Former New Line Folk Lay the Foundation for Foundation the Movie
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series is absolutely one of the finest sci-fi novel series of all time, and certainly one of my personal favorites). The story?about a professor who develops the science of psychohistory?basically, being about to predict mankind’s actions, at least in large groups?to predict the future, sees the galactic empire is going to collapse, and creates an institute to help get humanity back on its feet. The saga covers several centuries, several sets of characters, and is the exact opposite of a self-contained story. This is pretty why people have been talking about making a Foundation movie for decades, but not doing it.
Now the Hollywood Reporter says that Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne ?who ran New Line Cinema until Warner Bro.s ate it a few months ago?are going to make a Foundation movie, with hopes that if it’s successful, they can make another LotR-style trilogy.
As much as I would love to see a Foundation movie, I’m quite aware I’m one of only a few hundred who will be excited to see it as is. See, it’s about a man who saves the galaxy with science. And history. It makes for a great read, but it’s not the sort of thing that translates well to the big screen. So the only real option Hollywood has is to do something crazy to the basic story, much like they did with I, Robot (perhaps Hari Seldon can save the galaxy with guns that shoot history, or something) which will make me have a huge nerd hissyfit. I don’t think there’s any winning here, people.