Apple is developing a drama series from David S. Goyer titled “Foundation,” based on writer and professor Isaac Asimov’s book series, the company announced Tuesday.
The show will be written and executive produced by Goyer and Josh Friedman, each of whom will serve as the series’ showrunners. Skydance Television is producing “Foundation” with David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Marcy Ross also serving as executive producers.
Based on Asimov’s novel series of the same name, “Foundation” is set far in the future about humans scattered across distant planets all under the rule of the Galactic Empire. Hari Seldon, a mathematician known for developing the science psychohistory, envisions a looming dark age and the fall of the Galactic Empire. So he gathers together the greatest scientific minds to form the “Foundation” and lead the Galactic Empire into the future, only to be at the mercy of rising warlords.
The series is the best scifi series I ever read. I always thought it would make a great series akin to Battlestar Galactica in how the story progresses. They should stop the story with the earlier books, though. The newer books were written to connect to the Caves of Steel series which were great too but the ending (the gaia planet) felt rather weak compared to the earlier books and I don't think it would make good TV. Prelude to the Foundation was a great read too although it was written last I believe.
I quite loved the idea of this giant empire that lasted millennia slowly dying, shrinking towards the center of the "home planet". And then the hunt for earth ... and finding dead planets that connected to the Caves of Steel books.
Damn, makes me want to read all those books all over again.
Holy shit I LOVE this series. I have an anthology of huge books that puts the whole Robot-Empire-Foundation universe books in chronological order. Starts with the Robot short novellas, then Caves of Steel, then the three sorta-pre-empire novels (Pebble in the Sky, Stars Like Dust and Currents of Space), and then the Foundation series. There were also 2 collections of non-Asimov entries into the series (I think David Brin was one of the guest writers, and as much as I adored Startide Rising, his was the first book and it just didn't grab me so I stopped). I think The End of Eternity was also included somewhere (kind of a prequel-but-not-really-who-knows to the whole thing), that was also a blast to read.
Thousands upon thousands of pages of groundbreaking sci-fi. I've read through the whole thing like 4 times before, now I'm collecting the whole thing again in audiobook form. Really sad to see this one landing with people who don't seem to have too much confidence from the audience. Netflix, why hast thou forsaken us?
Around 1998 New Line spent 1.5 million trying to develop the Foundation into a film trilogy. When they failed, they decided to bank Peter Jackson on another trilogy.
Columbia got the rights in 2009 and asked Roland Emmerich to direct and produce. Didn't pan out.
In 2011 Dante Harper was asked by Columbia to adapt the books. IIRC he announced on his twitter feed quite some time later he didn't know how to do it.
In 2014 Jonathan Nolan tried to turn it into a TV series for HBO. That too didn't work out.
And Apple and these two dudes are gonna finally make it happen?
I didn't like the trailer at all. For those who have read the books, how close does it come to them?
Well that didn't capture any of it so far.
I like the actor they chose to play Seldon, but if we go strictly by the books, he should only have maybe an episode or two of introduction to the setting, and then a couple more appearances as a hologram, and that's it. The fact that he is heavily featured kinda makes me worried. And that girl...in the books that character was also only involved with Seldon's trial and with setting up the Terminus colony, and by the time the main story (or stories) took place, both of them were long dead.
Also, what the hell is up with that black hole, and that alien monster thing? o.O
Those were not in any of the books.
I fear it's going to be another I Robot, pissing on Asimov's grave.
I Robot was a collection of loosely connected short stories, exploring the shortcomings of the 3 Laws of Robotics. Similarly, the first Foundation book was dealing with different places in time after the fall of the galactic empire, all involving separate crises the Foundation had to deal with in order to shorten the inevitable dark age following the collapse of galactic society. Later books were more singular stories, but still basically dealt with the same overarching idea of this dark age, and Terminus being the new seat of power, set out by Seldon's predictions through psycho-history.
And so far they are seemingly missing the mark by a colossal margin.
All they had to do was follow the god damned book, but nope, they had to go all Abrams-Trek on it, and make it all epic and action packed, when it was all about characters being caught up in the inevitable flow of historical events.
So unless that trailer only showed scenes from the very first episode, I'm worried.
FFS, The Expanse showed that following a series of books almost to the letter can be incredibly successful if done right.
Oh, and Goyer sucking daddy Apple's dick this hard was just pathetic.
sar·casm | \ ˈsär-ˌka-zəm \
1: a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain
2a: a mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, and often ironic language that is usually directed against an individual
b: the use or language of sarcasm
Its always better to watch a movie/show and then to read the book afterwards. That way it's a positive progression of quality.
Or just read the book. Case in point: World War Z, I Robot, Dune, etc.
FFS, these days you don't even need to read the book. Just get the audiobook, boot up a game that requires little attention (Euro Truck Sim, Elite Dangerous, etc), play the book in the background and BOOM, amazing relaxation.
Last edited by zmed on Tue, 23rd Jun 2020 09:32; edited 2 times in total
Trailer looked slightly(!) better than the teaser. Jared Harris as Hari Seldon is a good sign though.
However, I wonder how much they're going to put into those 10 episodes. The story, the politics and the world just in that first original book (which became a massive series of books) is so complex..... I hope they're not trying to compress the entire Foundation story (ie. the original trilogy) into those 10 episodes. So much would be discarded and lost. That would be like making Star Wars Ep 4-6 into a 1.5 hour movie. And Apple TV!??
Oh well, we'll see.
..also waiting for news on what's going on with the Morgan Freeman-driven movie of Arthur C Clarke's "Rendesvouz with Rama" which was put on hold after Freeman was hurt in that car accident in 2018
Anyway, in case you're serious: who cares? If you can find a better source, post it here. There's so many fake "OFFICIAL TRAILER" releases on Youtube which are just the teaser and I can't be arsed to waste time trying to find a proper trailer (no idea if it's been released outside theaters or Apple+ stuff).. besides, the quality is okay, it's like a good dvd-rip...
sar·casm | \ ˈsär-ˌka-zəm \
1: a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain
2a: a mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, and often ironic language that is usually directed against an individual
b: the use or language of sarcasm
As someone who is illiterate on the subject matter, I quite liked the trailer even though it might indeed turn into a Sci-flaccid thing. I just hope crApple's decent production values are put to good use, possibly without annoying teens and corny melodramatic elements borrowed from soap operas.
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