Recently there was a big auction among studios for the rights to the sci-fi series from Isaac Asimov, Foundation. The auction was won by Columbia Pictures to the tune of six figures and with Roland Emmerich in place to direct.
No word on how many movies are scheduled yet, but it looks like it could have the potential of being a trilogy based upon the main stories of Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. There are many other books in the large series, so there could be plenty of movies with the right kind of success. One of the books included in the series is I, Robot, which of course we’ve already seen hit the screen.
Below is the description of the series by way of Wiki.
The premise of the series is that mathematician Hari Seldon spent his life developing a branch of mathematics known as psychohistory, a concept devised by Asimov and his editor John W. Campbell. Using the law of mass action, it can predict the future, but only on a large scale; it is error-prone on a small scale. It works on the principle that the behaviour of a mass of people is predictable if the quantity of this mass is very large (equal to the population of the galaxy which has a population of around a quadrillion). The larger the mass, the more predictable is the future. 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.
This sounds to fit Emmerich’s resume to a T, so it’s fitting that it’s played out as such.
[Source: Variety]
…argh! Not THIS guy,…pls not, pls not, pls not…
…argh!
Comment by Chris — January 19, 2009 @ 7:35 am
What an insanely bad idea. Let’s take a man who gave us such breaindead creations as Godzilla, 10,000 BC, or Independence Day, and put him at the helm of the greatest epic in the history of science fiction. This is an undertaking that requires talent, subtlety, and intelligence. Putting Emmerich in charge is akin to having a butcher perform plastic surgery. No offense to the butchers, of course.
Comment by The Reader — February 25, 2009 @ 3:06 pm
i think somebody should start an online petition on http://www.petitiononline.com against emmerich to direct this movie.
when i google ‘foundation movie’ i found dozens of sites about “this is so terrible: emmerich directs foundation”
so i think it is possible to gather 50000 or even more signs with good marketing.
Comment by trevize — March 8, 2009 @ 2:13 pm
Hi Trevize,
Please give Emmerich a chance to direct a quality adapation. He knows SF community is nervous… He just hired a very good writer (Bob Rodat) to work on it.
Comment by Foundation movie FAN !! — January 12, 2010 @ 8:09 am
Greetings, true Sci-Fi fans from all over the world!
If you are against the idea of Emmerich screenwriting and directing this chef d’oeuvre, please, join me in my Petition!
The Petition in question is first addressed to… ALL of us, *true* Sci-Fi fans, in order to raise our awareness level; next, it will be addressed to Sony/Columbia Pictures, of course.
Hopefully, something *good* is to come out of all these…
Thank you, in advance!
http://www.petitiononline.com/emmerich/petition.html
Comment by Silviu Marin — July 21, 2010 @ 12:46 am