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Apple TV+ Shares Trailer for Sci-Fi Series 'Foundation' Ahead of September 24 Premiere
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I, Robot, the movie, started out life as a entirely unrelated script, and then somebody at the studio got the bright idea to acquire the film rights for the book and slap on some character names and add a bit of dialog about Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics. Which is a tragedy, because it substantially lowers the chances of us ever getting a movie that’s actually based on Asimov’s wonderful book. (A similar kind of thing happened to Starship Troopers.)
This isn’t that. From all appearances, Apple (or whoever pitched the project to them) set out to do Foundation from the start. They may interpret some things differently, but I still have high hopes for it.
I'm not familiar with the development history of I, Robot, but based solely on the finished product it does pull a lot of themes from throughout the entirety of Asimov's robot books and uses them to tell an original story. It also grabs a few character names and puts them on unrelated characters, which seems to be where most people derive their hate from.
It's hard to say for sure based only off a trailer, but I suppose it does look like they're trying to keep the broad strokes of the long-term story that spans Forward the Foundation and Foundation intact. In order to do that, especially if it's intended to all occur during the lifetime of one man (not clear if that's the case based on the trailer), then the actual timelines and characters will pretty much all have to be invented. So what I'm hoping for is that they pull in the themes from those books and tell an original story.
Sorta like I, Robot did. Though at the very least it does look like the story they're going to tell will be more of a sci-fi epic than an action blockbuster. Which seems marginally more faithful to the source material.
I understand that. Jurassic Park is one of the best book-to-movie adaptations out there, and the story in the movie is barely recognizable from the perspective of the book. The important thing is that the overall themes of the book are preserved. They did an okay job with that in I, Robot (for an action blockbuster, anyway), and the trailer for Foundation doesn't make me think they won't manage that here, I just feel like it's important to make sure fans of the book understand this isn't really an adaptation of Foundation the novel, it's more an interpretation of it.
I'm not a betting man, but I suspect an understanding of the source material is probably not needed for this show. I kinda feel like there's even odds that it may make the show less entertaining.
For me at least, any day that has any Asimov is a happy day.
(Ditto Ursula Le Guin.)
I enjoyed reading the books and I'm looking forward to this series. I'll reserve judgment until I have the opportunity to watch the entire first season.
Doing science fiction is tough. Doing great science fiction is a Herculean effort.
Doing science fiction is tough. Doing great science fiction is a Herculean effort.
The “Development” section of Wikipedia’s page on I, Robot is abbreviated but enlightening.
This will be amazing. 8 seasons, 1 hr each, and 80 hrs in total. This makes me question why Star Trek fell off? Star Trek used to be one of the best Sci-Fi shows on television. Star Wars The Mandalorian, The Expanse, The Star Trek parody show The Orville, is even better. Now a new show Foundation is gonna be better than Star Trek. I'm happy for this show, but confused as to what the heck happened to Star Trek?
Well, as for iRobot, either a lot got changed during production or that original story was itself heavily inspired by Asimov. Not surprising - Kopek may have coined the name, but Asimov pretty much codified the modern SF robot. The themes - esp. the three laws and the way that a sufficiently intelligent robot - or a giant brain tasked with serving humankind - might reason their way around them - were very much pertinent to the Robot stories (maybe not so much to the "I Robot" short story collection itself). Shame about the flagrant product placement and the decision to make Susan Calvin the love interest, but...
As for Foundation - yeah, I'm expecting something based on the original trilogy in much the same way as Blade Runner was based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - and that might not be a bad thing. I don't think that a straight interpretation of Foundation would make a good, epic TV show. The book is stuffed with fantastic ideas that shaped the future of SF, but the 'action' is mostly a bunch of people (male-heavy, with women there because the plot demanded a female, even by 1990s standards, wouldn't be accepted in 2021) engaging in rather stilted dialogue about things happening somewhere else. There's almost no "show - don't tell" which is what you really want for a visual medium.
Couple of observations on the trailer: the young scholar arriving on Trantor to meet Seldon is exactly how the first book starts and that's clearly in there. Looks like she gets dunked in a vat of goo - so my guess (probably completely wrong) is she's going to be kept on ice and defrosted to deal with Seldon Crises and provide some continuity, rather than just recorded messages from Seldon. Pretty sure I glimpsed a robot head in there, too - the lack of robots in the original trilogy is one of the 'plot holes' introduced when the Foundation books were retconned into the Robot universe.
Altered Carbon failed at it. In am hoping this is handled better. If they can get this right, I’d love to see them handle Hyperion.
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I'm counting on it. I read several of Asimov's books and series but couldn't get into this one. The story always interested me though...
I thought that Lynch’s Dune actually did passably well with the exposition (with narratives of the characters thoughts), and captured the look / feel / mood of the story - it became horrible only with each point where Lynch convinced himself, “ooh, I have an even better idea than what Herbert wrote” (like the “weirding modules”) rather than sticking to the original story. Without Lynch’s changes, it could have been a controversial but good, faithful adaptation of the original story.
Contact, to me, is an example of a movie that actually came out better than the original book, because of changes / simplifications they made in adapting the story.
