Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
'Foundation' Showrunner Hopes for Unparalleled 80 Episodes on Apple TV+
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Sorry, should have stated that better. Yes it was watery, but nothing in the story had to do anything with the water. Besides being an example of the lack of land/resources on Termius, nothing I can recall from the books involved the water. You could replace water with desert and have zero impact on the story. That's why I find it odd that they put such a location restraint on themselves to have water be part of the story when you could just put water in the background shots and have an accurate description of Terminus.
It's their show, and ultimately I don't think it'll matter too much, but just seems like an odd way to spend likely a lot of money for something that was pretty unimportant in the books.
I’m sure they’ll spend some time on Terminus, filling in plot details, adding characters and arcs, etc. It won’t be paced the same as the books. (Pacing will be the hardest part, as you know how time works in the books).
and yet, it's better than his "I am Legend", which completely destroyed the meaning of the novella.That will smith cinematic abomination didn’t do it for you?
I hate everything that happens after the Mule shows up. Gaia, 3 laws of robotics?! WTF? Asimov himself admitted that the series went off the tracks after the Mule and ended up not at all where he planned.It's kind of a letdown when you know The Mule throws a monkey wrench into the whole thing.
Guess I'd better read these prequel books. Might as well just read them all again.
Much too much. I mean seriously, can we have a do over on all of that? Lots of good writers are fans of the series. Hire them to write a new ending. Just don't ask D&D.
Agree. People need to understand that what makes a good book does not necessarily make a good movie, and vice versa. Foundation is arguably the best work from one of the best writers in the genre ever. I’m jazzed.
You're the one that complained like this: "I'm not one to get upset for shows not following books to a T, but how much are they changing that requires a water planet?".
And now you've done a 180 and is complaining that they are sticking to closely to the books by getting the environment right…?
Yeah, that was another abomination. Completely flipped who the good guys are.
I assume when Apple green lights a show they know how it’s going to end and how many episodes it will take. I think this will be a differentiator for Apple TV+.
Apple hasn’t embraced a single formulaic show that could span an infinite number of seasons. They’re all stories that the creators probably pitched to Apple as an entire project. On shows like Servant, we’ve known since near the beginning that it would have 40 total episodes over 4 seasons.
Precisely! I can understand changing a few things (the dog...), but the ending? that's the best part about the story!
The Foundation Trilogy - as a series of novels - is an all time classic of Science Fiction.
The Foundation Trilogy - made literally into a film/TV series - would look like a rip-off of the opening crawl from the The Phantom Menace that went on for 80 hours (of course, Lucas got it from Asimov, not the other way around...)
Seriously, I re-read it recently and it is 700 pages of stilted dialogue and exposition where nearly all of the action is sparsely described after the fact. Works for a SF novel because of all the great ideas (although the fundamental concept was pretty much discredited by chaos theory) - but many of those have now become SF tropes. Might work for a radio play (the BBC did that years ago) but it is going to need major re-imagining, a lot more show and a lot less tell, to make it into 80 hours of high-end TV. Frankly, it makes Dune look like an oven-ready screenplay.
Producing something "suggested by" Foundation rather than trying to do a straight adaptation is probably the best idea. That's worked well for a lot of "unfilmable" Philip K. Dick stories...
I'm excited to see it (hopefully Apple will have a new Apple TV then so I can buy one to get my free trial of TV+!) - but I'm managing my expectations.
I read the Foundation series as a teen. Hopefully they don't mess it up.
You know like iRobot and Will Smith... Hot Garbage!
When it comes to adaptations of epics, the failures we see almost always stem from a failure of the people behind the adaptation, rather than a failure of the material. In this case it's David Goyer doing the writing, and while he's done some really good work in the past, his last decade of writing credits can be summarized as "Terminator: Dark Fate and four superhero movies that weren't particularly well-received, some of which took a lot of flak for poor writing".
To say the least, I'll be taking a wait-and-see approach on this one, rather than holding my breath.
To say the least, I'll be taking a wait-and-see approach on this one, rather than holding my breath.
I just posted I hope they don't mess it up like the Will Smith iRobot.... Hot Garbage it was!That will smith cinematic abomination didn’t do it for you?
I’ve read the entire series about once every 7-10 years for decades, and I agree that a straight translation would be very difficult. But there are ways to make it work by filling in details. Make the characters fully-formed people, linger with characters, showing their struggles and how they overcome them, before moving on to the next set. (Trying to avoid spoilers). The biggest issue that I wonder about is how they will deal with the timespan. How long do we stay with one cast?
My Dad to me to read Foundation after I told him to read Dune. Good times.
I am rather pessimistic after the initial trailer. I am a big fan of this series and I struggle to pick out the novel's story line and characters in the scenes shown thus far.
Oh well... Could still be cool.
Oh well... Could still be cool.
Looks nice but I will certainly wait a couple of years before thinking about waiting for new episodes every season.
I watched See and can't wait for 2nd season.
I watched See and can't wait for 2nd season.
Except a few posts above you is someone who wrote they read Dune but not Foundation. It is not as well known, and there is no reason to post open spoilers.
It's David Goyer, the awesome writer of Terminator Dark Fate, Batman V Superman, Man of Steel, and Ghost Rider. Don't get your hopes up. He helped write Blade and Batman Begins but that was 15 years ago, everything he's done since has been garbage
I just finished showing my SO The Wire yesterday. I'm so glad he loved it just as much as I did.
Fabulous news! I will welcome Asimov forever, in any form or format.
Uh. Right... but the story on Terminus takes place on the main island where the capitol is located, not in the bloody ocean that surrounds it.