SALT LAKE CITY — When the book Ender’s Game was published in 1985, it hit shelves with a fury. Now, over 25 years later, a movie based on the book is finally coming to a theater near you. How the movie came to be, incidentally, is a story nearly as interesting as the plot of the science fiction story itself.

Orson Scott Card, who penned the original novel, fought furiously to retain control of creative rights for "Ender’s Game" throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Rumors of a screenplay in the works began to surface in the early 90s. Card read several write-ups, each one meeting his rejection.

In an April 2013 interview, Card said one of the largest roadblocks to the creation of a viable screenplay for Ender’s Game was in the way the novel was written.

“Ender’s Game is an ‘unfilmable’ book, not because it’s too much violence but because everything takes place in Ender’s head,” Card said. “The biggest problem is that if you don’t know what’s going on inside Ender’s head, then it’s just the story of an incredibly violent, little kid. Why would you like him? Why would you care? Only when you know what he’s thinking does it become a story that matters.”

After dealing with screenwriters who didn’t meet his favor, Card built his own production company in 1996 called Fresco Pictures and began developing his own screenplay.

In the early 2000s, it was announced Card had come near to completion of his screenplay and was looking around for an actor to play the title role. He floated the idea of casting Jake Lloyd, who had made himself (in)famous after playing a young Anakin Skywalker in "Star Wars Episode I: A Phantom Menace."

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After receiving a barrage of criticism for his leading choice, Card defended his suggestion, saying Lloyd may have bombed in Episode I but it was most likely due to to subject matter, not acting skills.

“Sadly, 'Fantum Mennis' (sic) made every actor in the film look wooden because both script and direction were so awful,” Card said on an online forum in 1999. “So I get incredible amounts of email from people demanding that I NOT use Jake. Foolish! They have no idea what this kid can do.”

In 2003, Card submitted a script to Warner Brothers. The script was worked and reworked by Card and a series of collaborators. Four years later, in 2008, it was finally announced an Ender’s Game movie was actively being pursued by a studio.

It took seven years after that initial announcement for Card to see his novel make it to the big screen. In 2011 Summit Entertainment picked up distribution for the film and Gavin Hood came on as director. Hood had been working with Card as a co-screenwriter previously.

Card told Bryce Lawrence of the BYU Daily Universe in June of 2013 that, after Summit picked up the film, they used Hood’s portion’s of the screenplay almost exclusively for the final draft.

“The screenplay you see on the screen was 100 percent Gavin Hood,” Card said, “None of my writing was used. That was the decision that Odd Lot and Summit made; it was their money at risk, and they invested in the writer they believed in. I have no complaints.”

In the end, the final version of the film was approved by Card and directed by Hood. Card told Wired in a recent interview that he was pleased with the way the film turned out. One of Card’s biggest concerns was that Ender would be cast as an older character. In the end, the role was portrayed by 15-year-old Asa Butterfield, but was cast to be about 13.

“If he’s older, puberty has hit, so it would be tempting to try to give him a love interest,” Card told Wired. “But that is not the version that is being used, for which I’m deeply grateful. Maybe the people at Lionsgate have understood that turning this into a teen romance movie would really kill the story.”

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