A while back we learned that Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Patriot) had acquired the right to Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. I foolishly hoped time would pass and the film(s) would never get made. Or at least not get made by Emmerich himself. David Chen of /film sat down with Mr. Emmerich today at Comic-Con where he was promoting the release of 2012 and revealed that Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan) would soon be finished with the first script.
The premise of The Foundation series is that mathematician Hari Seldon spent his life developing a branch of mathematics known as psychohistory. Using the law of mass action, it can predict the future, but only on a large scale. Using these techniques, Seldon foresees the fall of the Galactic Empire, which encompasses the entire Milky Way, and a dark age lasting thirty thousand years before a second great empire arises. To shorten the period of barbarism, he creates two Foundations – small, secluded havens of all human knowledge, on opposite ends of the galaxy.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can’t think of two people less qualified to tackle this project. Sure Emmerich can produce special effects driven crap that can pass as mildly entertaining for a brief time, but Foundation is real science fiction. Foundation is not Will Smith dragging an alien through the desert complaining about how he’s missing a barbecue. If not these two, who would you like to see adapt Asimov’s classic series?
Check out Chen’s Original Article on /Film here.
Comments
I’ve never read the Foundation Series of books but with Emmerich at the helm I’m sure that the films will be just as good as I, Robot… haha. Emmerich having anything to do with something Isamov wrote just seems like a really really bad idea.
I completely agree. It’s too bad I, Robot wasn’t better. Alex Proyas showed some promise with Dark City.
Im in the presses of reading the foundation series, and I have to say that it’s way to complex a narrative to transfere well to the screen. If it were made, it would IMHO have to be spread across several movies and have mega money thrown at it. I think it would make a much better series than movies. This would allow the cracker and ideas to really develope.
Saying that, I’d still watch it whatever the case.