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10,000 B.C.'s Roland Emmerich Piloting Isaac Asimov's Sci-Fi Epic FOUNDATION For Sony!!
I am – Hercules!!
A big-screen version of Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” trilogy is now in the hands of Sony and writer-director-producer Roland Emmerich (“Stargate,” “Independence Day,” “Godzilla,” “The Patriot,” “The Day After Tomorrow,” “10,000 B.C.”).
Which is slightly weird, because we were hearing back in July that “Last Mimzy” mastermind Robert Shaye and longtime lieutenant Michael Lynne, who together ran New Line, were working on the project for Warner Bros. (The idea, presumably, was the New Line vets could oversee the sci-fi epic because they did such a bang-up job giving Peter Jackson money to make the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.)
Warners, which lost its rights to the project, was hoping to put Alex Proyas, who directed both the fine “Dark City” and the disappointing “I, Robot,” in charge.
Emmerich’s not the worst choice; I liked “Stargate” and “Independence Day” and loved “The Patriot." He's amazing with sci-fi visuals. But I can't say there aren't a lot of filmmakers I would have preferred (the guys who directed the first three "Alien" movies leap to mind). My confidence in the project, I suppose, will largely hinge on the announcement of who will be authoring the "Foundation" screenplay.
Variety describes:
Originally published as a series of eight short stories in Astounding Magazine beginning in 1942, "Foundation" is a complex saga about humans who are scattered on planets throughout the galaxy, living under the rule of the Galactic Empire. A psycho-historian who can scientifically read the future sees an imminent empire collapse, and sets to work preparing to save the knowledge of mankind.
"I, Robot," an Asimov collection of stories also conceived during World War II (and set in the same universe as the "Foundation" trilogy) finally (sort of) hit the big screen in 2004.
Find all of Variety’s story on the matter here.
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You've got to be fucking joking.
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just don't go together.
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Jesus Christ, I know this site has played a couple of pranks over the years, but I take my hat off - the giveaway was "Emmerich’s not the worst choice (I liked “Stargate” and “Independence Day” and loved “The Patriot”)."
Until that line I was fooled!
So who's going to play the lead? Shia? Britney? Ooh - what about WILL FUCKING SMITH?
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With robots (ginormous robots) fighting Foundation Marine Corps?
Yeah, that was sarcasm. -
Can't wait for this to happen. So they "action" it up a little? So what? Now if we can just get a Ringworld movie and Dark Tower miniseries I can die a happy man.
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Asimov fans.
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This requires a director of some intelligence, surely? Emmerich does nothing but brainless action spectaculars. I've been looking forward to a Foundation movie for many years, but now I'm dreading it... Damn you, Roland Emmerich!
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Jan 16, 2009 5:27:49 PM CST
Emmerich script can't be any worse than Asimov dialogue.
by nosferatu jones
You know it's true. Read "Foundation" again a few years back... man, Asimov was a great idea man and storyteller, but convincing dialogue was NOT his forte.
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its about time somebody tried to make this......I just hope that the rumors of Will Smith being attached are unfounded....
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For the first time I'm genuinely upset about something I've read on aintitcool. I took 9 years but damn I need to do more with my life. Has anyone else ever had that moment of clarity regarding how much time they waste on the internet? specifically aintitcool, CHUD, joblo, latinoreview, etc...Can you talk me down?
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I just don't see how this could translate to a good movie. The book is awesome, but I just don't see the blockbuster appeal unless they totally butcher the books.
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will smith had been rumored since he did I am robot.....
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How can Emmerich have any interest in this material? Nothing gets destroyed. Sure an empire collapses over thousands of years but the Foundation was setup to prevent the destruction of the human race. If they cast Adrien Brody as the Mule...I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.
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Jan 16, 2009 5:33:35 PM CST
Deep philosophical sci-fi with minimalist characters
by sympatheticdevil
That always makes for box office gold! Just ask the producers of Solaris!
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There are far worse directors out there, and maybe he can put something decent together with solid source material. But personally I'd be more interested to see Fahrenheit 451, Rendezvous With Rama, Ender's Game or an epic 3-hour *faithful* adaptation of Dune (c'mon Peter Berg, I'm praying for you to pull off this miracle).
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...is the most over rated Science Fiction, evar
...is the most boring space opera, evar
...the movie will end up being compared to Battlefield Earth -
...I wouldn't let the bastard direct traffic !
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...And using my psychohistory mathematics I predict this movie will suck.
Maybe if they started with Prelude to the Foundation, maybe they could have something, but Roland's resume does not build my confidence. -
too bad Roy Scheider died. he would have made a kick ass Seldon.
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Shit shit shit.
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destroying the planet? That seems to be all that Emmerich knows how to do.Whatever happened to that Fantastic Voyage remake? THAT is a project that could actually be improved by being remade. State of the art effects, anyone but Stephen Boyd manning the sub, a bit more realistic take on the science and physics involved. Although Raquel Welch in a form fitting swimsuit is hard to improve on.
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Why? Why? Why? Of all the people to make one of the most complex and intelligent Sci-fi stories, they pick a commercial hack like Emerich who wouldn't know ideas or characters if they kicked him in the ass. Argh!!!!!11
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The reason Foundation has never been made into a movie is that, while it is a great book, it would be a horrible movie. Its a deeply philosophical story with no action. Its like making a movie out of Tractatus by Wittgenstein.