And I hear that many fans of the book series behind The Expanse are quite happy with how the TV series has turned out, despite the changes made. I’ve only watched the series, which is one of the most compelling bits of Sci Fi storytelling I’ve ever seen on screen (the world building, the long story arcs, the character development - everybody is complicated and shades of gray - the mostly realistic space battles, the relative lack of handwaving). I can only hope that Apple’s Foundation series can measure up to The Expanse, with or without story changes.
Can't speak for the OP but AppleTV+ seems to attract trolls that never have anything useful to say just a lot of vitriol from people who have never even watched any of the shows and just assume all the shows are SJW infused.
My guess anyway as to what OP was referring to.
I found Altered Carbon ok, Im not familiar with source material. I guess that's how book adaptations should be watched 😬
I'm pretty excited for this. Apple is all in on original high quality shows with big talent. works for me.
As a fan of the series and Asimov in general I desperately want Apple to succeed with this, but the trailers have me worried it will be another vapid SF show focused on eye candy with none of the depth of the books. I really hope I’m wrong about this.
The books are simple and old fashioned by today's SF standards. it's okay to take some artistic license to make a compelling modern show. Inspired by the books is sufficient.
Hari Seldon rules! One of my favorite pieces of science fiction from when I was a kid. Looks really when done. can't wait
If it is totally accurate to the books or not, looks well done. BTW, how many series are actually accurate to the original books, what? almost none, who knew? these books were written a long time ago, I hope they receive some stellar updates for the made for screen versions. besides, I learned a long time ago, don't complain about what isn't, enjoy what is, it is a lot more fun that way
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different media, different time, different audiences, Art adapts
No.
Every time they release a trailer, it's obvious they've taken the name 'Foundation', some character names and... that's it. The very basis of what they show here is most definitely not the story in the books. The Empire does NOT try to kill Seldon and his followers! The Empire is manipulated into supporting Seldon and installs his project on Terminus, using that as a cover for the implementation of the Seldon Plan. That's a much better story. Instead, they've made a SF TV series, with all the things SF TV series must have - giant spacecraft, epic battles, exploding things and weird alien worlds, a super inclusive cast that ticks all the boxes (for no other reason than box-ticking) and all the money spent on it up there on screen in the form of CGI imagery. It shows a total failure of creativity and imagination not to realise that the story in the books is much better than anything they could come up with, so why not make that?
"Oh, but Asimovs story's are just people talking" say the defenders of this tripe. As if TV series with people talking have never and could never be made. Watched any legal/crime shows lately? It's mostly people in rooms, talking, and they seem to be reasonably popular. They had a golden opportunity to produce something truly different, groundbreaking and memorable, but instead we get more of the same. Well, what do you expect from people who's background is super hero movies.
Anyway, Asimov himself knew all about it well in advance, and so it has come to pass - again.
From his 1983 book "Asimov on Science Fiction":
Chapter 54. HOLLYWOOD AND I
"I have hitherto firmly resisted the lure of Hollywood. I have refused to write screenplays even when invited to do so and even when my own stories were in question.
There are two basic reasons for this resistance. First, I am not visual enough to write dialogue and events that are to be interpreted primarily in the form of moving images on a screen. I’m just a word-man, and though it is a wise person who knows his powers, it is an even wiser person who knows his limitations.
Second, I am reasonably confident that in magazines and books my fiction will appear very much as I have written it. Anything I write for the visual media, however, I am certain will be tampered with by producers, directors, actors, office boys, and the relatives of any or all of these."
Every time they release a trailer, it's obvious they've taken the name 'Foundation', some character names and... that's it. The very basis of what they show here is most definitely not the story in the books. The Empire does NOT try to kill Seldon and his followers! The Empire is manipulated into supporting Seldon and installs his project on Terminus, using that as a cover for the implementation of the Seldon Plan. That's a much better story. Instead, they've made a SF TV series, with all the things SF TV series must have - giant spacecraft, epic battles, exploding things and weird alien worlds, a super inclusive cast that ticks all the boxes (for no other reason than box-ticking) and all the money spent on it up there on screen in the form of CGI imagery. It shows a total failure of creativity and imagination not to realise that the story in the books is much better than anything they could come up with, so why not make that?
"Oh, but Asimovs story's are just people talking" say the defenders of this tripe. As if TV series with people talking have never and could never be made. Watched any legal/crime shows lately? It's mostly people in rooms, talking, and they seem to be reasonably popular. They had a golden opportunity to produce something truly different, groundbreaking and memorable, but instead we get more of the same. Well, what do you expect from people who's background is super hero movies.
Anyway, Asimov himself knew all about it well in advance, and so it has come to pass - again.
From his 1983 book "Asimov on Science Fiction":
Chapter 54. HOLLYWOOD AND I
"I have hitherto firmly resisted the lure of Hollywood. I have refused to write screenplays even when invited to do so and even when my own stories were in question.
There are two basic reasons for this resistance. First, I am not visual enough to write dialogue and events that are to be interpreted primarily in the form of moving images on a screen. I’m just a word-man, and though it is a wise person who knows his powers, it is an even wiser person who knows his limitations.
Second, I am reasonably confident that in magazines and books my fiction will appear very much as I have written it. Anything I write for the visual media, however, I am certain will be tampered with by producers, directors, actors, office boys, and the relatives of any or all of these."