Fresco Pictures reports that David Benioff, the writer of the screenplay for Wolfgang Petersen's 2004 epic Troy, has been signed by Warner Bros. to pen the script for the movie Ender's Game.

Benioff will work with his writing partner, Dan Weiss, in close cooperation with Petersen, who is developing Ender's Game with the intent of directing it himself.

The screenplay will be based on Orson Scott Card's novels "Ender's Game" and "Ender's Shadow."

Says Card, "Mr. Benioff proved with Troy that he could adapt a long work to fit the brevity of film, while preserving what is most powerful and effective in the original."

Any film of Ender's Game will be heavily dependent on special effects, says Card, "but it's the characters that the audience must care about for the film to succeed."

"I have every expectation that he and Mr. Weiss will be able to create a screenplay that will distill the strong characters and moral dilemmas of the novel into an exciting film that will justify the huge expense involved in filming it," said Card.

Benioff also adapted his own novel, 25th Hour, into a screenplay for the Spike Lee-directed 2002 film that starred Edward Norton.