: a team-based three-dimensional laser tag competition in the zero-g Battle Room. He becomes first a masterful player, then a masterful strategist, and is eventually assigned command of Dragon Army. He molds the group of untested and unwanted students into the most successful army in the history of the school (it is revealed in Ender's Shadow that Julian "Bean" Delphiki actually chose them).

After graduating several years ahead of time, he is transferred to Command School on Eros. There he trains in interstellar fleet combat with holographic simulators. After Ender masters the game under ordinary conditions, the game changes from one with direct control of ships to one where he relays commands to others - his friends and associates from Battle School, namely, Julian "Bean" Delphiki, Alai, Shen, Petra Arkanian, Dink Meeker, Crazy Tom, Hot Soup, Fly Molo, Vlad, Dumper, and Carn Carby. Under the tuition of the legendary saviour of humanity from the previous war, Mazer Rackham, Ender and his trusted companions take on a grueling series of battles and emerge victorious each time, although the mounting pressure pushes Ender to the edge.

The final battle takes place above a simulated planet, against an enemy with overwhelming numerical superiority. Ender perceives this as a grossly unfair test, and resolves to win by breaking the rules. This, he thinks, would convince his instructors that he is not the man to lead the Fleet into battle with the Formics. Instead of fighting the enemy ship-to-ship, Ender penetrates their defensive perimeter and destroys the planet itself. Not until after the pandemonium that followed is he told that it was not actually a simulation: Instead of taking on Rackham in what they had thought was a long series of simulations, he and his jeesh had been unknowingly issuing orders to real ships in real combat. The final battle in fact consisted of the destruction of the Bugger home world and the apparent eradication of the Bugger species, resulting in Ender's rise to world adulation. Ender, however, is stricken with guilt for having unknowingly committed xenocide, as well as with anger at himself for allowing the military to use him as a tool.

In the wake of the war, Valentine informs him that he would never be allowed to return to Earth due to her own actions in an effort to protect him from Peter, who was becoming a major political force on Earth (In Shadow of the Hegemon, Peter contradicts this and states that it was himself that insisted Ender be exiled for his own protection, to keep his brother from being kidnapped and used as a tool during the revolt that follows). He instead journeys with her to one of the colonies being established on the now-abandoned Bugger worlds. Once there, he discovers a fertilized pupa of a Queen Bugger, hidden in a place that the Buggers designed for him to discover by modelling it to resemble part of an interactive computer game he played during his years in the Battle School. The buggers find out about it during his tormented dreams of them in Command School. The pupal Queen is capable of continuing the Bugger race. Through rudimentary telepathic communication with the Queen, he learns what he had begun to suspect before the war's end: The entire conflict had been a mistake, the result of the inability of two alien species to communicate. He further learns from the Queen that the Buggers had felt terrible regret for having mistakenly fought humans and that they had forgiven Ender for their own deaths even as he orchestrated their destruction. Empathizing with the Queen, Ender promises to find her a home to grow where the Buggers would not be annihilated by the humans.

To foster this eventual rebirth, Ender writes a book called "The Hive Queen", which tells the story of the war from the Formic perspective. Ender uses the pseudonym "Speaker for the Dead" to author it. When Peter, who had advanced to the position of Hegemon of Earth, contacts him, having realized Ender was the writer, the Speaker for the Dead writes a second novel, "The Hegemon", a human parallel to the first book. The two are combined by popular culture, eventually becoming one of the founding texts of a quasi-religious practice on the colonies of Earth. After writing the book, Ender and Valentine depart in a ship in an attempt to find a planet that would allow the Queen to grow, and that they could call their new home.

[edit] Speaker for the Dead

When Ender shows up in Speaker for the Dead, some 3000 years after the events of Ender's Game, he is departing a planet where his sister Valentine has found a husband. He has also acquired an integrated computer which he usually uses to communicate to a powerful artificial intelligence known as Jane, whose existence is not made known to anyone. He is living as an anonymous Speaker for the Dead, keeping his identity as the "Ender the Xenocide" who orchestrated the victory over the Formics a secret; his book "The Hive Queen and the Hegemon" in which he "spoke for the dead" Formics worked well enough (worked as it was intend to do) such that most of humanity now considers Ender to have been a heartless monster who destroyed a race for no reason, and the name "Ender" is now considered vile, an insult.

He departs for the planet Lusitania, where a request has been sent out for a speaker to speak on behalf of a researcher who died from contact with the planet's indigenous species. By the time he arrives at the planet 22 years later (relativity having aged him only slightly; less than two weeks) he finds that the original call has been rescinded. However two other calls have gone out for more recent deaths. Ender discovers that both calls originated from the same 'family'; the first from Novinha's daughter Ela requesting someone speak for the death of Novinha's husband Marcos, and the second from her eldest son Miro, who has asked for a speaker for the researcher Libo, who died similarly to the older xenologer.