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Roland- Hated Stargate to the point where I wanted to stab my eyes out- could've been and should've been great and somehow it sucked- his fault. Same with Indy Day (wouldn't have seen it if I'd realized R.E. made it.- drunkard Randy Quaid and that guy that isn't Keanu as his son created more ham than Oscar Mayer. Stir in some Broderick or Quaid with liberal misuse of Jean Reno and Harry Shearer and you make Godzilla and The Day Everything Got Cold. The Patriot was almost saved by the acting but not really- you're just all fond of Heath Ledger and pre-not really-kooky Mel.
My point is that giving RE some difficult material to work with is not a good starting point for a project. He doesn't have it in him to make anything other than a flavorless pudding out of whatever ingredients you give him. Foundation is a lot of quasi-connected short stories in the first three books. It's not until the last two books (besides the prequel Hari Seldon books) that you have a central character for more than one part of the book itself. Roland will slash and burn this series of books like it's a rain forest. Ugh.
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I think the chance of an evil galactic empire taking over are lessened now with bush leaving office....but maybe he will put his brain in the body of a robot??
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Good Grief! (Sometimes the words of Charlie Brown just say it all.)
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Well, I, Robot was boring. Roland Emmerich is not likely to make a boring movie... although Godzilla, his one other adaptation, was pretty boring. I dunno. I'm not really sure how one might adapt Foundation, so how can I comment? It's as unfilmable as it gets, right? So it's not like this movie comes at the expense of the next 2001. I say go for it, Roland!
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i'd really like to know
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The ID4 team handling FOUNDATION? That's... not a good match.
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While the story had quite a few infidelities with regards to Asimov, the greatest problem was that the characters were patchwork cliches with motivations so ridiculously one-sided that Sonny was the most human character in the film. Grumpiness and grittiness are not the same thing, and Alex Proyas knows that. So why did he direct Will Smith through a script that made him look like a sourpuss, more than a hard-boiled detective? Part of the credit surely goes to Akiva Goldsman, writer of Lost in Space, a man who loves a science-fiction hook more than his own mother but has no sense of story beyond that. In other words, plot drove that movie, rather than characters. For that reason, it came off as insincere, and far worse, boring.
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I just can't get through it.
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What the hell is wrong with you?
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Jan 16, 2009 6:08:46 PM CST
Well-- PK Dick and Will Eisner are already spinning in their gra
by morganmorgan
Why not Asimov?
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he tends to wear his heart on his sleeve. Godzilla was the one exception, where he decided to go all meta and comment on film. Aside from that, I believe his characters, dopey and daffy as they are. In ID4, I cared about the people.
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anything that has ever angered me before.
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...crawls on all fours from NYC to LA and then, on live TV, begs forgiveness for "Godzilla", I ain't even thinking of seeing this. And when you say "piloting", I'm guessing you mean like, "piloting into the Andes and the soccer team has to eat each other" piloting. Because that's the only kind he seems to be able to do. The only good side of this: We may be able to derive a new source of energy from the revolutions of Asimov spinning in his grave.
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Is that "hack" (I apologize to all other hacks, and I mean Emmerich) still trying to remake "Fantastic Voyage"? 'Cause I'm really looking for something to take the edge off my glee of W leaving office next week.
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No, no, no, no, no!
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No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
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i'd take Michael Bay over Emmerich. at least he has a pulse. I agree Independence Day was pretty fun, but that was a long time ago, and he hasn't done shit since. The Patriot was an insultingly bad piece of shit.
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As an experiment in screenwriting I tried to figure out how to adapt Foundation. It's pretty much impossible to faithfully adapt the books I think. And as regards Emmerich, the only qualifications he has for it is that he's had spaceships on screen before and often uses male characters warning people about impending destruction. Pitiful.
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Sony/Columbia is doing us a favor, like issuing a public service announcement, by announcing that they are attaching Emmerich to a Foundation movie. They are giving me a heads-up that I am free to fully ignore this movie and I now have an extra 2+ hours of my life to do with what I will.
Thanks, Sony! -
Fuck you right the fuck in the fucking face.
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I'm not making that up either. A lot of the founders of al Queda were fans of this book, an some people think it served as an inspiration for the group. The novel was translated into arabic under the title "al-Queda" - which means "the base" or "the foundation".
Not that it has anything to do with this debate. Just so interesting little trivia I thought. -
Someone actually asked that??? Yes I just love 2 hr long commercials for Converse and Audi.
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I think you just summed up this TB quite nicely. God bless you
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Fucking NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
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No. NO. NO! That's a bad idea Otis! Very bad!!
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But what has been up with Jar Jar's voice in The Clone Wars?
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Godzilla...10,000 B.C...FOUNDATION TRILOGY?!?please god, this and Ender's Game, are the only sci-fi books that I really want to be treated with kid gloves. here's a list of directors I will accept for Foundation:Fincher, Soderbergh, Malick, Jonze, Jackson, Del Toro, Braden (that's me), Boyle, MAYBE Spielberg or Zemeckis, that's pretty much it. or get an up and comer with a real good take on it.or fucking make it AS IT SHOULD BE as a really high quality miniseries.
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This news item served to remind me to check Foundation out the library and read it again. I get to read a great book again, the library gets its circulation stat: everybody wins. The movie has now served its purpose and no longer needs to be produced.
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Dwight Little will be directing Demolished Man.
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. . insert punchline here
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COME ON? REALLy?
...really? -
This is the worst news I've heard since it was announced that Bay was directing a live action Transformers, Indy was being resurrected for an arse raping and Brett Ratner hadn't yet been shot through his fucking face.
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He started out as quite a talented director of comedy. He did became a pawn of the Salkinds, but he's not a Ratner.
