Foundation on the big screen? Seems that Roland Emmerich will be directing; that’s cool with me, I loved Stargate, but the real question is who will be writing the screenplay? The Will Smith treatment of I, Robot was a good movie, but was not remotely an Asimovian story. I’ll stick with polite skepticism for now, but I am willing to be pleasantly surprised.
3 thoughts on “Asimov’s Foundation – the movie”
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My skepticism will not be as polite as yours, I’m afraid. I just KNOW they’re going to take a blow torch to the books… by the time Emmerich is done, there’ll be multiple car chases (well, flying car chases), explosions, and at least two gratuitous sex scenes per film.
I agree with Evil Otto. Roland Emmerich has made exactly one decent movie in his career, and that’s the one you mentioned. I suppose some others are watcheable, but none of his movies display the sort of thematic subtlety that would be required by Foundation. The novel makes some hefty historical parallels to stuff like the decline and fall of the Roman Empire and authoritarianism in Europe, etc… I just don’t see Emmerich adding anything to that. I see him subtracting from it to add some space battles and explosions. It could be thrilling and might even be a good movie, but it probably won’t be Foundation (just as I, Robot was watcheable but not as good as the I, Robot stories – incidentally, I’d much rather have Alex Proyas at the helm of Foundation than Emmerich). I hope I’m wrong, but I just don’t see it.
Please tell me if i am too optimistic, but i am sure it will be a great movie, the level of requirement and quality being so high!