Ender begins to investigate the Marcos figure first and so has frequent unwanted contact with Novinha's family. His honest and open approach endears him to the elder children as a father figure; it's discovered very easily that Marcos was very abusive to his wife and children. With the help of Jane and his connection with the children, he discovers multiple secrets that have been hidden away for years. However, in the process of speaking with the local religious group, the Children of the Mind monastic order on the planet, he tires of Jane's semi-sarcastic commentary and turns off his connection to her, something he has never done before. The result of this is the breaking of Jane's friendship with him, something he forever regrets. During this time, Jane, without consulting Ender, sends incriminating reports to the intersteller authorities who order the arrest of Miro and Ouanda, the researchers and lovers who have been investigating the piggies most recently, and cancel the colony's charter, something which forces the colonists to eventually rely on Ender for guidance.

Ender meanwhile has been receiving pressure from the Queen's pupa to allow her to settle on this world because she has been in telepathic contact with another race. Ender assumes this race is the piggies, although the bipedal life forms that are the primary contacts of Miro and Ouanda seem very simple and not telepathic at all. After the sanctions are put in place, he gets Miro and Ouanda to allow him to visit the piggies, who have been asking to meet him, the 'original Speaker' (a claim Miro and Ouanda have been dismissing as a misunderstanding). Ender destroys many of the assumptions of the researchers when he not only admits to being the original Speaker, but has the piggies demonstrate that the trees they grow from the corpses of those who have been ritually killed are in fact their third stage of life which allows them to reproduce. The ritual killings that were done of the two xenologers were misunderstandings by the piggies, who thought the humans reproduced in a similar fashion.

After those revelations, he proceeds to do his Speaking for Marcos, where he reveals many secrets hitherto buried mostly by Novinha. Foremost among them is that Marcos was incapable of having children, and Novinha's children are all in fact the children of Libo. This is devastating news to Miro, because it means his girlfriend Ouanda is in fact his half-sister. It is around this time that the sanctions from the Intergalactic Congress are learned of. Ender recommends to the colony that they declare themselves in rebellion, and reestablishes contact with Jane who masks their ansible signal.

By the end of the book, he has entered into the beginnings of a relationship with Novinha. His sister Valentine has agreed to come to the colony. He has also planted the Queen's pupa on a far side of the planet, where there would be the first Formics in 3000 years.

[edit] Xenocide

During Xenocide, Ender is looked to as an unofficial leader for the multiple efforts being undertaken in the rebel Colony of Lusitania. He is helping as much as he can with Novinha's work in protecting humans from the descolada virus. The Descolada is fatal to humans, but is essential for the piggies' life and reproduction. The Formics have an immune system that is advanced enough to protect them, and the humans have been using anti-viral dietary supplements, but both defenses are starting to fade in effectiveness in the face of the virus' rampant mutations. Ender is also attempting to keep the peace on planet among the three species where resentment is brewing. The humans are starting to resent the piggies for being the reason they can't just kill the descolada outright. The existence of the new Formic colony is not general knowledge, but Ender knows that their appearance and their non-human way of reasoning would cause friction with the humans. Particularly troublesome are Novinha's two youngest children; Grego, who is something of a rabble-rouser among the humans, and Quara, who sees the virus as sentient and is bringing up problematic objections to the research her mother and sister are doing. The piggies and the Formics are also worried about the approaching human fleet, which may destroy the planet if the threat of the descolada virus is unleashed on humanity.

Eventually research ordered by the government on another planet, Path, leads a young genius girl, Han Qing-jao, to deduce the existence of Jane, who is inextricably tied to the ansible system. Jane reveals herself to Qing-jao in an effort to prevent her from informing the authorities by telling her that the OCD her people suffer from was governmentally ordered and orchestrated, a plea which the girl's father Han Fei-tzu and handmaiden Si Wang-mu agree with. However, the report to the authorities is dispatched regardless and the government enacts a plan to temporarily deactivate the ansible network to purge Jane from the system. The father agrees to help with the Descolada problem regardless of his daughter's actions, in exchange for a cure for the pervasive OCD that plagues them. The Lusitanian researchers agree, but though a cure for both is designed, it proves impossible to synthesize; they can't cure the OCD without removing the genius as well, and the counter for the descolada simply won't be created. Meanwhile, putting together facts about Jane's origins, the ansible, and philotes, the irreducible building blocks of all matter everywhere, they deduce that Jane has the power to take any object she knows about in great detail and pull it outside the known universe, an area where conscious thought has a lot more power than anything else.