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this will indeed be crap crap crap. One novel I'd love to see on film..... Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange land
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Jan 16, 2009 7:13:08 PM CST
This is a joke. A joke. Yes,. Absolutely. A very very funny joke
by judderman
Ha ha ha! A series of books about sociology and the nature of history adapted by the guy who said global warming would cause big holes into space to open in our atmosphere. Yeah. I get it.
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Some of the best literature in history and they give it to a hack. Unbelievable.
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filmed the first 5 minutes of Superman 3.
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of equal creative status to the Joker. His characterization needs to start right from the first film, not wait for the second. If only Heath Ledger were still alive. Joseph Gordon-Levitt might be able to do it, but there probably aren't more than three actors extant who could.
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Will there at least be a giant squid in it? Talk about unfilmable. It would take a Charlie Kaufman, Spike Jonze, or Ridley Scott to make this movie. Or somebody else with talent, because they will obviously have to change the source material drastically to make it cinematic, and good god, I don't want to see Jake Gyllenhall fighting some crappy cgi wolves to get antibiotics for his chick. Jeezus... Actually, the books are all about the twists, so maybe they should get Shymallan...
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--when I read about it starting to film.
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What the consensus is regarding the David Lynch directed, Dune?
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for this subject material. Seriously.
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I CAN think of a worse choice. A Retarded infant rubbing his own poo onto the film stock. That is the only possible way this could get worse. Roland, do the world a favor and DONT FUCKING DO THIS! This is not your Forte. Go masturbate to a rainstorm and leave these books alone you German asshole.
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What the hell is someone like Emmerich directing this. Asimov is thinking sci-fi, not boom boom explosions whee, looks at the pretty CGI stuff. I don't know who did them even though I've seen both, but grab the people who did Contact and Gattaca, and let them do this. Foundation covers how many novels? I forget. The world from the robot novels Caves of Steel and Naked Sun also link up with Foundation eventually I'm told. I've read some Asimov, but not even close to a majority of his work, although I love his short stories. Emmerich has no business doing this, and this is coming from someone who loved I, Robot.
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DO NOT WANT! DO NOT WANT!
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Jan 16, 2009 8:38:58 PM CST
While the dialogue does suck the concepts are too rich for BC bo
by stormwatcher
Seriously, there are too many balls that need to be balanced with this story and Foundation and Empire has too much for Emmerich. Although the Pianist would be perfect for the Mule.
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Some hotass redhead for the girl in book 3!
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After watching it mercilessly parade out the umpteenth war movie cliche, I was finally compelled to stand up in my armchair and shout at the television, evoking the righteous indignation of Joseph Welch, "HAVE YOU NO SENSE OF DECENCY, SIR? AT LONG LAST, HAVE YOU LEFT NO SENSE OF DECENCY???
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He's had ONE good and i use that word loosely movie and he still gets work WTF.
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I'm not convinced the Foundation series is filmable even in the hands of a genius director like Ridley Scott or James Cameron.
And, Mr. Emmerich, you, sir, are no Ridley Scott. You, sir, are no James Cameron. -
just lol
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There. I said it. I confess: I like Lynch's "Dune."
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Some of his stuff is screaming for a screen treatment. Foundation? In my opinion, not so much. Who doesn't want to see Lazarus Long live on screen?
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a Stranger In A Strange Land movie with Cillian Murphy as Michael and a good director could be pretty cool
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Michael Bay directing a remake of 'Sense and Sensibility'. The material is way to dense for Emmerich. Proyas was a much better choice. Actually, Peter Jackson should be all over this shit. He's got an amazing eye, good sense of pace (which this occasionally tedious material might need) and a proven track record. Please let someone at Sony realize they need to shoot a little higher on such an iconic AND sequel ready property. In fact, why not kick this all off with a movie(s?) based on the Elijah Bailey 'Caves Of Steel' novel and it's sequels. Such a great intro to this universe and a great hook for the non-initiated.
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Zachory Quinto playing R Daneel Olivaw and maybe an apreciated but unexpected Hollywood vet playing Bailey
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Damian Lewis would be a great Bailey
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Only the film itself will be a disaster. This is the worst idea ever. As has been stated above, the books aren't action packed but instead low key and subtle. Not only that they don't even really build to a mind-blowing conclusion of any sort. So you start with something almost impossible to film correctly, that would need an amazingly skilled hand to make work at all and... you give it to the cheesiest wonkiest sci-fi director. Yiiiikes! Those films will bare no resemblance to those books. No way.
On the Dune front, I don't think Lynch's Dune is flawless by any stretch but I do like it for what it is and it is at least a unique and different take on sci-fi. And the extended cut of the film does correct tons of flaws. The extended cut does screw over the Princess character though. Her main role in the original film is that she narrates it. In the extended cut their is a new narrator. So she ends up listed in the credits as a major character but her her whole role in the new cut is pretty much walking into one scene, saying a single line and exiting. -
surely that will be the result..this is an incredibly inappropriate and silly director to be attached to such a project.
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Stranger in a Strange Land could be a GREAT film, but they'd really have to do it up and keep it weird. I think Spike Jonze would do wonders with it, with the sly humor, the crazy visuals, the sort os post-modern pseudo-philosophy...
s wonder...
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That would be better than the treatment he's gotten by Hollywood.
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...is if Uwe Boll directed it. And even then I'm not so sure. As a director, Roland Emmerich has all the subtlety of a wrecking ball crashing into a tanker truck full of nitroglycerin. He make big, dumb, loud films with no redeeming value whatsoever.
Whatever flaws "Foundation" might have, it doesn't deserve to be desecrated like this. Hopefully someone with a brain will realize what a bad idea this is. But then again, you saw what they did to
"I, Robot." So I'm not holding out any hope.
