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Asimov’s Foundation to the Big Screen
Issac Asimov’s Foundation series is legendary. An epic tale spanning 40 years of a man’s efforts to craft the perfect science fiction masterpiece. His novel I, Robot was translated to film. Though I actually liked it, I think “inspired by Asimov’s work” would have been more appropriate.
Now his ultimate achievement, the Foundation series is going to be a film made by Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, who like desperate rats were among those fleeing the sinking ship known as New Line Cinema. The sinking ship got absorbed by a bigger ship, but Bob and Mike were already gone.
Science fiction is a genre in which the duo and New Line had dabbled, most notably in recent years with “The Last Mimzy,” which Shaye directed. That 2007 film grossed just $27 million worldwide, according to tracking firm Box Office Mojo.”Foundation” is based on Asimov’s “Foundation Trilogy,” which centers on a society that has figured out how to predict the future based on a method called psychohistory and sets up a foundation devoted to scientific research to protect itself and ensure its survival.
Wow. Where do I start.
Let’s see.
Mimzy was a stuffed bunny rabbit in a kids movie about a magical device that gives kids strange powers. All family film fluff and I am not talking about the bunny.
Foundation is a hard look at the fall of society and a metal planet that houses the very foundation of scientific theories.
Yup. I can see why they wanted to take this on. Their sci-fi roots make them the perfect choice.
If there was EVER a pairing that made me think that they might just deviate from the source material this is it. Besides the heady science talk, this is not exactly the story I would envision entertaining the masses.
Yeah Asimov is legen… wait for it…. and I hope you are not lactose intolerant because the rest of that word is -dary! He is the man. All science fiction writers wish they could share even a tiny bit of the shade of the pillar upon which this man’s reputation is laid.
I just have little hope for something as complex and intellectual as Foundation being helmed by the guys who brought us The Last Mimzy.
The Last Mimzy was a mess of a movie! I can imagine these guys making an even bigger mess with The Foundation.
The foundation trilogy is one of my top five books of all time. Saying that this is a terrible idea. People say that watchmen is unfilmable well foundation is i think so much more so. Then add the fact that you got these two nuckleheads doing it and its a recipe for disaster.
This is a truly awful, awful idea. But your Barney quote just made my day. :)
My first response was joy, to see this fantastic piece of literature on film would be wonderful. My second response, shortly after the first, was sorrow. There are so many images in this book that are left up to the reader to make for themselves, all those who have read the book several times (like myself), are very likely to be disappointed. This is not an easy movie to film, cast, or adapt. I hope they can do it but really don’t think they can.
The Foundation series, even if we ignore the books after the Trilogy, should really be made as a TV show. Even the individual books in the trilogy were split into parts decades distant from one another. Asimov wrote great stories but his characterisation was woeful at times (and I own all his ‘official’ sci-fi novels, including The Gods Themselves). Imagine what the people behind shows like BSG, The Sopranos or The Wire could do with his storyline and their talents.
A bigger problem would be continuation beyond the trilogy, since he tied in almost every other book he wrote in the last few Foundations (even Nemesis, for crying out loud).
It needs an ongoing TV show budget and good dialogue writers to succeed, not 2.5 hours in a multiplex.
EVIL;CAT–
Totally agree. It would work much better as a television series.
I, too, am saddened by who will be producing yet another butchered mess of a movie of a late, great Asimov work. “Nightfall” comes immediately to mind. I comfort myself with Isaac Asimov’s own attitude about it. He made it clear in an editorial in his SF magazine, that he did not care what was done with his work, once the rights to it were paid for. He was able to let it go. I do my best to do the same. I agree a TV series would be better and allow for improvement, if not done right at first. If anyone is interested in an internet consortium to draft a list of deal breakers to send to Michael Lynne, I would be happy to participate. I define a deal breaker as anything about the movie, that would result in my not plunking down my $10 to see it. Money talks. Michael claimed in an interview about his winery, that money was fine, but his real goal was to make the very best wine. Perhaps he can be persuaded to be educated on how to do the same with the Foundation Trilogy.
If done right this could be a true epic.Anything less than total dedication to the sprit of this saga—will be a dud