Ender goes on the first test flight because Jane's existence was a direct result of his time at the Battle School, where the buggers established a connection with him via a computer simulation game; therefore, Jane is most likely to be able to keep Ender's form in her mind. Since Ender has all but passed Jane off to Miro at this point, due to the previous misunderstanding in Speaker, he must go as well. Ela goes because she is the only one with enough knowledge to produce the needed viruses. The test flight occurs with unexpected side-effects. Ela produces the new viruses, but Miro also gives himself a new body, undamaged unlike his old one. Ender, however, inadvertently creates copies of his brother and sister from his memories. They are more based on those memories than reality; therefore, Valentine is very soft and loving, and Peter is almost pure evil and malice. Horrified at what he has created, Ender removes himself from further efforts, as they will all need to involve the instantaneous travel Jane can do by moving things outside and Ender will not risk creating more things like his pseudo-siblings.

[edit] Ender in Exile

A book that chronicles the 'lost years' between Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, Ender in Exile tells of Ender's initial set-off from Eros, the long journey to the first colony, Shakespeare, as well as his trip to the Indian-dominant colony of Ganges, where Ender encounters a familiar, yet not-so-familiar face. The court martial of Hyrum Graff is expanded upon; some light is shed on Graff's life after he was made Minister of Colonization, as well as where Mazer Rackham went off to after the Formic War.

Ender's journey starts out on Eros, after he defeated the Formics, and after Peter, under the alias of Locke, has quelled the warring nations into a temporary truce.

Valentine wishes to no longer be a part of Peter and his idea to rule the world. She tries to persuade her parents to come along with her to the ship in which Ender and several others would be traveling to the colony Shakespeare with, but they decline. Valentine goes alone to keep watch over Ender and be there as a maternal figure.

Meanwhile Alessandra and her mother, Dorabella, sign-up to go on to Shakespeare (a planet) in an attempt to get away from Dorabella's mother and money problems. They had planned to be put into stasis during the two year voyage, but several complications occurred and instead they remained awake, along with the crew, Ender, Valentine, Admiral Quincy Morgan (the captain), and some other colonists who opted against stasis.

Ender has a battle of wills throughout the voyage with Admiral Morgan, who attempts to usurp Ender's lawful position as Governor of Shakespeare, believing Ender to be a foolish child no one would follow. During the voyage, Dorabella seduces Admiral Morgan and tries to use her daughter, Alessandra, to seduce Ender hoping that, through her own marriage to Morgan and Alessandras' successful marrying of Ender, Morgan could rule Shakespeare using Ender as a puppet.

Upon arrival at Shakespeare, Ender quickly and easily crushes Morgan's attempted bloodless coup, with a little help from Minister of Colonization Hyrum Graff back on earth. Ender then successfully liberates Alessandra from her dominating mother, allowing her to finally live her life for herself. After two years as Governor, and completing 'The Hive Queen and the Hegemon', Ender convinces Valentine it's time for them to move on.

Ender's first stop, at the request of Hyrum Graff, is the Hindu colony of Ganges which is governed by Virlomi, a former battle school student who caused an uprising in India before she was subdued and exiled by Peter Wiggin's Hegemony. Once there, Ender agrees to help Virlomi quell an uprising by a group called 'The Natives of Ganges', which is led by an angry young man named Randall Firth under the delusion that he is the son of Achilles de Flandres. The so-called 'natives' have adopted 'The Hive Queen' as a rallying cry, and begun to turn the name of war hero Ender Wiggin into mud, coining the phrase 'Ender the Xenocide'.

Ender is able to peacefully neutralize Randall, nearly getting himself killed in the process. He reveals Randall's true parentage (two of Ender's old friends and squadron commanders, Julian 'Bean' Delphiki and Petra Arkanian Delphiki Wiggin), after which Randall renounces his secret name, Achilles, and renames himself Arkanian Delphiki. Shortly after, Ender reunites mother and son by ansible.

External links[link]

• Original "Ender's Game" short story
• Ender's Game page on Card's website with link to first chapter
• Ender Saga

v t e Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series Ender's Game series Books Ender's Game (1985) • Speaker for the Dead (1986) • Xenocide (1991) • Children of the Mind (1996) • Ender's Shadow (1999) • Shadow of the Hegemon (2001) • Shadow Puppets (2002) • First Meetings (2002) • Shadow of the Giant (2005) • A War of Gifts: An Ender Story (2007) • Ender in Exile (2008) • Shadows in Flight (2012) • Earth Unaware (2012) • Shadows Alive (TBA) Short stories Original short story "Ender's Game" (1977) First Meetings (2002) "The Polish Boy" • "Teacher's Pest" • "Ender's Game" • "Investment Counselor" InterGalactic Medicine Show "Mazer in Prison" • "Pretty Boy" • "Cheater" • "A Young Man with Prospects" • "The Gold Bug" • "Ender's Stocking" • "Ender's Homecoming" • "Ender in Flight" Comics Gold Bug • Ender's Game: Battle School • Ender's Shadow: Battle School • Recruiting Valentine • Ender's Game: Command School • Ender's Shadow: Command School • War of Gifts • Mazer in Prison • The League War • Ender in Exile • Speaker for the Dead • Formic Wars: Burning Earth • Formic Wars: Silent Strike Film Ender's Game Video game Ender's Game: Battle Room Characters Ender's family Ender Wiggin • John Paul Wiggin • Peter Wiggin • Theresa Wiggin • Valentine Wiggin Battle School Alai • Petra Arkanian • Bean • Ender's jeesh • Achilles de Flandres • Han Tzu • Other students Other Anton • Sister Carlotta • Descoladores • Fleet personnel • Formics • Hive Queen • Jane • Pequeninos • Poke • Han Qing-jao • Stilson • Volescu • Si Wang-mu Concepts Ansible • Anton's Key • Descolada • Fantasy Game • Hierarchy of Foreignness • Hegemon of Earth • Molecular Disruption Device • Organizations • Outside • Park Shift Theory • Philote/Philotic Web • Planets • Starways Common

