Based on a story written three decades ago and set in a future dystopian earth where children are manipulated into fighting an enemy race, the film Ender’s Game could make its young adult and family audience ponder on what ails present-day society.

Out in US theatres this weekend, Ender’s Game follows the journey of young boy Ender Wiggin, played by Asa Butterfield, who is singled out from childhood for his superior intellect and put through advanced warfare training.

Ender is isolated from his comrades and manipulated into commanding war against a hostile alien race by Colonel Graff, played by Harrison Ford. In doing so, Ender begins to garner a fascination and connection to the alien enemy known as Formics.

“It’s about young people being asked to accept huge responsibilities, being trained for warfare because it’s proposed that they have this capacity to absorb information more quickly than older people,” Ford said.

Based on Orson Scott Card’s novel of the same name published in 1985, Ender’s Game is the first in a series of books, short stories and comics by the author, all part of the so-called Enderverse, which may form the basis of a multi-part film franchise for movie studio Lions Gate.

The film, which also stars Viola Davis, Ben Kingsley and Oscar-nominated rising star Hailee Steinfeld, features prominent themes of the emotional impact of warfare on young people who have been manipulated from childhood through propaganda to develop a hatred for the enemy, an alien race.

Ender’s warfare training comes from videogames and large-scale computer simulations, displayed with a striking special effects.

We’ve gotten to this age of social media that we’ve become desensitised, where we’ve put things out in the world not knowing that they have an effect

Butterfield said Ender’s Game, which was written three decades ago, was “scarily accurate” in how it resonated with present-day issues: “The amount of stuff written in the story is so relevant today. For example, the internet and drone warfare and blogging were predicted in the story 30 years ago, and now it’s happened.”

Davis added that the film may lead audiences to consider the bigger human social connection.

“We’ve gotten to this age of social media that we’ve become desensitised, where we’ve put things out in the world not knowing that they have an effect,” Davis said.

The film spotlights 16-year-old British actor Butterfield, who gained prominence as the lead in Martin Scorsese’s 2011 fantasy adventure Hugo. The tall, blue-eyed actor, who began acting as a child, said Ender was “definitely one of the more complicated characters I’ve had to play”.

“The amount of depth and intensity that he experiences is really interesting for an actor. It’s always exciting to have a role which pushes you in your acting ability,” he said.

In the film, Ender is separated from others in military school due to his high intellect and he channels his loneliness into leadership as he climbs the ranks to commander, defeating his enemies with tactical strategy and trying to find a median between compassion and cold-hearted violence.

“Without the emotional understanding of his enemy, (Ender) might not have had the capacity to defeat them. But it also imposes on him the feeling of respons-ibility for what he’s done and obliges him to a behaviour. He feels a responsibility to his enemy that’s a real emotional complication for him,” Ford said.

Ender’s Game is part of a recent wave of young adult novels exploring dystopian futures brought to the big screen, led by the success of last year’s The Hunger Games, the blockbuster movie based on a trilogy of novels by Suzanne Collins and distributed by Lions Gate Entertainment. The second instalment, Catching Fire, is due out on November 22.

While Lions Gate may hope that Ender’s Game kicks off a franchise, it is unclear if the film, made for $110 million, will generate enough business to start a new series.

To spawn a sequel, the movie needs to sell more than $100 million worth of tickets during its run in US and Canadian theatres, estimates Alan Gould, a Wall Street analyst who follows Lions Gate for Evercore Partners.

He currently projects Ender’s Game will take in a total of $70 million to $80 million in the US and Canada during its theatrical run.

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