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Apple TV+ Epic Saga 'Foundation' Based on Isaac Asimov's Best-Selling Novels Premieres September 24
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With all the Superhero shows out there, we don't really have that much hard sci fi on now. Hopefully this series fills that void, because the only other sci fi show I know of that is on is The Expanse. Hopefully this is like The Expanse. I miss the golden era of Sci Fi from the 90s to the early 00s when you had so many sci fi shows like Farscape, BSG, the Star Treks, and The Stargates.
Don't have any expectations at all. This.... 'adaptation' shares the name of the series, the names of some of the characters, and has 'Asimov' associated with it - and that's it. Nothing that I have seen bears any relation to the books - which I know inside out. Liberal creative differences? Prepare to be mightily disappointed.
Yes, like 'I, Robot' but much much worse.
I think part of what makes The Expanse show great is that they aren’t slaves to the books. The show does a great job of expanding on the story from the books and especially further developing non-POV characters.
Errinwright is a major character in the show, but he barely even appears in the books, just a couple of short video calls with Avasarala.
The Expanse had the advantage of having the book authors in the writers' room making sure that the source material was treated with respect. That would have been difficult with Asimov (séance?).
Still, the trailer looks great. Hopefully the show will live up to it and become Apple's Game of Thrones.
No... if you're going to have 'Eto Demerzel' then you have to start with 'Caves of Steel' - and then you'll see the utter stupidity of gender swapping that character. Because if Demerzel is female, then Character X must be male, and character Y must then be female, and so on and so on and you'll find the whole thing unravels. So it's completely obvious that the producers/directors/writers haven't read the books. And that's bad. It's depressingly predictable and extremely arrogant and lazy that they should choose that route. Wow... gender swap major characters from established literature - that's never been done before. Honestly, it's as if the writers of Dr. Who (a festival of mediocre, adolescent garbage) got hold of it and butchered it on the altar of the great God Woke. About what you'd expect from the minds behind Batman and Superman movies.
The really brave move would have been to stick to the books, warts and all. Then, instead of some lukewarm mishmash of modern TV tropes and motifs you might have got an absolute classic, along the lines of 'I, Claudius'.
It should be pointed out that Asimov was not a fan of 'Hollywood' and knew that if they ever got their hands on his work, it'd be distorted and perverted beyond recognition by every director, writer, actors and their families and office boys, and there'd be nothing he could do about it. So long as it remained in print, he knew that nobody could interfere with his written words. And so it has been. And here we are again. It'll probably look very nice and all the money spent on it will be right up there on screen - space battles, chases and battles of various sorts, lasers and smoke and moody lighting and mumbling sotto voce dialogue, but it won't be 'Foundation'.
Eto Demerzel is a robot called R. Daneel Olivaw BTW... just saying.
The writing of Isaac Asimov isn’t great by today’s standards? I’m afraid you’ve got that backwards. If trash like “Ready Player One” is today’s standard, then we’ll be back to cave paintings soon.
Try reading the classic sci-fi masters like Asimov and Bradbury.
Just wondering how it is that you know it is hard to adapt from the source material, not having read it yourself?
For Asimov, I would recommend the robot trilogy first (caves of steel is the first) and I read it when I was his age. There is a thread that runs through those books to the empire books and then to the foundation books.
Did you have to put a spoiler in there along with the anti-woke tirade?
Asimov admitted himself that his early writing focused on male characters because he didn’t have a lot of life experience with women.
I have read most of Asimov’s books and I disagree that it’s silly to swap genders (especially for a robot…)
You might end up being right about it being a poor adaptation, but we will have to see it first. Changing the gender of some characters is not a big deal though.
Sin City worked well in the format you described… so yes, you’re quite correct!
Looks terrific, with a decent budget and modern fx a series can look as awesome now as a big budget movie a few years ago.
Hope it will not disappoint 🤞🤞
Apple TV+ today announced that the 10-episode first season of science fiction series "Foundation" will premiere globally on September 24 with the release of the first three episodes, followed by one new episode weekly every Friday.
Based on the best-selling novels by Isaac Asimov, Apple says "Foundation" is an epic saga chronicling a band of exiles on their monumental journey to save humanity and rebuild civilization amid the fall of the Galactic Empire."Foundation" stars Emmy Award nominees Jared Harris and Lee Pace, alongside Lou Llobell, Leah Harvey, Laura Birn, Terrence Mann, Cassian Bilton, and Alfred Enoch.
Apple released a new trailer for "Foundation" alongside today's announcement:
The first-ever on-screen adaptation of Asimov's iconic, award-winning novel series is executive produced by David S. Goyer, who is best known for writing the screenplays to several superhero films, such as "Batman Begins" and "Man of Steel."
"In the decades since the 'Foundation' series first saw print, Asimov's prophetic science-fiction work has never been more relevant than it is now," said Goyer. "Growing up, I devoured 'Foundation' and dreamed of one day seeing it on screen – but a feature film didn't seem big enough to embrace the ambition. Thanks to the broader landscape of streaming and a valuable partnership with Apple and Skydance, we are able to bring the series to the screen in a way that truly does it justice."
