# The Foundation Trilogy, directed by Roland Emmerich **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 12, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707 "2010-02-12T14:49:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/41 "2010-02-13T05:04:03Z")
Well there is R. Daneel Olivaw who is around somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/42 "2010-02-14T12:55:59Z")
I agree, the Foundation series is going to be VERY hard to portray-it takes place over centuries. There is also the problem of introducing the new characters, and the low-tech 1950’s technology take on the future-like “message capsules”, and robotic door openers. I wil see it-perhaps miracles can happen! ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/43 "2010-02-14T18:25:36Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Coming Up Next: … David Lynch’s _It’s a Wonderful Life._ I would totally get excited about this. As for the apparently impending abuse of Asimov … :eek::rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Saganist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Saganist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saganist)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/44 "2010-02-14T18:52:35Z")
I just saw Sherlock Holmes last night and this news is deepening my depression regarding great classic stories being turned into boring action flicks for teenagers. My other thought is that this epic 3D motion capture style would be perfect for a different hard sci novel, _Rendevous with Rama_ by Arthur C. Clarke. Apparently at one point this was actually a possibility involving Morgan Freeman according to wikipedia. Can we start some sort of petition to do this instead? ---
**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/45 "2010-02-15T00:04:43Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > _Foundation_ should have been televised during the '50s. I have always imagined it as Asimov wrote it, a series of short stories. Tightly framed interiors, few characters, not really much room for spectacle – somehow, I keep thinking of _12 Angry Men_. With Bob Denver as the Mule. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/46 "2010-02-15T05:12:33Z")
> [@Windwalker](#): > > Why couldn’t they have gotten, say, the director of **Gattaca** to do this? Or hell, any director that has proven even remotely interested in dialogue and philosophical conflict… Ahhh, I’m glad to hear it’s Emmerich. That way, I’ll have no temptation to go see it. And I can keep my mental images of the books. That way, **Hari Seldon** won’t look like a wisecrackin’ **Bruce Willis** : _“Oh, I’m just puttin’ the psycho in psychohistory, honey!”_ **The Mule** won’t be **Adam Sandler, Dors Venabili** won’t be \*\*Angelina Jolie \*\*doing slo-mo roundhouse kicks, and **R. Daneel Olivaw** won’t be played by **Steve Carrell with Auto-Tune**. Terminus won’t have generic New Zealand scenery (Trantor will still be played by Coruscant though), and it won’t end with a family reunion (where Raych [Topher Grace] is as surprised as everyone else to find that he’s the son Hari never knew he had). ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/47 "2010-02-15T17:19:44Z")
All this reminds me of a “What’s New With Phil & Dixie” toon, by [Phil Foglio,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Foglio) I once saw in _The Dragon_ magazine – about what writers should expect when their story is opted for a Hollywood film production. The writer is advised to have his money delivered as a bag of cash, dropped just outside the California border; to boil the bag before opening it and **have nothing else to do with the movie.** One panel showed a filming scene – the director says, “OK, Sigourney, wave your flippers!” Sigourney (off-panel) says, “Father, spare the Earthman! I LOVE HIM!” The director is holding a script titled, “I, Robot.” In another panel, a producer with a big _Dune_ poster on the wall behind him is speaking into the telephone: “But, Frank! Sweetie! Alan Dean Foster does **all** our novelizations!” ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/48 "2010-02-15T19:16:15Z")
I have nothing to say that hasn’t been said. This is one of the worst possible ideas for a movie adaptation that I’ve ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/49 "2010-02-15T19:28:16Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > All this reminds me of a “What’s New With Phil & Dixie” toon, by [Phil Foglio,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Foglio) I once saw in _The Dragon_ magazine – about what writers should expect when their story is opted for a Hollywood film production. The writer is advised to have his money delivered as a bag of cash, dropped just outside the California border; to boil the bag before opening it and **have nothing else to do with the movie.** As Alan Moore has discovered, even this advice turns out to be naïvely trusting and optimistic. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/50 "2010-02-15T20:32:09Z")
3D IMAX is the last refuge of the incompetent. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/51 "2010-02-15T20:40:23Z")
By the way, I’m seriously looking forward to Michael Bay’s A Tale of Two Cities. “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done…” -Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson then kisses Meghan Fox and pulls out a minigun ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/52 "2010-02-16T02:35:25Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > 3D IMAX is the last refuge of the incompetent. Or the first. ---
**Author:** ![A.Selene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3ec8ea/32.png) [@A.Selene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.Selene)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/53 "2010-02-16T20:15:38Z")
I love SF, and enjoy Asimov, but don’t particularly like Foundation. That said, I weep with the force of a thousand infants for this movie. This is not the way to go about making Foundation. No, no, no. **iophobon** , a _Rendezvous with Rama_ movie could be awesome! I imagine on film it could be like a more accessible, more exciting _2001_. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/54 "2010-02-16T21:06:35Z")
> [@A.Selene](#): > > **iophobon** , a _Rendezvous with Rama_ movie could be awesome! I imagine on film it could be like a more accessible, more exciting _2001_. Okay, but **no sequels!** ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/55 "2010-02-16T21:28:16Z")
It is good to see that there are other SF fans on this board. Many times, I am labeled as the board SF geek. Now I am merely one of a group. I, for one, agree that this travesty should never be allowed to be made. But, it will undoubtedly get filmed and in 3D because this _is_ **the future** , after all, isn’t it? One of my favorite quotes from Asimov was Salvor Hardin’s “Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” I would always mumble that from my bloody mouth after being beaten up as a geeky SF fan-boy way back in the 20th Century. I usually got a kick out of that. heh ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/56 "2010-02-16T22:09:20Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > The Mule will be a talking mule. . . . voiced by a wise-cracking Eddie Murphy. I predict the last two hours of the movie will be the Mule War, with special effects borrowed from _Star Wars_. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/57 "2010-02-17T00:01:30Z")
> [@Just\_Some\_Guy](#): > > EWe’ll be lucky if his version of Foundation isn’t about building construction. That would probably be better. Actually, I never really liked the Foundation books all that much. They are, however, icons of the Golden Age, and shouldn’t be trifled with. I do like the idea of Fraiser as Kimball Kinnison, though. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/58 "2010-02-17T01:28:54Z")
Can we assume since Emmerich is directing, we are basically going to watch the Foundation destroyed in some sort of massive catastrophy? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/59 "2010-02-17T01:35:59Z")
He can do it to Trantor. Trantor’s bigger, and it’s expendable (well, except for the very end, but it’s not like Emmerich is going to follow the story anyway). ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707/60 "2010-02-17T02:26:57Z")
Yeesh. Lots of “too cool for school” in this thread. I bet it will be good. It will be different from the original, but movies can do that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-foundation-trilogy-directed-by-roland-emmerich/528707.md?page=4)