Hailee Steinfeld
Steinfeld in January 2011, photographed by Nathan Blaney
Born	(1996-12-11) December 11, 1996 (age 15)[1] Tarzana, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2007–present

Hailee Steinfeld (born December 11, 1996)^[1] is an American actress. She rose to fame for her portrayal as Mattie Ross in the 2010 film True Grit, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Early life[link]

Steinfeld was born in Tarzana, Los Angeles, the daughter of Cheri (née Domasin), an interior designer, and Peter Steinfeld, a personal fitness trainer.^[2][3] She has an older brother, Griffin,^[2] and her uncle is fitness trainer Jake Steinfeld.^[1] Her father is Jewish^[4] and her maternal grandfather is Filipino.^[5][6] Steinfeld was raised in Agoura Hills and later in Thousand Oaks, California,^[2][7] attending Ascension Lutheran School, Conejo Elementary, and Colina Middle School.^[8] She has been home-schooled since 2008.^[8]

Career[link]

Steinfeld began acting at the age of eight, initially appearing in several short films to gain experience. She played the role of Talia Alden in the award-winning short film, She's a Fox.^[9] She eventually made appearances in several commercials and a few guest-starring television roles. ^[7]

Steinfeld was chosen out of 15,000 girls for the role of Mattie Ross in True Grit.^[2] She was announced as a nominee for Best Supporting Actress at the 83rd Academy Awards on January 25, 2011.^[10]

She has been cast as Juliet Capulet in an upcoming adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet by director Carlo Carlei.^[11]

In May 2011, Miu Miu announced that it had chosen Steinfeld as its new face.^[12][13]

Filmography[link]

Feature films[link]

Steinfeld at the premiere of Secretariat, September 30, 2010.

Short films[link]

Awards and Nominations[link]

Steinfeld at the 83rd Academy Awards in 2011.

Wins[link]

• 2010 - Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards: Sierra Award for Youth in Film (True Grit)
• 2010 - Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards for Best Performance by a Youth in a Leading or Supporting Role - Female (True Grit)
• 2010 - Austin Film Critics Association: Austin Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress (True Grit)
• 2010 - Chicago Film Critics Association Awards for Best Supporting Actress (True Grit)
• 2010 - Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards for Best Supporting Actress (True Grit)
• 2010 - Toronto Film Critics Association Awards for Best Supporting Actress (True Grit)
• 2011 - Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards: Critics Choice Award for Best Young Actor/Actress (True Grit)
• 2011 - Central Ohio Film Critics Association for Best Supporting Actress (True Grit)
• 2011 - Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Supporting Actress (True Grit)
• 2011 - Online Film Critics Society Awards for Best Supporting Actress (True Grit)
• 2011 - YOUreviewers movie awards for Best Supporting Actrees and Best Breakthrough Actress (True Grit)
• 2011 - Santa Barbara International Film Festival: Virtuoso Award for (True Grit)
• 2011 - Vancouver Film Critics Circle for Best Supporting Actress (True Grit)
• 2011 - Western Heritage Award: Bronze Wrangler Award for Outstanding Theatrical Motion Picture (True Grit)
• 2011 - Young Artist Awards for Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actress (True Grit)
• 2011 - Young Hollywood Awards for Breakthrough Star of the Year

Nominations[link]

• 2010 - Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (True Grit)
• 2010 - Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards for Breakout Performance - On Screen (True Grit)
• 2010 - Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards: Sierra Award for Best Supporting Actress (True Grit)
• 2010 - Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards for Best Supporting Actress (True Grit)
• 2010 - Chicago Film Critics Association Awards for Best Promising Performer (True Grit)
• 2010 - Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards for Best Supporting Actress (True Grit)
• 2011 - Academy Awards: Oscar Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (True Grit)
• 2011 - Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films: Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor (True Grit)
• 2011 - BAFTA Awards: BAFTA Film Award for Best Leading Actress (True Grit)
• 2011 - Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards: Critics Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress (True Grit)
• 2011 - Central Ohio Film Critics Association for Breakthrough Film Artist (True Grit)
• 2011 - London Critics Circle Film Awards for Actress of the Year (True Grit)
• 2011 - MTV Movie Awards for Best Breakout Star (True Grit)
• 2011 - Screen Actors Guild Awards: Actor Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role (True Grit)
• 2011 - Teen Choice Awards for Choice Movie Breakout Star - Female (True Grit)
• 2012 - Empire Awards for Best Female Newcomer (True Grit)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hailee Steinfeld

