Shamelessly stolen from another board.
I believe there are 5 in the series proper (the original trilogy, followed 30 years later by Foundation’s Edge and Foundation and Earth).
He then wrote a couple of prequels, and some crossovers with the Robot and Empire series, so I don’t know how many books in total have Foundation material in them, but the core of it is really the original trilogy.
Well, that’s what he specializes in, after all.
It’s been a while since I’ve read them, but what exactly is he expecting to do with the “mo-cap?” I seem to recall it being an all-human cast. Is he just looking to introduce an entirely unnecessary uncanny valley, like the Jim Carrey Christmas Carol we just had?
The Mule will be a talking mule.
More than that, only one character from any of the short stories in the first book shows up in any of the other stories in the book (with the exception of Dr. Seldon, of course).
Yes. Brilliant idea! Much for fun than Foundation
And it’ll be revealed that his real name is “Francis.”
Science fiction books that I think could really benefit from “Avatar technology” would be some from Larry Niven’s Known Space series, particularly Ringworld.
But Foundation? I don’t see why it needs 3-D. On the other hand, I agree with control-z: just because a certain technology is new doesn’t mean it should only be used for big epic movies. It would be like when movies were able to be made in colour: many movies didn’t need to be in colour, but there was no reason to film them in black and white either. In this case, Roland Emmerich seems to be approaching it from a business point of view: if you want a movie with lots of special effects, it will cost money, and that kind of money won’t be made available to you unless you are making a 3-D movie. The Foundation series does represent the future after all, and there are things (like the plane Trantor) which would require special effects. How many scenes will be “epic” in scope will depend on the script. I do agree that the Foundation series seems like one SF story well-suited to the smaller screen.
of course, of course.
One difference between this and I, Robot, is that I Robot was not intended to be I, Robot. The movie was an entirely different film with no relation to the books, when the studio realized they could be about ready to fling themselves into the path of an oncoming lawsuit and quickly bought the rights and tweaked the plot a bit to fit. And, regardless of the action sequences, it did have a strong relationship to the stories’ themes and ideas.
This movie is intended from the beginning to be a CGI actionfest based around… a very pedestrian and slow-moving work of thought and contemplation. This is only about a million times worse than I, Robot could have been (which, for the record, I liked!)
Words of one syllable department, from the linked article
The 3D doesn’t bother me. He’s right, everything big will be in 3D.
Why doesn’t he do the three sequels by the 3 Bs and film them. They already have Hari Seldon as an action hero. I also think the Lensmen series would make excellent movies - all action and plot, no annoying characters.
One thing for sure - if Emmerich isn’t haunted by the ghost of Dr. A, it will prove that there is no life after death.
Emmerich is the man who wasn’t capable of adapting Godzilla which has to be the single easiest adaptation ever. We’ll be lucky if his version of Foundation isn’t about building construction.
By the grace of Zeus, Roland Emmerich has been granted the power to destroy anything.
At last, we have the technology to film Cyrano de Bergerac!
This is not true. IIRC, there are two sequential stories which involve the same prime mover for the Foundation.
ETA: Misread that. I thought you meant Seldon was the only one. My bad. :o
Coming Up Next: Quentin Tarantino’s Little Women and David Lynch’s It’s a Wonderful Life.
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.
I guess a lot will depend on the script and screenplay, but I don’t hold out much hope for any writer they’ve got working with Emmerich…
I hope he at least reads the damned books…
Read the source material? Have you gone mad?
I think that might pollute his vision.