1

"Without actually reading them"… now why am I not surprised?

Colin (brother of Mike) Hunt on Jul 29, 2008

2

About
Damn
Time
!

kevjohn on Jul 29, 2008

3

Read the books!

They could make a movie out of them no problem, but it'd be pretty expensive, they would need a pretty big cast.

Staatz on Jul 29, 2008

4

Hm, interesting, my beef with turning Foundation into a movie is that there are no consistent characters. I always thought this would be better as a HBO mini-series. But like kevjohn I say about damn time!

David on Jul 29, 2008

5

The Mule is in the second and third books at least…

Staatz on Jul 29, 2008

6

Wow, great news, Foundation was one of the first books that I read from my father's sci-fi collection, and it was spectacular, even if I was 13 years old (damn, that was 20 years ago!).
It is still one of my favorites sfi-fi operas, I'll love to see them in any form, film, mini-series, whatever.
If you think about the quantity of remakes in this times, this is good news.

Roderick on Jul 29, 2008

7

Amazing story, incredible characters, perfect book. Please, the movie MUST be invencible.

Thanks, Bob and Michael.

Lawrence Lagerlof on Jul 29, 2008

8

The Foundation and all of its books, is a complex, very interesting (VERY), and very (VERY) entertaining work in the field of science fiction.
The complete series includes 7 books… or 6?… damn memory, and i'm only 31… where was I? ah, yes, the work of Isaac Asimov is indeed full of detail, and it goes thru the ages within the story, spanning a great period of time, so, it's no wonder why no one has been able to ensemble something for the screen so far.

If they manage to do so, it will be a great movie, or series of movies. All the material is enough to make a trilogy, or four movies or even five, or a TV series, who knows…

I strongly recommend everyone to go and read the complete series so you can understand what the fuzz is all about. Let me help you:

Prelude To Foundation
Forward The Foundation
Foundation (if you just want to know the basics, read this one!)
Foundation and Empire
Second Foundation
Foundation's Edge
Foundation and Earth

(… and by the way "I Robot" is NOT a good adaptation, "The Bicentennial Man" is NOT a good adaptation, and both are based on Asimov's books, so, let's pray for a good one this time!!)

Jorge Leiner on Jul 29, 2008

9

Just the trilogy, Foundation through Second Foundation, those are the ones the movies will be based on and those are the great ones. Read those. The rest aren't bad, they're Asimov after all, but the original trilogy is special.

blah on Jul 29, 2008

10

The Laws of Robotics might need to be changed
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Unless they make another crappy adaptation of an Asimov story.

Henry on Jul 29, 2008

11

I'm a big fan of the old sci-fi greats - Heinlien, Clarke, and Asimov. It was that generation that literally inspired us to reach for the stars — or at least the moon.

I used to see a wall of those greats in my local walden books.

Heinlein Clarke and Asimov were rare in that they didn't need to use sex or explicit violence to sell books.

Now, when I walk into a big box book store, the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section is twice as big - but the masters of sf get very little shelf space. Increasingly, the section is dominated by female vampires in black-mini-skirts with too many tattoos - authors who do need to use sex and violence to sell books. It is … sad. In some of the books, the traditional bad guy is the protagonist. I don't get it.

That said, any movie that can raise awareness of these guys is good - as long as it stays true to the book. "Starship Troopers" the movie was funny, but it was someone else's starship troopers - certainly not Bobby Heinlein in the 1950's.

Matthew Heusser on Jul 30, 2008

12

Please don't stuff it up…please don't stuff it up…please don't stuff it up…please don't stuff it up…

yoopin on Jul 30, 2008

13

#4: I also thought this would be great as an HBO mini-series! Or maxi-mini-series.

#10: I watched I, Robot again recently and it wasn't nearly as bad as I remembered it being. It was actually a pretty entertaining film. They could have made it slightly closer to what was in the book though.

#11: Don't take it personally, they're selling out and mucking up EVERY genre these days. Try finding a decent horror, crime, western, whatever novel worth reading that was written in the past decade or so. Twilight — need I say more?

#12: There's a good chance they'll stuff it up. Isaac Asimov's Foundation, starring Ben Affleck and Avril Lavigne.

kevjohn on Jul 30, 2008

14

These books will be impossible to adapt to the screen. They were written as a collection of short stories, not a novel. How can they adapt that to a two-hour movie? Cannot be done. Not unless they butcher it beyond recognition. Still might be a fun movie, but it won't be Asimov's Foundation.