If you want a better book to adapt, try _Old Man's War_ by John Scalzi or _The Clone Republic_ by Steven Kent. Those books would work much better as films than _Foundation_. -
I will extract some AIDS from Asimov's corpse and stick it in Haggis' jugular.
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Will return to get Asimov's back! "Straight out of Sri Lanka, I will wreck you motherfuckers!"
Fuck science fiction with sneakers!
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I am not a big fan of "hard" sci-fi. I find most of it to be overly pedantic and with no interesting characters. If this series is as dry as the other Asimov stuff I have read, maybe it would do well with some 'splosions.
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asimov-really? personally I'd rather see someone film some of Robert A. Heinlein's work...now those would be some GREAT films.......
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I mean, that is not the name of a movie that any studio wants to market. They will probably change it to something stupid.
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This can't happen. Not by
Roland "SUCK" Emmerich. -
And Senior Spielbergo directed a man surviving a nuclear blast in a flying fridge. People fuck up. It happens.
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Jan 17, 2009 12:05:48 AM CST
I Robot is better and than all Roland Emmerich's films combined.
by the outlander
Intelligent Science Fiction directed by a Neanderthal Man.
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I thought he was doing that, or is it someone else?
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And to think, I actually thought Hollywood had finally hit the last rung on the stupid-ladder. Guess I was wrong.
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A Hack! A Hack! A Hack! A Hack! A Hack!
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The thing about Asimov's works is, yes, it is science fiction, but so much of it is narrative and dialogue. Very little action. Like, "Alien" could almost be Asimovian, except his stories are usually human versus human.
The Foundation trilogy (which is as much a trilogy as the Friday the 13th franchise), is pretty much a sci-fi interpretation of Ancient Rome, and that's not really a bad thing. There's the Great Sack, the threat of a possible Dark Age, and the efforts of mathematicians and scientists to thwart it and establish their place in the Galactic Empire. This is NOT a story series that can be told in action-packed kitch shots a la Independence Day.
Finally, it's probably not filmable. I say this because the source material is so reliant on dialogue, like The Godfather, or any indie drama. We can't do sci-fi like that because we expect cool shit in sci-fi and we reserve dramatic dialogue for, well, drama.
I just wish producers and studios could read these talkbacks and give the idea a second thought... -
My balls.
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He's pretty good big budget/epic director. Even Senor Spielbergo likes him. The guy knows how to manage crowds. It's his story ideas that suck (DAT, 10,000 BC). I'm pretty sure Devlin was the one responsible for ID4 and Stargate. Bob Rodat (Private Ryan) wrote "The Patriot" himself and that along with Gibson, Jason Isaacs, John Williams and Caleb Deschanel are who made that movie work.
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Herc, you idiot, it doesn't matter one flying fuck if he's good at visuals.
Neither Stargate nor Independence Day were SMART. They were DUMB. Their plots were retarded.
Foundation is a hugo award winning sci fi series, because it's SMART.
Now maybe that means fuck all to you, because you're a cinema head rather than a bookish type. But to anyone who knows Foundation, it's a fucking disaster. -
Fuckin hack makes shit movies.
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Are we in the fucking twilight zone? Tomorrow, we'll find out Schumacher is directing an adaptation of Ender's Game. This book is way out of Emmerich's league. Fuck, any book is.
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What a crappy choice. Emmerich is devoid of talent. Stargate was a good idea, ineptly handled. The patriot was one of the worst films ever made. I'm afraid this classic sci-fi property couldn't be in worse hands.
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As guy that supposed to be white, but it's modern times. People want the hip cool black guy.
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Roland is just so fucking wrong, he cant get the mood of sci fi right. He will make it into some tongue in cheek action adventure. I want a Foundation film to sit amongst films with great Sci fi moods such as Blade Runner, AI (Yeah, A fucking I), 2001, Silent Running, Dark City, Galatica, Bicentennial Man. These are the kind of moods I want from a Foundation film
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YEAH, THAT'S WHAT WE NEED! AN EMMERICH/MICHAEL BAY PRODUCTION OF THE BIBLE. WE COULD HAVE NICOLAS CAGE AS HEROD. WILL SMITH COULD BE JESUS, AND WHEN HE IS CRUCIFIED, HE COULD LOOK UP TO THE HEAVENS AND SAY "FATHER, WHY HAVE YOU GODDAMN FORSAKEN ME, MAN?!"
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this will be a fucking wreck
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Only the robot design was crap. But it's a guilty pleasure movie.
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Now, that would be a first:
A huge group of fans that preffer a movie about a beloved book of theirs WON'T get made instead of being made the way it is going to be done now. Sort of an inverse nuts campaign.
Personally, I think the first and third book would work great as a kind of Dr. Who series format, with little story arcs, standalone episodes, spreaded across the hundred of years they cover; and changing leads every once in a while. Hell, it could even allow them to add the ocassional original story! -
"JUDAS!?!?!?!?!? AWWW, HELL NO!"
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We need to set up an opposing and secret society to subtly and imperceptibly guide this movie away from being produced.
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For the love of sweet baby Jesus, DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN.
Oh fuck.
Why not let Uwe Boll adapt 'Brave New World' while you're at it.
FUCK YOU HOLLYWOOD. -
http://tinyurl.com/a5ohgw
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already have a poor track record of being translated to the screen, and now they've handed off his longest and most subtle work to a guy who only knows how to blow things up? This has "disaster" written all over it. Pray hard - pray REAL hard.
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I don’t see Emmerich being capable of doing anything like Peter Jackson on LOTR, but I could see him doing something clever around the Mule stories that almost overlap all three books.