• Hailee Steinfeld at the Internet Movie Database
• Hailee Steinfeld on Twitter

Asa Butterfield
Butterfield at the Hugo premiere, New York City, 21 November 2011
Born	Asa Maxwell Thornton F. Butterfield (1997-04-01) 1 April 1997 (age 15) Islington, London, UK
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2006–present

Asa Maxwell Thornton Farr Butterfield^[1][2] (born 1 April 1997) is an English actor, best known for starring in the Holocaust film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008), playing Norman in the 2010 film Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, and taking the title role in Martin Scorsese's 2011 fantasy Hugo. He will also be portraying Ender Wiggin in the upcoming film adaptation of the science fiction novel Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.^[3]

Life and career[link]

Asa Butterfield was born in Islington, London, the son of Jacqueline Farr and Sam Butterfield.^[4][5] He has an older brother, Morgan, who is a drummer for the English bands Oats and Underneath the Tallest Tree, and a younger sister, Loxie. Asa has said that he is just as happy reading a book as playing computer games and tries not to let his acting dominate his whole life.

Butterfield first started acting at the age of 7 on Friday afternoons after school at the Young Actors' Theatre, in his hometown. Later, he secured minor roles in the 2006 television drama After Thomas and the 2007 film Son of Rambow.^[4][6] In 2008 he also had a guest role playing Donny in Ashes to Ashes.^[7][8]

In that same year, he played the lead role in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Director Mark Herman said that they came across Butterfield early on in the audition process. He was on the first audition tape he received and he was the third hopeful he met in person. Herman thought Butterfield's performance was outstanding, but only decided to cast him after auditioning hundreds of other boys, "so no stone was left unturned".^[9]

Producer David Heyman and director Mark Herman were looking for someone who was able to portray the main character's innocence, so they asked each of the children what they knew about the Holocaust. Butterfield's knowledge was slim and it was purposely kept that way throughout filming so it would be easier for him to convey his character's innocence. The final scenes of the film were shot at the end of the production period to prepare both him and Jack Scanlon for the dramatic ending of the film.^[10][11] He beat hundreds of boys to the role and also successfully passed the auditions for a role in Mr. Nobody for which he auditioned at the same time. He chose not to pursue the latter role.^[6]

In the 2008 Merlin episode "The Beginning of the End", he plays a young druid boy sentenced to death by Uther Pendragon because he feels threatened by the boy's magic. Despite the Great Dragon's advice and the warning that Arthur cannot survive if the boy does, Merlin and Arthur, with the help of Morgana, help the boy escape to rejoin the Druids. When they are about to disappear into the forest, Arthur asks him for his name, which he says is Mordred,^[12] an important character from the Arthurian legends who is supposed to kill King Arthur. Butterfield has appeared as Mordred in subsequent episodes.

In 2010, he appeared alongside Anthony Hopkins in The Wolfman.^[13] He starred as Norman Green in Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (2010), working together with Emma Thompson. The film received positive reviews along with his performance. He subsequently played the main character, Hugo Cabret, in Martin Scorsese's 3-D film Hugo, which was filmed from June 2010 to January 2011. It was released on 23 November 2011.

Awards[link]

Butterfield was nominated in the category "Most Promising Newcomer" of the British Independent Film Awards,^[14][15] but he was beaten by Dev Patel from Slumdog Millionaire.^[16] He was also nominated for the NSPCC Award (Young British Performer of the Year) in the London Critics Circle Film Awards,^[17][18] but he missed out on this award too. It was won by Thomas Turgoose for his roles in Eden Lake and Somers Town.^[19] MTV Networks' NextMovie.com named him one of the 'Breakout Stars to Watch for in 2011'.^[20] He was nominated for "Best Young Actor/Actress" for the CCMAS, and lost out to Thomas Horn.

Filmography[link]

Awards[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Asa Butterfield at the Internet Movie Database
• Asa Butterfield on Twitter

Orson Scott Card
Card at Life, the Universe, & Everything at Brigham Young University in 2008.
Born	(1951-08-24) August 24, 1951 (age 60) Richland, Washington
Residence	Greensboro, North Carolina
Alma mater	Brigham Young University, University of Utah, University of Notre Dame
Occupation	Author, professor, public speaker, critic, essayist, columnist, playwright, poet, political activist, apologist
Notable work(s)	Ender's Game series, The Tales of Alvin Maker
Style	Science fiction, fantasy, thriller, horror, historical fiction, LDS fiction
Board member of	National Organization for Marriage
Religion	Latter-day Saint (Mormon)[1]
Website
www.hatrack.com www.nauvoo.com

Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951)^[2] is an American author, critic, public speaker, essayist, columnist, and political activist. He writes in several genres, but is primarily known for his science fiction. His novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986) both won Hugo^[3][4] and Nebula Awards,^[3][5] making Card the only author to win both science fiction's top U.S. prizes in consecutive years. He is also known as an advocate for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which he has been a lifelong practicing member, and as a political commentator on many issues, including opposition to homosexual behavior and the legalization of same-sex marriage.