David on Jul 30, 2008

15

I am a huge fan of the foundation novels (or collected short stories, if you wish)! The wide range of Asimov's intellegence made it perfect in all ways. But They must be extremely faithful to the books though, the last thing we need is a hollywoodified version (or should I say perversion) of what is most likely the greatest sci-fi trillogy ever. The other books are very good as well (I literally read "Foundation's Edge" in about a week's time), and I think they should be considered part of the series, but in no way were they like the first three. What I like about Asimov most of all is he avoided B.S. science, and even the technologies that aren't available yet which he wrote about are both feesable and have resonable limitations -take it from a physics major!

Dr. Adam Bruce on Aug 29, 2008

16

I am also concerned about the movie butchering the books. (As is usually the case.)

Foundation was absolutely phenomenal. (I have a hard time deciding which is better: Foundation or Dune.) There's just sooooooooo much story there, I really don't see how they could cram a sizable amount into 2 or 3 hours.

But I'm still excited, nonetheless!

(Also hoping that Rendezvous with Rama will eventually hit the big screen!)

Vince on Sep 8, 2008

17

I read the foundation years ago, and I think it's a great story, but frankly these guys are missing the boat. Foundation is a very complicated and diffused storyline. If you want a great compact Asimov story, film "the Ends of Eternity" instead. Neat novel, easy to tell in under two hours.

eliot on Sep 13, 2008

18

i heard the buzz about this movie a year ago. lost my mind trying to figure out 'how could they do it?' CGI the whole thing (star wars: clones wars). this will probably be the direction for a number of great sci-fi novels that move to 'big screen.'

whall319 on Oct 16, 2008

19

I have read the originals, which of course were not written on a linear timeline. So, I took on the task of reording them based on the galactic timeline, including Mr A's "robot" and "detective" versions. They were all great… and suprisingly consistent. I have to agree with a previous entry that this would have been a great HBO series versus a few movies. Kinda like the DUNE mini-series on SFI-FI. Except this one could go for years with the right marketing.

Mike on Oct 19, 2008

20

I think their task of bringing Foundation to the big screen is hard, but not impossible, especially since Asimov wrote those 2 prequels. I suppose they will emphasize the opposition between the Foundation and the Empire. I think it should work better if they plan in advance the sequels, because the Foundation series does not have an end.
I think the Robots series is more adaptable to movies - especially Caves of Steel

Paul on Dec 28, 2008

21

I understand everyone's lack of confidence, but, I think it needs to be judged on it's own merit's when it comes out.

KB on Jan 9, 2009

22

I don't know about this idea. I love the books because they're so interesting and entertaining and Asimov has such a great imagination, but it would be a really boring movie. It would just be a bunch of people talking about how their culture procreates through synthetic babies for mostly the whole time. I don't think that they should make a movie.

andy on Jan 12, 2009

23

I too have fears about the final results. I have few memories of books which survived the transitions - other than the lord of the rings or C.S. Lewis series. The Foundcation universe is one of my favorrites - I've read it many times over the 40+ years of SF reading. We can only pray that it be done correctly.

Larry W. Virden on Mar 7, 2009

24

I was having a chat with my uncle recently, and i asked him "Do you think they could make a movie of Foundation", and he replied, firmly "No, it is a great book, but because it is more talking and less action, people will be dissapointed. Don't get me wrong, I think if somebody pulled it off the movie would be an instant classic, but its very unlikely." and I have to agree with him. I hope that the movie does work, ’cause its one of my favorite books of all time. Hopefully they don't screw up another Asimov book.

Gabe on Mar 17, 2009

25

Guess what! These guys arent doing the movie! Columbia Pictures bought the rights and now Roland Emmerich is directing it, not Shaye and Lynne. Dissapointing!

Gabe on Mar 17, 2009

26

It's a dream coming true!!! I've always dreamt of Fundation Trilogy (books) becoming a movie (or a trilogy movie).

Raphael Romero Barbosa on May 13, 2009

27

OK, this has the potential to be epic. But! I really don't see how foundation can be made into a movie. They should skip foundation and focus on Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation. OR, they could just narrate foundation when necessary or have a 15 minute preface to it. Its to complex to easily follow on the big screen without taking tons out of it.

