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[LordOfLore]

Bleeding Cool link.

Skydance Television is close to finalizing a deal for David Goyer (The Dark Knight, Krypton) and Josh Friedman (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) to adapt Isaac Asmiov‘s Foundation series for television. Serving as the television arm of the same production company behind such films as World War Z and the recent Star Trek movies, Skydance Television is working with the Asimov estate to secure the rights to the late sci-fi icon’s epic tale, though no networks or streaming services are officially involved with the project as of this writing.

Asimov’s original Foundation series (Foundation, Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation) introduces us to researcher/mathematician Hari Seldon, who has developed a new science called psychohistory that’s showing him the imminent fall of the ruling Galactic Empire across the entire Milky Way galaxy followed by galaxy-wide “dark age” that will last for 30,000 years. Seeking to change humanity’s fate, Seldon establishes a community of engineers, artists and thinkers at the far end of the galaxy: a “foundation” that might be able to find a way to reduce the “dark age” to only 1,000 years and bring about a new and grander empire.

Asimov’s work was originally published in Astounding magazine from 1942 to 1950, and then collected into three books in the early 1950’s. It would be another thirty years before Asimov would return to the series with Foundation’s Edge (1982), and he would return to the series again for sequel Foundation and Earth and the prequels Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation. Asimov’s estate authorized additional books in the series from a number of noted sci-fi writers after his death, including: Gregory Benford‘s Foundation’s Fear; Greg Bear‘s Foundation and Chaos; and David Brin‘s Foundation’s Triumph.

This isn’t the first attempt at a Foundation adapatation, with Fox, Warner Bros. and Sony attempting to turn Asimov’s trilogy into a film franchise, with script attempts by some of the biggest names in sci-fi. HBO had recently attempted a series with Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) and Jonathan Nolan (Interstellar, Westworld) but negotiations never moved beyond discussions.

Lock if old.

 

[Herb Alpert]

Please be good

 

[Bregor]

Please be good

These days I'll just settle for something that isn't embarrassingly bad.

 

[CitizenVectron]

The book relies heavily on an anthology format, with different sections taking place hundreds of years apart. I expect the show will ignore this and focus on a new, completely made-up guy who single-handedly will do everything the Foundation needs to survive.

It will be okay, but fans of the books will be disappointed in the major differences.

 

[NoblesseOblige]

Cool. Love the book, and though I don't expect it to be a 1:1 recreation I do hope it succeeds and maybe even gets more people to read it.

 

[H.Cornerstone]

Guess I better get to reading the second and third ones. Not sure how they will adopt it thought based on the first one.

 

[ElFly]

I love Foundation, but this is gonna need a good rewrite to make it palatable for tv

wonder if they will go the way of adding nudity to scenes to help digest the plot

The book relies heavily on an anthology format, with different sections taking place hundreds of years apart. I expect the show will ignore this and focus on a new, completely made-up guy who single-handedly will do everything the Foundation needs to survive.

It will be okay, but fans of the books will be disappointed in the major differences.

the 80s book suffer a lot for this; first Trevize gets two books of wandering through the galaxy, and the hari seldon get his own prequel

maybe they will adapt the seldon prequels, those are much easier to do

 

[Psychoward]

Looked up Goyer because he sounded familiar. This guy wrote some of the best comic book movies ever and also some of the worst lmao

 

[4Tran]

I really don't know how well Foundation is going to translate to TV. It's not exactly the kind of work that lends itself to following around a cast of characters so I'm having a really hard time visualizing it. I do how it'll be good though.

On the flip side, the Robot stories would have work better and they'd be more relevant to today's society.

The book relies heavily on an anthology format, with different sections taking place hundreds of years apart. I expect the show will ignore this and focus on a new, completely made-up guy who single-handedly will do everything the Foundation needs to survive.

Technically, that guy's name is Hari Seldon.

 

[Kayhan]

They are going to add some romance and some pew pew.

 

[ash_ag]

I was hoping the HBO deal with Jonathan Nolan would go forward.

Does this production company have a good reputation? Can we expect a Game of Thrones-quality adaptation?

 

[MattKeil]

Please be good

Nope. It's Goyer.

Looked up Goyer because he sounded familiar. This guy wrote some of the best comic book movies ever and also some of the worst lmao

He's gotten his name attached to some of the best. The ones he wrote himself have all been some of the worst. There is no hope for this.

 

[yyzjohn]

Won't it be sort of a boring series? From what I remember there's not much action in Foundation.

 

[PanSexual_Peacock]

I was hoping the HBO deal with Jonathan Nolan would go forward.

Does this production company have a good reputation? Can we expect a Game of Thrones-quality adaptation?

I didn't realistically think Nolan would be able to do it with Westworld still going.

 

[HStallion]

I wonder if this will get the Will Smith "I Robot" treatment to make it more "palatable" to the general audiences.

 

[GreenMonkey]

They should really start with the Lije Bailey novels. And not that I, Robot crap either that was just a Will Smith movie with a shell of Asimov attached to it.

Futurist detective movie works better and easier than Foundation.

Hit up Foundation later.

I can imagine Foundation done kinda like Black Mirror , perhaps.

 

[tearsintherain]

The books are incredibly dry and intellectual so it'll be interesting to see how the hell they bring it to screen. Some really interesting ideas but not sure how stuck they are in the 60s sci fi era.

A TV adaption is definitely much better than movie, but I wonder if the changes they need are going to be so radical that it will turn off book fans, but not do enough to bring in new fans.

Westworld in many ways is just another spin off Foundation, sure they are nothing alike at all at first glance but its basically what happens in the future between man, science, and the things we create.

I hope the Rendevous with Rama thing is still a thing, that seems like a much more attainable show.

 

[4Tran]

I wonder if this will get the Will Smith "I Robot" treatment to make it more "palatable" to the general audiences.

The Will Smith film started out as an AI gone rogue story with no affiliation to Asimov. The title and the Asimov references didn't come about until later in the production. This project seems to be using Foundation as the base of the work so it's going to be a different matter, but they're probably still going to have to make major changes to adapt it properly.

 

[Biggest-Geek-Ever]

Fucking Goyer?!

Goddammit

 

[TronLight]

Please don't. Just don't if you have to get those guys.

 

[Psychoward]

Nope. It's Goyer.



He's gotten his name attached to some of the best. The ones he wrote himself have all been some of the worst. There is no hope for this.

ah ok, that makes sense

the concept would have my skeptical anyway

 

[B.K.]

The book relies heavily on an anthology format, with different sections taking place hundreds of years apart. I expect the show will ignore this and focus on a new, completely made-up guy who single-handedly will do everything the Foundation needs to survive.

The anthology format is coming back in a big way for TV series. An anthology series would be perfect for Foundation. Each season could adapt one arc and the next season could do the next.

They should really start with the Lije Bailey novels. And not that I, Robot crap either that was just a Will Smith movie with a shell of Asimov attached to it.

The Caves of Steel has been stuck in development hell over at Fox for years. The last time they talked about it was a year ago when it got a new writer.

http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/706201-akiva-goldsman-caves-of-steel

 

[commedieu]

Paging hari seldon..

 

[Beren the Empty-Handed]

The books are great, but this will be tough to make work for television.

 

[ROUGE_BLOCK]

Man, I don't know if Goyer has the finesse to juggle something that complex and heavy especially for sci-fi. Hell if he can make it work why not.