The Adrien Brody idea is intriguing, the descriptions of the Mule are pretty unflattering but I see the overlap.
Maybe Emmerich could surpise us all?
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The movie took the title, some character names and a few background element from the book and grafted on a 'robots gone mad' story. Which was the type of story line that Asimov was attempting to counter by introducing the Three Laws.
The truly infuriating thing about the movie is that it postpones, maybe forever, a true film version of the stories. For an idea of what could have been find a copy of Harlan Ellison's 'I,Robot The Illustrated Screenplay'. It was published in the mid nineties by Warner Books. It also contains the sad history of the film that was not to be. -
Get your ass to the time-vault, motherfucker. "Another crisis is upon you. I chose this planet because it's the best place to train a breed of the most deadly, badass space marines. I'm Hari Seldon. . . let's kick ass."
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foundation was not an Actioneer....
in those immortal words ... Burn Hollywood Burn! -
Roland Emmerich will make a visually stunning film that really sucks! Godzilla? 10,000 B.C.? Stargate? Why not just hire Brett Ratner to do it? Isaac Asimov is the greatest sci/fi writer of all time! I read his Foundation series, which ranks right up there with Lord of the Rings. A Foundation trilogy deserves a great director like Peter Jackson, not some hack like Emmerich. His movies are like a hot stripper. Nice to look at, but you don't want to stay with her too long. Maybe 15-20 minutes...30 minutes tops.
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Although it altered the source material, I think it was also thematically true to the source material. Its an entertaining flick. And I like Will Smith. I don't understand why people bash him. I thought the first 3/4s of I AM LEGEND were amazing; and its all about his performance. The final 1/4th was shit, but, it wasn't a deal breaker for me. It would've been SO much better if it ended like the novel. But I kinda knew they wouldn't go THAT dark with the adaptation.
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...surely there has to be a minimum level of taste in film a person has to have in order to write a column for AICN....or maybe not. Those were terrible fuckin' movies and I agree that Asimov must be spinning in his grave. He didn't even like Close Encounters for God's sake.
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that is more up his alley...and he is able to deliver that kind of film....
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"...People fuck up. It happens." LOL! That should become a classic answer to most of the topics on these talkbacks!!
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So maybe his opinions weren't the best.
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Foundation is a complex and convoluted story. Emmerich is probably the worst choice imagineable for this movie. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
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AI and Bicentenial Man were great SCIFI films? I would watch Godzilla before Bicentenial man...
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Slow paced, not really any action beats. Way too long for a feature. It might work as a mini-series, or even a weekly series set in the universe of Foundation. Some of the sequels like Foundation and Earth are more action orientated, faster paced, and have the frequent big reveals that are more conducive to a 2 hr movie.
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Should never be made. Especially by that fucking HACK! God Damnit.
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Jan 17, 2009 12:49:48 PM CST
How successful was *The Martian Chronicles* at the box office?
by lynxpro
Does anyone know? Or was that a tv miniseries? I remember it had Rock Hudson and Nicholas "Spider-Man" Hammond in the cast. I think the odds are totally stacked against making a trilogy of films out of this. A cable mini-series would work but I don't think SciFi would spend enough money on the project to make it decent. HBO could but they'd have to crank up the sex that did not appear in the original trilogy. Am I the only one who thinks the later Foundation books [like "Foundation's Edge", "Foundation and Earth" and "Prelude to Foundation"] didn't measure up to the originals?
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I'm not sure how anyone could adapt this. If this film is about Seldon begining to use psycho-history then it'll be from either Prelude to Foundation or Forward the Foundation. Not the original trilogy.
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I, Robot was many things, but one thing it was NOT was true to the spirit of its source material. Asimov wrote his robot stories because he was sick of "Robots taking over the world" stories and wanted to depict a future in which robots acted as tools, not as usurpers. The idea of robots taking over the world is not a modern reinvention; in fact the first story to use the word "robot" was about them taking over the world. Asimov's ideas were reinventions; the I Robot movie was a conservative throwback.
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For the love of god how is possible that a director can be so crap as Emmerich and still get work?
I'll be giving 2012 a giant side-step like a runny dog turd left on the pavement, so there's no way I'll be seeing anything with the Emmerich tagline. The guy's a fucking hack and all his movies suck! Just what has Isaac Asimov done to deserve this? -
Not Emmerich's sort of story at all. This is awful. As for the screenplay? Get Harlan Ellison to do it. I seem to recall he wrote a script for I, ROBOT back in the late 70s or early 80s which had the fans enthralled, except that it would have been insanely expensive to shoot back then. With today's effects? Piece of cake. So, get him to write the FOUNDATION script.
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Jan 17, 2009 1:26:43 PM CST
Emmerich continues to get gigs because...
by i_am_not_the_droid_you_are_looking_for
his films make gazillions at the BO. Even 10,000 BC made a bucketload of cash and it was a complete fucking shitheap of a movie. He's made a couple of moronically entertaining films, like Stargate, Universal Soldier and The Day After Tomorrow but he is not exactly the go to guy for Asimov adaptations.I, Robot was also moronically entertaining. But it's a fucking awful adaptation.But i'll just say this. At least it's not the Wachowskis. They'd cast the Kentucky Fried Chicken dude and give him another twenty minute vis-à-vis/ergo/auf wiedersehen monologue.
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No no no no no no no no no no.
I try to be smart and constructive in the talkbacks, but no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no. -
.....but it's modern times. People want the hip cool black guy."
