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Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy Headed to the Big Screen
July 29, 2008
by Alex Billington
Ex-New Line Cinema founders Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne have moved on to become producers and they've just set up their first project. The two will produce an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation, an epic sci-fi story that was first published in 1951. Asimov actually wrote a complete series of Foundation books, however Shaye and Lynne only plan to adapt the first book for now and if successful, potentially finish off a trilogy like they did with Lord of the Rings. The complexity and scope of the story has been problematic for other producers, however these two are confident that they'll put something worthy together. Shaye explains "this is not a script you can knock out in six months." Certainly true!
The first book in the trilogy, Foundation, is a combination of five short stories written by the legendary Isaac Asimov that together form one plot. The book focuses 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. The books contain political themes that center on the rise and fall of civilizations and span hundred of years, which makes this series troublesome and challenging for adaptation. "Our idea to renew the worldwide audience's appetite for the story," Shaye enthused. You can read more about the Foundation trilogy on Wikipedia or pick up copies of the books on Amazon.com.
Shaye and Lynne's new production company, Unique Features, has a three year first-look deal with Warner Brothers, and it's expected they'll pick up this project. Although I'm excited for anything from Isaac Asimov, I'm actually curious to see how this turns out after the collapse of New Line. Shaye's own sci-fi children's movie, The Last Mimzy, flopped last year, but considering Warner Brothers is handling all of the marketing and distribution this time, I don't think we'll anything to worry about if they indeed pick this up. Shaye explained that "this epitomizes the movies we want to make, not the movies that ought to be made to fill a slate or movies that repeat an old formula," which gives me a lot of hope for their new company. I just hope they find the right screenwriter and right director, because we all know ambitious producers on their own don't necessarily make great movies - it takes an entire team of talented individuals.
Getting back to the topic of Asimov's books, Shaye said that the trilogy is "one of the things I've had close to my heart" since he read the books years ago. Without actually reading them, I think it's a challenge to simply understand the scope and extent of the story. Characters change between books and each one spans hundreds of years, which is why this is both an exciting project and one that has me a little bit worried. Although I, Robot turned out good, thanks to Alex Proyas, I don't yet know if Shaye and Lynne have it in them. I guess you could say they did bring us the Lord of the Rings movies, which were faithful to Tolkien's books. Let's hope for the same success with Foundation as well! Is anyone a big fan of this series?
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Reader Feedback - 14 Comments »
1
"Without actually reading them"… now why am I not surprised?
Colin (brother of Mike) Hunt 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