A film adaptation of Ender's Game is currently in development, and is set for release on March 15, 2013. Card is co-producing the film.^{[citation needed]}

Early life[link]

Card is the son of Willard and Peggy Card, third of six children and the older brother of composer and arranger Arlen Card.^[6][7] Card was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Santa Clara, California as well as Mesa, Arizona and Orem, Utah. He served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Brazil and graduated from Brigham Young University and the University of Utah; he also spent a year in a Ph.D. program at the University of Notre Dame. Card lives in Greensboro, North Carolina,^[6] an environment that has played a significant role in Ender's Game and many of his other works.

Career[link]

Card began his writing career primarily as a poet, studying with Clinton F. Larson at Brigham Young University. During his studies as a theater major, he began "doctoring" scripts, adapting fiction for readers theater production, and finally writing his own one-act and full-length plays, several of which were produced by faculty directors at BYU. He also explored fiction writing, beginning with stories that eventually evolved into The Worthing Saga.

After returning to Provo, Utah from his LDS mission in Brazil, Card started the Utah Valley Repertory Theatre Company, which for two summers produced plays at "the Castle," a Depression-era outdoor amphitheater behind the state mental hospital in Provo; his company's were the first plays ever produced there. Meanwhile, he took part-time employment as a proofreader at BYU Press, then made the jump to full time employment as a copy editor. In 1976, in the midst of a paid acting gig in the Church's musical celebrating America's Bicentennial, he secured employment as an assistant editor at the Church's official magazine, Ensign, and moved to Salt Lake City. It was while working at Ensign that Card published his first piece of fiction. His short story "Gert Fram" appeared in the July 1977 fine arts issue of that magazine under the pseudonym Byron Walley.

Science fiction[link]

He first wrote the short story "Ender's Game" while working at the BYU press, and submitted it to several publications. The idea for the later novel of the same title came from the short story about a school where boys can fight in space. It was eventually purchased by Ben Bova at Analog Science Fiction and Fact and published in the August 1977 issue. Meanwhile, he started writing half-hour audioplays on the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the New Testament, and other subjects for Living Scriptures in Ogden, Utah; on the basis of that continuing contract, some freelance editing work, and a novel contract for Hot Sleep and A Planet Called Treason, he left Ensign and began supporting his family as a freelancer.

He completed his master's degree in English at the University of Utah in 1981 and began a doctoral program at the University of Notre Dame, but the recession of the early 1980s caused the flow of new book contracts to temporarily dry up. He returned to full-time employment as the book editor for Compute! magazine in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1983. In October of that year, a new contract for the Alvin Maker "trilogy" (now up to 6 books) allowed him to return to freelancing.

Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead were both awarded the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, making Card the only author (as of 2011) to win both of science fiction's top prizes in consecutive years. Card continued the series with Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, "First Meetings in the Enderverse", Shadow of the Giant, the 2007 release of A War of Gifts, and the 2008 release of Ender in Exile, a book that takes place after Ender's Game and before Speaker for the Dead. Card has also announced his plan to write Shadows Alive, a book that connects the "Shadow" series and "Speaker" series together. In 2008 Card announced that Ender's Game would be made into a movie, but that he did not have a director lined up. (Wolfgang Petersen had previously been scheduled to direct the movie but has since moved on to other projects.) It was to be produced by Chartoff Productions, and Card was writing the screenplay himself.^[8] Other works include the alternate histories The Tales of Alvin Maker, Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus, The Homecoming Saga, and Hidden Empire, a story about a near-future civil war in the United States, based on the Xbox Live Arcade video game Shadow Complex. He collaborated with Star Wars artist Doug Chiang on Robota and with Kathryn H. Kidd on Lovelock.

Other genres[link]

He has since branched out into other areas of fiction with novels such as Lost Boys, Treasure Box and Enchantment. Other works include the novelization of the James Cameron film The Abyss and the comic book Ultimate Iron Man for Marvel Comics' Ultimate Marvel Universe series. Outside the published fiction world, Card contributed dialog to at least three video games: Loom, The Secret of Monkey Island and The Dig in the early 1990s.^[9]

In 2000, Card published the first novel in The Women of Genesis series. This series explores the lives of the principal women mentioned in the first book of the Bible and includes Sarah (2000), Rebekah (2002), and Rachel and Leah (2004).