Apple TV+ costs $4.99 per month, with a free seven-day trial available.
Article Link: Apple TV+ Epic Saga 'Foundation' Based on Isaac Asimov's Best-Selling Novels Premieres September 24
I’ve only been interested in their nature documentaries, but this (and to some extent, Invasion) looks like a series with mass appeal. After all, what genre is really behind the biggest blockbusters?
I am pretty excited, and something I have found encouraging with is how much better books adapt into TV series instead of film, due to the longer formats. Season 1 of Altered Carbon was incredible, and Game of Thrones did very well for a very long time for instance.
Altered Carbon in particular gave me a lot of hope to see something like Foundation done the proper justice it deserves.
Altered Carbon in particular gave me a lot of hope to see something like Foundation done the proper justice it deserves.
The Expanse is [insert positive reinforcing expletive here] awesome! If Apple manages to make the Foundations series as good as that, they can have my money more or less for ever. I don't mind them making changes/additions to the books, that would be needed as the books are quite dated (both culturally and especially with regards to pacing), so updating the narrative for the 21th Century is essential, BUT they can do this and still stay (relatively) true to the original story (or rather stories).
I did enjoy all the shows you list there, and I could throw in Firefly (as one one of the best, ever), Babylon 5 (which has gotten a lot of flak, but I enjoyed it, and would SO like to see a re-boot/-make of that show), and Earth 2 (obscure, but highly enjoyable).
So it’s not worth spending $5 , canceling subscription then watching all episodes over a month before you are charged another $5? That’s .50 cents an episode and we haven’t even mentioned any other Apple TV+ programs. If you ever payed full retail for any movie or video game, you quickly see how silly you sound.
The authors of the Expanse are professional script writers and the books read like a movie script in a lot of parts. Of course it went well filmed.The Expanse had the advantage of having the book authors in the writers' room making sure that the source material was treated with respect. That would have been difficult with Asimov (séance?).
Still, the trailer looks great. Hopefully the show will live up to it and become Apple's Game of Thrones.
Unfortunately, I've actually read Asimov and I don't remember the Foundation being about a group of exiles persecuted by the current emperor of the galaxy. Just by reading that description I lost all interest in the series.
There's no spoilers in my post. I guarantee that you could precis the entire series of books in a post and not give away anything that will be in the series.Did you have to put a spoiler in there along with the anti-woke tirade?
Asimov admitted himself that his early writing focused on male characters because he didn’t have a lot of life experience with women.
I have read most of Asimov’s books and I disagree that it’s silly to swap genders (especially for a robot…)
You might end up being right about it being a poor adaptation, but we will have to see it first. Changing the gender of some characters is not a big deal though.
As to gender swapping major characters - what's the point? Other than as a box-ticking exercise to keep a certain segment happy and on board, there is no point. If (God forbid) they decide or are allowed to *ahem* 'adapt' any of the other related books, i.e. the Elijah Bailey novels, they'll find they've painted themselves into a corner. It is, actually, a Big Deal. If Daneel/Demerzel is female, then his designer must have been female. So Jander must also have been female, so Gladia must now be male (or gay) so Elijah must now either be female (or gay) and it gets worse and worse! And to what end?
Try doing a gender-swapped version of Anna Karenina, or Madame Bovary and see how that goes.
Anyway, the whole gender swap thing has been done to death already - we got it, male -> female character, new insight, inclusive, fresh, modern, bold, daring etc. etc. except that it isn't any more. It's become expected, and is just a lazy, meaningless sop. The only thing that'll be missing is zombies, and I'm not so sure about that...
Poor adaptation? Going by what we already know, it certainly is, though 'adaptation' is stretching it a bit, when they add in huge swathes of content not in the books and feel free to take a perfectly decent story and turn it into something simpler and more understandable for a modern audience (read: dumb it down to the point that it becomes indistinguishable from everything else, and cloak it in fabulously expensive design and graphics and hope no-one notices).
So this is what happens when the superhero movie crowd get their hands on something. Superhero movies are by their nature simplistic, immature and infantilising, so it's hardly surprising if they continue to churn out more of the same. It's a pity that they chose this particular author to do it to. Perhaps they should... *gasp* write their own stuff and show us how really good they are! Better than that old Asimov, obviously.
Correct. They've taken the core of the story (Terminus/encycopedists were set up by the Empire due to the manipulation of Hari Seldon to make them do it, so the Foundations could be established) and turned it into something completely different. Who the devil is Brother Day? Where is this waterworld? Giant Black Hole (taken straight from Interstellar)? It might be called 'Foundation' but it isn't Asimovs Foundation. Pity. Could have been something completely different to the usual crop of mediocre 'SF'.
That's a great suggestion, thank you. He was interested to read the Foundation books before watching the series (again, not positive about age appropriateness - we'll see). He plows through books pretty quickly, but not sure if he'd be interested in a slate of 10 or so! I will try to explain to him with my limited knowledge, then let him decide.