Yes, because of course, as we all clearly know, in modern times in YOUR world only white people can be significant, or in lead roles or noteworthy individuals. I mean, black people or other races, or {gasp} "hip cool black guy{s}" can't be anything,.....and I mean ANYTHING like, oh, I don't know, the President of the most powerful nation of the world, can they? Noooooooo!! That would just simply never EVER happen. Not even in a loony SCI-FI universe where people read other people's minds and control space-ships through mind-control; forget the dry real-world we actually live in. That's just madness. It would, after all, be an absolute travesty if they cast someone like say Morgan Freeman or James Earl Jones of even an actual Black intellectual such as Cornell West to play Harry Seldon. That would just be heresy, because of course, in YOUR world, in the future, as Asimov CLEARLY stated in his Novels all the major characters are "supposed to be white", - and we know this because he always made a point to mention and clarify that they were all absolutely unequivocally, unambiguously blond-haired, blue-eyed Aryan lily-white. He did that ALL the time - because it mattered to him. Right. That's probably the dumbest and most stupid statement anyone has uttered in this young talkback. Congratulations.
Would you care to regale us with more of nuggets of brilliant enlightenment, and how the world 'is supposed to be'? -
prelude was the best, in my opinion...it had a great plot twist at the end, but unfortunately, the twist can't possibly work in a visual medium like movies.
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Jan 17, 2009 2:21:46 PM CST
lynxpro re: How successful was *The Martian Chronicles* at the b
by jonesy
It was awful, I remember the fx involved space ship washing up bottles held horizontally so the smoke went upwards, after tha the actying was like a bad episode of voyager.
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And work backwards and forewords. One night at a coffeehouse, on a dare, I read the opening of Foundation and Empire: "Cleon the Fourth was the Emperor of the Known Universe..." and so on. It definitely caught the audience's attention. Definitely work from the POV of the fourteen-year-old jailbait and/or the Mule, and give us the history of Hari Seldon in flashbacks and flashforwards. Don't do it in linear time!
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Like I, Robot. It may take a few of the central characters, the idea of pshyco-history and go from there. PLOT: A guy named Seldon who lives in a decaying empire figures out psychohistory and uses it to predict the future. He "sees" a great disaster comming, and he goes around warning people. Until he is arrested by some antagonist based on the Commission of Public Safety (like the Department of Homeland Security... I just creeped myself out a little.). Which sums up half the book. It is also basically the first half of 'The Day After Tomorrow'. They could set it in any time period from the present to the distant future. Then the Hero escapes and ACTION ensues... Emmerich could do that. There's not too many Asimov Purists around these days, so if the script was decent... It also falls squarely in tune with Emmerich's apparent love of Global Doomsday. It could be good, I suppose.
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Foundation is not ripe to be filmed. It takes place over a period of thousands of years and there's not really any action. I'd rather see Dune, or Ender's Game. Granted the best action in Dune is internal but you can certainly portray treachery without those gawdawful whispery voiceovers Lynch used. As for Ender's Game, you don't necessarily have to make the kids as young as they are in the book. I actually think Emmerich could make a pretty good version of Ender's Game, all though I'd love to see Cameron take a shot at it. Speaker For The Dead is probably my favorite of the series.
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For anyone who read the book, I,Robot was a disaster.
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Set it 234 years after Idependence Day (the movie). Humanity has unified and rebuilt, expanded into the solar system mastering the alien technology, and heavily fortified. The aliens did not go faster than light, and took decades to cross the gulf, so humanity has filled up and is trapped within the solar system. Probes sent to find the aliens have been traveling for centuries, but only dead worlds have been found. Since the aliens never returned, the government got complacent and corrupt and started worrying more about it's citizens then the aliens. A guy named Seldon who lives in this decaying empire figures out psychohistory and uses it to predict the future. He "sees" a great disaster comming: The return of the aliens with a flett 100 times larger then ever expected. He goes around warning people, but no one believes him and he is arrested by some the Commission of Public Safety. He escapes and sets up a 'Foundation' using psychohistory to make sure humanity is ready. There's a trilogy of films.
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I'd watch that.
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along with Day of the Jackel,Tom Sawyer, Catcher in the Rye and The Andromeda Strain (i know weird combo right?) but it got me into reading. (i've been in and out of reading ever since, currently reading this archeological thriller called Thunderhead by this writing team, which isn't half bad, said authors seem kinda like a Michael Crichton/King mash up kinda thing. As for Foundation, its been years since i read it but i do remember it having very little that screamed "cinematic" in my mind. And speaking of Ellison, just like King in his pieces in Entertainment Weekly, I am usually guided by his author recommendations. So I picked up five paperbacks by Jack McDevitt at the local used book store today so after i get done Thunderhead, it'll be McDevitt for awhile. I'll letcha know what crap director should take a whack at McDevitt after i've read the guy.
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That way he can have all the action he wants and still have the drama of actors talking, etc. Sure, he will still fuck it up, but these days that is what Hollywood does.
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EMMERICH SUCKS DONKEY BALLS. HE SHIT KEEP HIS SHITTY HANDS OFF!
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...it'll be about a group of futuristic scientists who foresee an invasion of British aliens in massive ships that use the weather and massive tidal waves to destroy mankind.
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Have to give Hollywood credit for attempting a classic.
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because we are idiot sheep. admit it, you all watched I, RObot and Day After Tomorrow, and probably 10,000BC. just to see if they sucked. but you already knew they did. but you paid them anyway. This is why the Emmerichs of the world keep getting work. i hope you had the good sense to buy a ticket for another movie before watching this shit.
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...McG.and Drew Barrymore for Seldon.
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Canalop is right: Al Qaeda (Arabic for "The Foundation") is named after this Asimov book. Maybe we can get Bin Laden out of hiding for his premiere. I'll be boycotting this terrorist propaganda.