In the fall of 2005, Card also launched Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show.^[10] He edited the first two issues, but found that the demands of teaching, writing, and directing plays for his local church theater group made it impossible to respond to writers' submissions in a timely manner; former Card student and experienced freelance writer and editor Edmund R. Schubert took over as editor on June 1, 2006.

The dialog and screenplay (but not the story) for the Xbox video game Advent Rising was written by Card and Cameron Dayton.^[11]

In 2008, Card's novella Hamlet's Father, a retelling of Shakespeare's Hamlet, was published in the anthology The Ghost Quartet (Tor Books). The work re-interpreted all of the characters' personalities and motivations. After Subterranean Press^[12] reprinted the work as a stand-alone novella in 2011, there was an outcry because the work portrayed old King Hamlet (Hamlet's father) as a pedophile. Some critics suggested that Card is equating homosexuality and pedophilia.^[13]. Card has responded to such criticism saying, "Hamlet's father, in the book, is a pedophile, period. I don't show him being even slightly attracted to adults of either sex. It is the reviewer, not me, who has asserted this link, which I would not and did not make." ^[14]

Reviews and critiques[link]

Card authors "Uncle Orson Reviews Everything," a weekly editorial for the Greensboro Rhinoceros Times, which features personal reviews of movies, books, restaurants in the greater Greensboro area, and a variety of other topics.^[15] The column also later appears on his website, Hatrack River.

Pseudonyms[link]

Over the years Orson Scott Card has used at least seven pseudonyms.

The names Frederick Bliss and P.Q. Gump were used by Card when he was asked to write an overview of Mormon playwrights "Mormon Shakespears: A Study of Contemporary Mormon Theatre" for Spring 1976 issue of Sunstone magazine. According to Card he used these pseudonyms because the article included a brief reference to himself and his play "Stone Tables".^[16]

The name Byron Walley was used by Card on his first published piece of fiction "Gert Fram" which appeared in the July 1977 fine arts issue of Ensign magazine. According to Card he used this name because he had a non-fiction article, "Family Art", a poem, "Looking West", and a short play, "The Rag Mission", appearing in the same issue.^[16] Card also used the name Byron Walley in stories he published in Friend magazine, New Era magazine and in the anthology Dragons of Darkness. Stories by Byron Walley include: "Gert Fram", Ensign magazine, July 1977; "Bicicleta", Friend magazine, October 1977; "The Best Family Home Evening Ever", Friend magazine, January 1978; "Billy's Box", Friend magazine, February 1978; "I Think Mom and Dad Are Going Crazy, Jerry", New Era magazine, May 1979; and "Middle Woman", Dragons of Darkness, Ace Books, 1982.

The name Brian Green was also used by Card in the July 1977 fine arts issue of Ensign magazine. He used this name for his short play "The Rag Mission" because he had three other pieces appearing in the same issue.^[16]

The name Dinah Kirkham was used to write the short story The Best Day, in 1983.^[17]

The name Noam D. Pellume was used by Card for his short story "Damn Fine Novel" which appeared in the October 1989 issue of The Green Pages.^[18]

Card wrote the novel "Zanna's Gift" (2004) under the pen name Scott Richards, saying, "I was trying to establish a separate identity in the marketplace, but for various reasons the marketing strategy didn't work as we'd hoped."^[19]

On writing[link]

Teaching[link]

In 2005, Card accepted a permanent appointment as "distinguished professor" at Southern Virginia University in Buena Vista, Virginia, a small liberal arts college run based on the principles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Card has cited his frustration with dismal teaching methodology for creative writing in most universities as a reason for accepting this position, along with his desire to teach the techniques of effective fiction writing to writers whose values are more harmonious with his own.^[20] Card has worked closely with colleagues to develop new and effective ways to educate aspiring writers and has published two books on the subject. He was eager for the opportunity to apply these techniques in a university environment—his assorted workshops did not allow the follow-through he desired. After being affected by stories of his students' parents in some of their essays, he decided to stop teaching regularly at the university to spend time with his youngest child who still lives at home.^[21] However, Card returned to teaching for the spring semester of 2009.

Literary Boot Camp[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2012)

Since 2001, Card has run an annual, one-week class that consists of an intensive critique workshop for aspiring writers called "Literary Boot Camp" and a two day workshop called the "Writer's Workshop." Participants for the Boot Camp are picked from applicants who submit a sample of their fiction writing. The workshop is open to all comers and makes up the first two days of the class. Boot Camp consists of the final four days. All Boot Campers are required to write a brand new short story based on story ideas generated during the workshop- the first day of boot camp is devoted to writing this new work. The remaining days are a peer critique session led by Orson Scott Card. Graduates have gone on to win major science fiction and fantasy contests (for instance, the now-defunct Phobos contest and the Writers of the Future contest), sell many stories to the SF and fantasy magazines such as Asimov's Science Fiction and Realms of Fantasy, sell books to major publishers (Judson Roberts' Strongbow Saga trilogy is one of many examples), etc.^[22]

Books on writing[link]

Card has written two books on the subject of creative writing. The first of these books was Characters and Viewpoint published in 1988. The second was How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy published in 1990. Both of the books were published by Writer's Digest Books and remain in print. He was also a co-writer for How to Write a Million (though his contribution is actually a reprint of an earlier work).

