Producers onboard for "Foundation"

[God Magnus]

So says the Hollywood Reporter: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i9154afd0680ec28a1d8e18e265bbed4a

I have to admit having mixed feelings about this. I love the "Foundation" books by Asimov, but I'm not 100% sure the first book would make for a particularly exciting movie for the general audience. I fear they may torque up the 'splosions factor to get people into theaters and downplay the more philisophical and political aspects. Fingers crossed.

 

[JustAFriend]

Yup, if they do the "I, Robot" treatment I'd rather they just go do another Porky's remake....

The book is just too cerebral for Hollyweird.

 

[V]

well the entire point of the first book was indeed: "violence is the last resort of the incompetent"

I mean, the Foundation survives by tricking its enemies and NOT FIRING A SHOT

***But I have to tell you: the first foundation book is fun, but I seriously care more about seeing Bel Riose and The Mule than I could a human baby.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Studio exec: "We need more space battles!"

 

[God Magnus]

Yup, if they do the "I, Robot" treatment I'd rather they just go do another Porky's remake....

The book is just too cerebral for Hollyweird.

That's the thing. How would an audience react if you had all these great fleets of ships gathering, all this tension building and the big climax is ... NOTHING. Everyone just doesn't fight. I can hear the sighs and groans in the theater now about how "stoop1d" that is. Personally I'd be thrilled if they stayed so true to the book, I just don't see it happening.

 

[Chaos Descending]

I predict that no good will come of a theatrical release of Foundation.

Much the pity.

 

[CaptJimboJones]

I could see Foundation as a miniseries, rather than a theatrical film. There's just too much there to summarize in one two-hour movie.

 

[Guy Gardener]

And wouldn't it be awesome to notice Daneel running around in the background as a shadowy figure, who doesn't get a single line till the fourth movie... You can call this stuff cerebral, but it was pulp media for mass circulation and children in the 1940s... Has society declined so much that such by gone anachronisms are our betters?

 

[S. Gomez]

While I'm also not exactly optimistic about a Hollywood attempt to film Foundation, hearing what the guys have to say in the article has me somewhat interested.

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

It might be decent if you don't go into it expecting it to follow the books to the letter. Don't get me wrong, it will probably suck, but let's keep our fingers crossed.

 

[Hardin]

oh boy oh boy... this is like both a dream and a nightmare coming true at the same time for me. I honestly fear the worst, which I guess might be a good thing: easier to be positively surprised. But really, can you imagine anything more at odds with the contemporary scifi movie than Asimov's storytelling? I could see the Lucky Starr adventures working but Foundation? No way it won't get the 'I Robot' treatment

 

[RevDMV]

Well, on the quick read it sounds like one of the producers is a fan, and they've headed off what sounded like an abysmal adaptation. So, I'm in the hope for the best mode for now...

 

[Stevil2001]

I can't see the original "novel" working. The whole point is that there's no tension-- Seldon's got the whole thing planned out; all the protagonists do is deduce/carry out his plan. That works in a short story... not so much a film.

I could see an adaptation of Foundation and Empire working, though. Open with a prologue where we're told about the Seldon Plan and how it's never failed... UNTIL NOW. And everyone thinks it's fallen apart in "The General", but Old Seldon pulls it together... and then things really go to pot in "The Mule". Both of them could comfortably accommodate some epic space battles, too.

 

[CaptJimboJones]

I could see an adaptation of Foundation and Empire working, though. Open with a prologue where we're told about the Seldon Plan and how it's never failed... UNTIL NOW. And everyone thinks it's fallen apart in "The General", but Old Seldon pulls it together... and then things really go to pot in "The Mule". Both of them could comfortably accommodate some epic space battles, too.

That's actually a pretty good idea. Of the novels, F&E probably had the most traditional dramatic conflict that would translate fairly well on screen.

It's hard to imagine the first novel working very well as a movie.

 

[Python Trek]

I love Asimov's books, but I can't think of anything but the Lucky Starr stuff that's "cinematic". If I were a Hollywood producer looking for good material for an sf blockbuster, I'd take a look at Larry Niven's "Ringworld"..........

 

[Norrin Radd]

To give it the requisite action and suspense, the filmmakers could incorporate the events of Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation into the movie.

It is the year 12,020 G.E. and Emperor Cleon I sits uneasily on the Imperial throne of Trantor. Here in the great multidomed capital of the Galactic Empire, forty billion people have created a civilization of unimaginable technological and cultural complexity. Yet Cleon knows there are those who would see him fall - those whom he would destroy if only he could read the future.

Hari Seldon has come to Trantor to deliver his paper on psychohistory, his remarkable theory of prediction. Little does the young Outworld mathematician know that he has already sealed his fate and the fate of humanity. For Hari possesses the prophetic power that makes him the most wanted man in the Empire... the man who holds the key to the future - an apocalyptic power to be know forever after as the Foundation.

http://www.amazon.com/Prelude-Foundation-Novels-Isaac-Asimov/dp/0553278398

 

[Cicero]

I love Asimov's books, but I can't think of anything but the Lucky Starr stuff that's "cinematic". If I were a Hollywood producer looking for good material for an sf blockbuster, I'd take a look at Larry Niven's "Ringworld"..........

Those of his Galactic Empire novels I've read (two of three, but I don't recall which were the titles) would translate well to the screen. Both were fairly traditional 'chase' stories with high stakes.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Wouldn't this material work better as a TV series, with a set number of seasons and not just open ended?

 

[Stevil2001]

I love Asimov's books, but I can't think of anything but the Lucky Starr stuff that's "cinematic". If I were a Hollywood producer looking for good material for an sf blockbuster, I'd take a look at Larry Niven's "Ringworld"..........

Those of his Galactic Empire novels I've read (two of three, but I don't recall which were the titles) would translate well to the screen. Both were fairly traditional 'chase' stories with high stakes.

I think all three would, really. Pebble in the Sky would be pretty cool to see on the big screen.

 

[Klaus]

I can't see the original "novel" working. The whole point is that there's no tension-- Seldon's got the whole thing planned out; all the protagonists do is deduce/carry out his plan. That works in a short story... not so much a film.

I could see an adaptation of Foundation and Empire working, though. Open with a prologue where we're told about the Seldon Plan and how it's never failed... UNTIL NOW. And everyone thinks it's fallen apart in "The General", but Old Seldon pulls it together... and then things really go to pot in "The Mule". Both of them could comfortably accommodate some epic space battles, too.

That might work... and I'd like to see Trantor done with modern sfx, that'd be cool.

PS good to see some representation from the Nutmeg State, I'm across the highway near UConn...