'Ender's Game' to receive potential boycott for author's comments


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SALT LAKE CITY — "Ender's Game" has been one of the most anticipated movie releases of the year, but some public comments made by the author could potentially have people boycotting the movie.

Orson Scott Card wrote the "Ender's Game" trilogy, and the movie is set to release in November. The movie will star several big Hollywood names including Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, and Abigail Breslin.

However, Card has made several comments about same-sex marriage in the past that some consider controversial and there is talk of boycotting the film. Card said that the comments were made a few years ago, but that now people are using his film as a platform to fight his stance on marriage.

"The reason I'm being attacked for it is because 'Ender's Game' is coming out as a movie so that was something that would get a lot of publicity for the people attacking," Card said.

From 2009 until 2013, Card served on the board of the National Organization for Marriage. Before that, he backed California's Prop 8. From a recent L.A. Times article which questions the possible boycott, Card is quoted from his 1990 article for Sunstone Magazine: "Laws against homosexual behavior should 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."

Card said that while his views are basically unchanged, his words are, at times, taken out of context.

On his website, Card has posted past quotes and explanations, including a 2008 column he wrote in the Deseret News about his views.

"We do not believe that homosexuals, by entering into a marriage, are personally hurting anybody," Card's Deseret News article read. "Where the law makes such a thing available, even temporarily, those who marry are not our enemies. We believe the law is wrong and the marriage is not, in any meaningful way, what we mean by marriage."

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Card said that he has received a lot of negative responses for his views.

"Oh, I've had no criticism — I've had savage, lying, deceptive personal attacks, but no actual criticism because they've never addressed any of my actual ideas," he said.

However, Card said that he isn't too worried about potential boycotts of his movie.

"Will it affect the reception of my work?" he said. "Of course. But not in ways that they expect. My sales go up with such attacks."

Card said that he grew up with a love of reading that eventually turned into a passion for writing. He said that he loves to write science fiction.

"I started science fiction for the money, for the practical aspect, but I've stayed with it because it's very liberating, very clarifying for a writer," he said.

Card said he wrote 20 drafts of a screenplay for "Ender's Game," but eventually, screenwriter Richard La Gravenese's wife, Ann, told him to look at it as a buddy movie. Ultimately, director Gavin Hood wrote the screenplay, but at 62, Orson Scott Card will watch his first and biggest success come to life.

While several of the producers are worried about the negative impact of Card's views of gay marriage, Harrison Ford said, "I think we all know that we've won. That humanity has won. And that's the end of the story."

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