Card also gives advice about writing in an interview in Leading Edge #23 in 1991.

Writers of the Future[link]

Card also serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest.^[23] Writers of the Future is a science fiction and fantasy story contest for amateur writers originated by L. Ron Hubbard in the early 1980s and continues to be funded and organized by the Church of Scientology.

Personal views[link]

Religion[link]

Card's immersion in the Mormon faith has been an important facet of his life from early on. His great-great-grandfather was Brigham Young, an important leader in the Latter Day Saint movement, and all of Card's ancestors from at least three generations have been members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). His ancestors include several other figures notable in the LDS Church, including the Cardston colony founder Charles Ora Card. As such, his faith has been a source of inspiration and influence for both his writing and his personal views.^[7]

Politics[link]

In 2008, one day before the 2008 presidential election in the United States, Card wrote an opinion piece in which he (while being a Democrat^[24][25]) encouraged voters to support the Republican John McCain, stating that he wished he could have supported Barack Obama.^[26] He says he is supporting Newt Gingrich in the 2012 U.S. presidential election, writing that "despite [Gingrich's] negatives, there is nobody smarter or more capable or with a better record of good government seeking the office of President right now."^[27]

Homosexuality[link]

Card has publicly declared his disapproval of homosexuality and of marriage rights for gay men and women. In 1990, Card called for laws that ban homosexual behavior to "remain on the books... to be used when necessary to send a clear message that those who flagrantly violate society's regulation of sexual behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society", although he no longer advocates this, and argues that the 1990 stance must be seen in the context of the times (such laws were still deemed constitutional at the time) and the conservative Mormon audience to whom his essay was addressed.^[28] In 2009, Card became a member of the board of directors of the National Organization for Marriage, a group that seeks to prevent the legalization of same-sex marriage.^[29]

Card has voiced his opinion that paraphilia and homosexuality are sometimes linked. In a 2004 essay entitled "Homosexual 'Marriage' and Civilization", Card wrote:

The dark secret of homosexual society -- the one that dares not speak its name -- is how many homosexuals first entered into that world through a disturbing seduction or rape or molestation or abuse, and how many of them yearn to get out of the homosexual community and live normally.^[30]

Additionally, in Card's novella Hamlet's Father, which re-imagines the backstory of Shakespeare's play Hamlet, some claim that Card depicts the main character's problems as being the result of his father's activities as a gay pedophile. The novella prompted public outcry and its publishers were inundated with complaints.^[13] The trade journal Publisher's Weekly criticized Card's "flimsy novella" and stated that the main purpose of it was to attempt to link homosexuality to pedophilia.^[31] Orson Scott Card has responded to the claims that Hamlet's Father links homosexuality with pedophilia, Card wrote:

...[T]here is no link whatsoever between homosexuality and pedophilia in this book. Hamlet's father, in the book, is a pedophile, period. I don't show him being even slightly attracted to adults of either sex. It is the reviewer, not me, who has asserted this link, which I would not and did not make.^[32]

Environment and science[link]

Although he supports government-funded research into alternative energy sources and the phasing out of fossil fuel use, Card has also frequently criticized precipitous action on global warming, and has voiced the suggestion that scientific evidence against global warming is suppressed because global warming has become an academic orthodoxy that discourages opposing evidence.^[33] His short story "Angles" also features scientists fearing to pursue research because it would run counter to scientific dogma. Similarly, he has voiced distrust of Darwinism as dogma in opposition to Intelligent Design (which he also distrusts, for entirely different reasons^{[citation needed]}). While criticizing scientists for claiming that Darwinism explains "completely how evolution works," Card also said that "real science does not—and never can—prove or even support" Intelligent Design.^[34]

Personal life[link]

Card and his wife Kristine have had five children, each named after one or more authors he and his wife admire. Their children's names are Michael Geoffrey (Geoffrey Chaucer), Emily Janice (Emily Brontë and Emily Dickinson), Charles Benjamin (Charles Dickens), Zina Margaret (Margaret Mitchell) and Erin Louisa (Louisa May Alcott). Charles, who had cerebral palsy, died shortly after his 17th birthday and their daughter, Erin, died the day she was born.^[6] Card and his wife live with their youngest living child, Zina, in Greensboro, North Carolina.^[6]

The life of their son Charles influenced some of Card's fiction, most notably the Homecoming series, Lost Boys and Folk of the Fringe. Their daughter, Emily, along with two other writers, adapted Card's short stories "Clap Hands and Sing", "Lifeloop" and "A Sepulchre of Songs" for the stage in Posing as People.^[35]