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I agree with someone above. The only way this would work is as a miniseries. The first two books contain related but self contained short stories. Only the later novels are a continuation with the same characters. Add that to the fact that the story (including Asimov's prequels) take place over 400 some years. Maybe a movie could be made of the prequels since all feature Hari Seldon as the lead. But you also lose all the themes that tie into Asimov's Robot/Elijah Bailey trilogy. The significance of R. Daneel Olivaw appearing at the end of the Foundation movies would be lessened without knowing that he also appears 10,000 years in the past as Elijah Bailey's partner. Long Story short the universe , 11+ books (more if you include the Empire trilogy), is too vast and multifaceted to be condensed to a couple of movies.
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From Netflix today. I don't quite understand all the hate for this movie. It ain't "The Godfather" but, it isn't trying to be. It actually kind of is an unofficial prequel to the Stargate movie.
Sure "Godzilla" sucked and "Day After Tomorrow" is shit.
I liked "ID4" and "Stargate". I don't recall "The Patriot" being that bad.
Given a good writer this might work. -
I think the one guy that can pull this off is George Lucas. I know that sounds like I'm making a joke, but I really think Lucas can definitely pull off the "talky" sci-fi and you can see that the Foundation series was a heavy influence to the Star Wars universe. Plus, it would be a nice break from the Star Wars series, and at the same time sticking with what he knows. This is just off the top of my head though and it's probably a horrible idea, but I'm just throwing it out there.
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Having a movie that jumps around in time, with different lead characters is hard to picture as a feature film...but I'd love to see this in some shape or form, and miniseries could definitely make this work.
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which is the greatest musical comedy of all time, bar NONE motherfuckersbetterrecognize. That being said, Emmerich is in fact lower than a hack. A hack has to have a sharp enough edge to actually create shards, Emmerich is more like a Tsunami inundating everything he touches with shit, scraping the landscape completely bare and leaving behind a watery sewage in his wake. Asimov fans, I weep with thee.
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there is no way that this fucktard even understands page one of this epic...this is total bullshit
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12 year old girl...immediatly fell in love with the books....this is just not right
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Jan 18, 2009 12:55:30 AM CST
Jesus H. Christ on a moped with a tall orange flag!
by loudmouthcracker
After the mind-shattering stupidity of "10,000 B.C." I can't imagine Emmerich doing anything even remotely worth a fuck with "Foundation." Granted, I never thought "Foundation" would make a good movie, anyway (although it is a brilliant series of books)... but God damn, this is like learning that Michael Bay is directing an adaptation of "Snow Crash."
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How long will that last in this guy's hands?
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you need to got on that shit Roland!
this project has had so many false starts already you don't need Hari friggin Seldon to predict how it's gonna turn out!
besides, as so many others have already pointed out, it cannot be filmed - and not in a Lord-of-the-Rings-technology-to-realise-the-vision-doesn't-exist kinda way but a Dune-wake-me-up-when-you-figure-out-what-the-fuck way. Miniseries, sure. TV series, no problem (except there ain't no Sci Fi channel worth dick these days) but MOVIE??
Not
Gonna
Happen -
it's called The Man Who Fell to Earth and it stars David Bowie -well, ok, close enough anyway...
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Continentalop and Man in Suit; if Al Queda would actually read any other books other than the violent parts of the Quran, that'd be the day. Since this is highly unlikely, I don't believe you.
On topic: Although I'd love to see a Foundation movie adaptation in the hands of the right director, Emmerich's forte are unfortunably forgettable popcornmovies.
Hari Seldon predicts a 97.9 per cent chance that this movie will bomb. -
I think the person to put on this project is Bruno Heller who wrote the HBO series "Rome". Highly recommended especially season one if you have not seen it.
Since Asimov based "Foundation" on the fall of the Roman Empire Heller would have the right background to adapt this.
Some may call it sacrilege but, maybe the addition of a couple of "common man" character like Heller did with "Rome" would make the project more cinematic.
And I concur with those that believe "Foundation" would be a better miniseries than a movie. -
I would like to say that while I adore the writings of Dr. Asimov (I've even read his non-fiction books on chemistry and dirty old man-ness) I do believe that Foundation and its subsequent novels require a visual director who can create beautiful practical and CGI imagery. It also requires someone they will toss a ridiculous budget to. With every film he has done, Emmerich has proven his work is only as good as the screenplay he's been furnished with. So, were it a situation where he will write and direct this adaptation of Foundation, that would be uncool. If he's looking for one of those excellent writers (Eric Roth, Peter Morgan, David Hare, etc.) to adapt the screenplay, then this will turn out to be a brilliant if slight reduction of the novel. For the record, if they give the film a run time of 2:30 to 3 hours it will be an awe-inspiring work, assuming of course they hired a great scriptwriter in the first place. I'm prepared to wait for more news before attacking this thing. I for one do not believe this deserves anyone's vitriol, yet. Remember they did try to adapt it before and it foundered in development hell. Could happen again quite easily.
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to see how Roland works his liberal politics into the movie, ruining it as he's ruined just about every other movie he's made.
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Jan 18, 2009 11:29:24 AM CST
regardless of the director, this is going to be an action movie
by bmacsmith
if you're hoping for a faithful adaption you're insane.
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NOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Oh god no... no no no no no no no no no no no!!!!!
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worst news ever
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The dude was in charge of shepherding the adaptation for, like, YEARS, and now we get Emmerich doing it? Christ.