Iz on May 20, 2009

28

This has great potential to be a mega hit but also great pitfalls. There is not a core group of characters that span the trilogy, only an idea or series of ideas. It might be better made into a mini-series on the SciFi channel.

The movie Dune was horrible, but the two Dune mini-series done on the SciFi channel were excellent. A mini-series has more time to explain complex concepts (i.e. psychohistory, laws of robotics, galactic empire shaping, etc.), do characterization and plot building. The SciFi channel is the perfect vehicle for this as well as they have proven with Dune that they can deliver excellent productions of famous books. HBO might have more money but it would not be available for most people like the SciFi channel or even the movie theatre would.

It would be difficult to write a screenplay for the trilogy. You would almost have to write all three before production started to make sure you got all the parts of the story. They filmed all three Lord of the Rings movies at the same time (and wrote the screenplays ahead of time) for that very reason. It is an intricate story and it is too easy to leave out an important point in one movie that may become pivotal in the next if you don't do them together.

I would of course go see the movie if they made it, but I am hoping they don't make another Dune … that is … a horrible butchering of a classically great book.

Drake Hybern on May 28, 2009

29

Yes I am a fan of the series - It IS about time somebody did a film re these stories, and I can think of no one better than the people who did "The Lord of the Rings" esp. as they were faithful to the original books. So far no film based on an Asimov novel (I believe I have caught two so far) has actually been all that consistent with the novel. Seeing even the first volume of "Foundation" on the screen would be a treat.

John Feeney on Jun 22, 2009

30

I'm concened that the F T would end up looking like the movie version of the Hitchickers Guide.
I agree with John and his suggestion that the crew that did the "Lord of the Rings" would be the best group to do the trilogy.

JZ
St. Louis

John Zinn on Oct 8, 2009

31

There are several ways to go with this project. The one espoused here is a good start, with a strong focus on Hari and a few crises in the first book. But there is the trillogy, which is a far better story with more charachter depth as the books progress. Then there is the over-arching story with Daneel as the prime character over several millenium. If I was a Hollywood promo person behind this, I would play up Daneel in the series, even though he was not in the original trillogy. Then I could tie the three together and, if really lucky, have all the prequells and follow-on Foundation books as possible movies to last for years. Caves of Steel, Robots of Dawn, I Robot and all the latter foundation books could fuel a long series and losts of $$$.
Whatever they do, the Azimov boooks are all superb on their own and a beautiful symphony as a whole. The way he brought it all together as a whole in the last two foundation books was a thing to be experienced rarely as an avid reader.

Joe Ryan on Oct 29, 2009

32

I have read and re-read the Foundation series many times and still find them thrilling. However, I'm not convinced they can ever make a good film of the series - especially the first book which is the basis of the whole series - simply because the book depends so much on fine nuances and a turn of phrase to bring a wonderful twist to the tale eg When Hari Seldon reveals he had planned for 5 years that his group would be exiled and t where - totally unexpected. Again the defeat of the Mule - depends upon a simple phrase 'a simple secret' (or words to that effect) which undoes the Mules plan. Hollywood films are usually succesfull because of special effects and grandiose sets - fine nuances will be lost in the winds I fear - and much beyond the mass audiences who look for excitement and thrills. Look what they did with I Robot and worse The Bicentennial Man!! Asimov must be turning in his grave!

ashok prema on Nov 1, 2009

33

Emmerich has totally taken into account Foundation is not "another-SF-novel-that-could-be-turned-into-a-movie-without-bothering-writing-a-line-of-script"… He knows Asimov as the Pope of Science Fiction, and Foundation as his masterpiece.
Hazardous material!
He announced few weeks ago, he has chosen Robert Rodat for working on a scenario. Rob, who has written "Private Ryan", "The Patriot", is known for focusing on characters.
This is a first "director's choice", which is really interesting when one has read the books.
My opinion is to give Emmerich credit for launching such a project, with what could be "goods scenaristic options".

Please excuse my french accent…

Foundation Fan on Nov 4, 2009

34

i think it's a great idea to make this movie but i must menchin that the foundation is not a trilogy ,it indeed has 7 whole book i know i'm reading them in order to the story line .and if anyone of importance see's this post i would be honored to be part of this movie.for i feel it will make movie history.and i've read the books over and over having a good knowlegde of the story.fingers are crossed.so let get filming,lol

larry matlock on Nov 18, 2009