If you love the Foundation series of books...

[FengZ]

Then you're not gonna like this.

The film rights just optioned to Roland Emmerich....yup, same director as 2012, the Day after Tomorrow, etc.

The Foundation series are some of my favorite sci-fi books. It's so deep and vast...and inspired so many other sci-fi books/films.

I HOPE I HOPE I HOPE he doesn't destroy this wonderful sci-fi series. My guess is that there was another script flowing around which Emmerich as looking at. Then they decided to attach a known IP (Foundation) ontop of this script. They did the same w/ I, Robot....which if you watched the movie, had nothing to do w/ the book... they simply attached the name to another script...and added some lines here and there from the book...

ah, Hollywood...

-feng

[cheezyflier]

ah, Hollywood...

-feng


i'm sighing sympathetically with you

[Lionheart]

Sorry to hear that Feng.

I feel your pain man..


I never knew that about I-Robot. Loved that movie immensely. Sort of like BladeRunner. A bit different from the book. Movies are so hard to keep close to books paths. That or producers just like to rewrite them, lol..


Could you imagine reading a book and then re-writing it?


Bill

[arrowmaker]

Aah... Roland Emmerich, king of ...well I won't say. Actually he has made a couple of movies which I like, namely Stargate and The Thirteenth Floor. Going by his last few productions, however, he seems to be making movies, à la Orson Welles, ie worse and worser.

I fear that the only thing any Foundation movie made by him will have in common with the books will be the name.

[Lionheart]

Man! If he did Stargate, there is hope!!! I love that movie.. It is an awesome classic. Right up there with Blade Runner...


Bill

[arrowmaker]

Man! If he did Stargate, there is hope!!! I love that movie.. It is an awesome classic. Right up there with Blade Runner...


Bill

Yes. But he also did 10,000BC probably the worst movie I have seen in the last 10 years.

[Wing_Z]

The Foundation series is such a sprawling, rambling body of work, by so many different people over such a long time, that it really won't matter what he does.
If he does it well, it will be great.
If he does it badly, it would hardly make any impact on the original works.
The risk might be that the first one is successful...:icon30:then there are potentially 7 sequels, and any number of spinoffs... :gameoff:

[jmig]

Is this the series by Asimov where these scientists can predict the future? I read the first four books. Enjoyed them. I still remember him calling computers, calculators. That is how far ahead he was.

[KOM.Nausicaa]

That's terrible, and my hope is low.
I wait for the day someone attacks the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons. Most awesome SF books ever, for me anyways. :-)
Martin Scorsese had his hands on it, but nothing seems to have happened.
I hope Emmerich never ever gets his hands on THAT one.

[n4gix]

I would dearly love to see the entire Foundation series done, but only if done well.

As an alternative, a synthesis of the entire series from the POV of R. Daneel Olivaw might be interesting...

...since Daneel is the most commonly appearing Asimov character. He was constructed immediately prior to the age of the Settlers, and lived at least till the formation of Galaxia (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/wiki/Gaia_(Foundation_universe)), thus spanning the entire history of the First Empire.*

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Daneel_Olivaw

[Naismith]

Foundation would be good if done well.
How about the Lensman series by E.E. Doc Smith. Now that really would be epic.

[Silver Fox]

Foundation will be screwed up... count on it. Sadly, Hollywood has little patience for a 'Grand Vision'.

Something from Larry Niven's 'Known Space' would suit Hollywood better... A deep background offering certilesoil for sequels, but small enough stories to fit on the screen.

[Eoraptor1]

I could see this as a miniseries on SyFy, but I'm having trouble picturing it at the multiplex. I get into trouble with some of my brother nerds when I say a lot of the Star Wars universe was lifted wholesale from the Foundation and Dune series. I don't think Dune has been done justice on the screen, so I'm nervous about Foundation. I did like Children of Dune on SyFy, but the nature of the both series are prohibitive IMO. I'd have to wait and see what actually came to the screen.

JAMES

[b52bob]

Honor Harrington!!

[Silver Fox]

Honor Harrington!!

Let's be about it then!

I'd love to see The Salamander on the big screen! Her title might get in the way though:

Admiral of the Fleet and Captain HMS Unconquered Lady Dame Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington, Steadholder Harrington, Duchess Harrington, Countess White Haven

[n4gix]

Honor Harrington!!

Amen to that!

One of the things I like the most about the entire series of stories is that they actually depict what a "real space battle" would likely be, with respect to actual astrodynamics. Manuvering "in system" takes DAYS...

As for the "Foundation" series, it would take at least six full-length movies just to do justice to ONE book, much less the original trilogy.

[jmig]

Let's be about it then!

I'd love to see The Salamander on the big screen! Her title might get in the way though:

Admiral of the Fleet and Captain HMS Unconquered Lady Dame Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington, Steadholder Harrington, Duchess Harrington, Countess White Haven

So she finally married that guy. :) I quit reading the series after she single-handed won the war. I knew it had started again but I couldn't get back into the series.

[Eoraptor1]

Amen to that!

One of the things I like the most about the entire series of stories is that they actually depict what a "real space battle" would likely be, with respect to actual astrodynamics. Manuvering "in system" takes DAYS...

As for the "Foundation" series, it would take at least six full-length movies just to do justice to ONE book, much less the original trilogy.

I was thinking these same things, n4gix. We're used to seeing movie spaceships move like 18th Century Ships-of-the-Line, or WWII fighters, and the only cinematic space combat I recall seeing without booming sound is on Firefly. The way the Star Furys moved on Babylon 5 wasn't too fantastical, but they still accelerated and decelerated at a rate I think would have killed the pilots, and they were still doing pseudo-1944 dogfighting. NOTE: on the final episode of the History Channel's Dogfights, "Dogfights of the Future" they showed what a future space battle in low Earth orbit might really entail.

I've heard people complain about the length of The Lord of the Rings movies, but people who read the books know I'm not exagerrating when I say The Fellowship of the Ring alone could have easily run six hours and not gotten everything. Theater owners really like those two evening showings at full pricing, so I suspect a Foundation series would be under similar pressure to cut book content.

Here's a link to an interesting article about science fiction spaceships. Go HERE: http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3v.html

JAMES

[FengZ]

Well, i'm not holding hope on Emmerich. :)

On a brighter note, i saw Avatar last night in 3D. WOW!!! Cameron sure knows how to make sci-fi movies! Go watch it..and try to watch it in 3D. It's amazing!

-feng