Asimov's original Foundation trilogy adapted for cinema

http://www.empireonline.com/news/feed.asp?NID=27004

As far as we know, Roland Emmerich is going to direct the first one, using the same technology as Avatar. Nothing yet about the casting.

As a long-time fan, I hope not to see these movies ruined by bad directing and scripts. There is no need for additional garbage in this perfect setting.

Not. even. possible.

I dont think asimov would approve. He pretty much admitted himself that his books were 95% dailogue with action happening only the remaining 5% of the time.
I really dont see how they could make it work.

I can see almost no way they could make these work and keep the spirit of the original.

Take for example the climax of the first one. Huge, unstoppable invasion fleet on the way, leader of the foundation on the enemy planet, and its over with a quick almost bloodless mutiny as the 'priest' turns off the power on the flag ship, and the leader of the enemy planet commits suicide.

It worked great in the books but I can already see the solution for the movie being some sort of super weapon or god help us standard space battle.

Plus I have a hard time seeing them, for sake of audience, using Asimov's cynical view of a controlling religion, where the priests control the technology, and are picked by the foundation, for being too stupid to see through the ruse.

If you don't get that right, you don't get the Foundation right.

Such a great books (well of course i didnt read all of the books but my dad ordered me to read two of them) and such a piece of director. What are they thinking

BTW
"Never let ur sense of morals prevent u from doing what is right" My fav quote ever

The odd thing about Foundation is that it is largely dialogue. There is very little description and almost no action.

I think it could make an interesting play, but as a Hollywood action-flick it is either going to be a disaster, or it will be something bearing only the Foundation name and very little of its plot.

Now it isn't impossible for a Foundation-badged screenplay to work, it did with Total Recall (very loosely based on Philip K Dick's We Can Remember It For You Wholesale) , but don't get your hopes up.

Asimov was shere brilliance...

Will smiths watered down IRobot didnt do him justice at all(Asimov not Smith)... but what movie does these days?

From Emmerich

"It has to be done all CG because I would not know how to shoot this thing in real," spake the director. "I think now everybody who does bigger movies has to shoot them in 3-D. I think there's no way around it. I was on the set of Avatar and I saw how it worked and I really thought, 'That's the ultimate way of making movies.'"

That's a dreadful thing to say really.

Originally Posted by Hattori

From Emmerich...

That's really sad. Especially since pre-1998, Emmerich was a pioneer in using scale models for realistic, excellent special effects. I mean, look at Independence Day; say what you will about the plot, it had amazing SFX, and that was all because of scale models and explosives.
But starting with GINO, it's gone horribly downhill.

yup...

but you have to give what the crowd what it wants, and unfortuantely its 3D.... but yes very sad.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Ever seen any CGI in movies look better than that? I havent.

cant say that i have but i think its also got to do with budget..

i mean ok CG artists and programmers dont come3 cheap but i bet they are a damn side cheaper than extras...

thats why i enjoy old cinema; people use to gag to be movie extras so building huge scenes etc were
amazingingly good and very real... i mean Battle of Austerlitz with Michael Palins was awesome
maybe there are some secrets that have been unlocked in cgi that they holding back for themovie?

Surely they cant just carry on following the same old formula....??

Originally Posted by roy34543

I dont think asimov would approve. He pretty much admitted himself that his books were 95% dailogue with action happening only the remaining 5% of the time.
I really dont see how they could make it work.

Indeed, because of the importance of dialogue the books are more suitable for a radio broadcast than television or cinema. BBC produced a radio adaptation back in the '70s. That was when people didn't care about CGI and stuff. Some of them even read the book...

Originally Posted by Phier

Take for example the climax of the first one. Huge, unstoppable invasion fleet on the way, leader of the foundation on the enemy planet, and its over with a quick almost bloodless mutiny as the 'priest' turns off the power on the flag ship, and the leader of the enemy planet commits suicide.

Today's average cinema goer would be offended to see this instead of big fireworks and lots of noise:
"What the is wrong with this movie? There are no aliens and all they're talking about is Psychohistory, Mathematics and Economics... FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU"

Oh please not Emmerich, I guess that's another book ruthlessly butchered and sold in neat little shiny packages for the viewer who probably has never heard of Asimov. It's cynical yeah, but you can bet a response would be ''This is , where are the space battles, furthermore, BRING ON THE ING NOISE!!''. If they kept to the books. To be fair though it would be difficult for any director.

Some things just don't translate well no matter how it's adapted.

I'm thinking he's talking about Trantor when he's saying he needs the 3d. Which, admittedly, would be fun to see.

There is absolutely nothing in the foundation series which needs 3d, nothing.

The fact a director THINKS it does means the movie is a disaster before it starts.

fact