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I like SF but found Foundation just plain dull. And the central idea of being able to predict the future is horseshiat. Stuff happens in weird and random ways. Just look at the predictions for today of renowned thinkers a few decades ago - pretty much totally wrong.
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While I believe al Queda was inspired by the Foundation series, I don't blame the books or Isaac Asimov. Adolph Hitler loved King Kong, doesn't mean I blame the big ape for the Nazi war machine. He also was a fan of James Fennimore Copper's Leathingstocking Tales, looking at them as examples of Aryan Supremacy; doesn't mean I blame Last of the Mohicans. And Barack Obama has said his favorite movie is the Godfather; I doubt he will lead our nation as ruthlessly as the Corleones.
To me it is just an interesting piece of almost comical trivia. It just shows that deep down the members of al Queda are the Middle-Eastern equivalents of sci-fi geeks who can't get laid, and how people transform and reinterpret other people's work to fit their own needs.
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That Al Qaeda's name meant Foundation as in The Base of a Pillar. Not the same way as in the book. Also, The Base Of The Pillar is what Paul Atreides' Fremen name Usul means.
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From Dune.
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Base of the Pillar as in Base of the holy Pillars of Islam.
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there are five of them
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I can't say for 100% al Queda took it's name from Isaac Asimov's book, but there is a lot of circumstantial evidence. Just something I find interesting.
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make a better mule
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...as Hari Seldon. I'm dead serious. Think about it.
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hmmm or maybe more like 2000%. Why do these fools just not understand this kind of story and movie and how it should be made.
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"Foundation" and its four sequels are a very thought-provoking series of books. The only way to turn it into an SFX spectacular will be to gut the original story and turn it into something stupid. It's been done before. I hope that they don't do it this time.
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Melvin has a point. Drew Barrymore could get me to do almost anything. :-)
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nuff said.
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Still holding this fuck responsible for what Puff Daddy (he was still Puff Daddy then, right?) did to Kashmir. Although to be fair Jimmy Page didn't exactly discourage it.
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Good God, what a revoltin' development...
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should be fired from life.
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Makes Sci-Fi for people who don't like SF.
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Actually, you might be on to something there; Lucas has spent far too long letting his SW and IJ franchises steep. Something new from Lucasfilm would be a welcome change... as long as he respects the original material.
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Worst movie of 2008 to me. I will judge Foundation the day of release, but this is a step in the wrong direction.
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of Ian McKellan as Seldon?
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Hold the fucking phone. Do not let Emmerprick hack up foundation.
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or something similar stupid. I know you can do it Emmerich!
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Emmerich on Foundation? Jesus H Christ! What's next? M Night Shyamalan directing Ender's game? Fuck me gently with a chainsaw!
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Jan 19, 2009 9:37:45 AM CST
well.....at least its not the Coen Brothers......
by dannyglovers_dickblood
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Raping Sci-Fi, raping anime, raping wushia... Hollywood destroys every single form of good art so a few scientologists could get millions more.
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...has already been unofficially broached to the actor in the past, believe it or not (read about it in some interview or other). He'd be an interesting choice.
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Foundation is a hopelessly anachronistic story idea at this point. The basic idea of "psyco-history" is something out of the 19th century-- scalable determinism rules us all and if you only had the right model you could predict the future? THIS is what you're basing a story on? The MULE???? WHAT?
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It'll be dumbed down and it won't be nearly as intricate or "out there" as Asimov's novel.
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I would've been interested in seeing what a more dramatic and intelligent director would do with "Foundation," but I'm indifferent to Emmerich. He seems like a good guy who unfortunately values visuals over all else.
Even if the screenplay for this kicks all kinds of ass, I'm not sure Emmerich has the brains or personality to bring a beyond-popcorn flick to life. He just doesn't. He doesn't know to show pain or conflict, or battles with inner demons, or convey conflicted artistry of any kind, really. He's seems like a happy happy joy joy guy, not a real artist.
But oh well. My opinion on this is a fart in the wind. -
Jan 19, 2009 2:02:29 PM CST
How the heck are they going to adapt this into a movie without b
by kikstad
But hten again that's what I said about Watchmen.
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the laws of science.
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Die in a firey helicopter crash.
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Since it has already been said, I wanted to mention that "Foundation" inspired that *Aum* (sic) cult in early 90s Japan that launched that poison gas attack on the subways. They thought the elements of *Foundation* matched modern day Japan with the Emperor being a figurehead and all...
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Actually, that would be funny if Bin Laden named his organization after the book considering how much Bin Laden despises Jews - excuse me, Zionists - and Isaac Asimov was certainly a member of that tribe even if he was a scientific atheist. Come to think of it, I hope Bin Laden is a fan of the Three Stooges. I like irony.
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One the worst and immensely boring series meets one of the most shallow directors of our era. Just perfect.
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"Psychohistory" is not out of the 19th century. To the contrary, it could now have some even more interesting tie-ins to Quantum and Chaos theories. No, it can't be done, just like you couldn't shoot a shell to the moon carrying a living person no matter how much gun cotton you have. But it's still fun to speculate on the science even if there has to be some fiction involved.
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I should mention that Newt Gingrich believed - and stated publicly - that he thought psychohistory to be possible. After all, Marxist historical interpretation seems to be a form of it in assuming societal trends to creating socialism. Maybe that's determinism. Anyway, polling and trend analysis could be thought of as simplistic and or components of proto-psychohistory.
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I don't think we should be so quick to judge what Emmerich will do here ... meanwhile, here's a podcast that discusses how the Foundation trilogy responds to Laplace's Demon, or the proposition that, given sufficient knowledge of all conditions, we can know everything about the future... http://tinyurl.com/bpy5q6
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