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Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series Finally Being Developed for TV


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How many versions of 'Dune' have we seen and IIRC there yet another one in the works.

I think the biggest problem is translating a complex intellectual property into entertainment- a lot of enjoyment comes from the concepts involved and how the mind is engaged. Translating that  sort of thing into a strictly visual medium is always a challenge no matter who is at the helm.

The Foundation 'Trilogy' encompasses a larger number of books, I have enjoyed them all except the last one where  R. Daneel Olivaw from 'Caves of Steel' makes a reappearance and thows the entire future history sideways since he was responsible for guiding everything himself.

Edited by Richard Baker
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On 12/08/2017 at 4:33 PM, Kallisti said:

its just too much for TV execs to handle. They are basically ignorant philistines who produce  the occasional successful SF show mainly by accident while churning out more dross than you can shake a broom at. 

I'm not sure that's fair: The Expanse, Childhood's End, Westworld and The Man in the High Castle are all pretty good recent SF shows, I'd say...

 

best,

M.

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On 10/08/2017 at 9:05 PM, Gorby said:

My all time favourite Sci fi book is 'Inherit the Stars' by James P. Hogan. I've often thought it would make a stunning film, but apparently not by anyone in the film industry.

Apparently Morgan Freeman wants to make 'Rendezvous with Rama', but it has been stuck in what he refers to as 'development hell' for years and may now, never happen.

Mine too,a brilliant series,although I found the the last two books arnt as good as the first three.

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I would love to see Altered Carbon,broken  angels and woken furies,by Richard Morgan bought to the big screen.Brilliant books.

 

Just found out that Altered Carbon is being filmed now.Happy days 😊

Edited by fatalbert
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2 hours ago, Richard Baker said:

R. Daneel Olivaw from 'Caves of Steel' makes a reappearance and thows the entire future history sideways since he was responsible for guiding everything himself.

Robots messing with the future -don't ya just hate it when that happens!

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On 11/08/2017 at 3:38 PM, Niall said:

The BBC did the original 3 books as an 8 part radio series in 1973. Amazon did an MP3 download but its does not seem to be available anymore.

Yes, I have that as a download after hearing the original when it first came out. I also had it on cassette which was a Christmas present in the early nineties. It was available fairly recently. 

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Some of Jack McDevitts (Academy series, Moonfall etc) books would make a good series or film, although might not be for modern tastes. 

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Quote

Another story I would like to see made into a movie is 'The Fountains of Paradise' by Arthur C. Clarke. That would be something!

 

Me too, "The Fountains of Paradise" is my all  time favourite book - for me its the best that I have ever read. Its got it all, exotic materials (prophesying carbon nano tubes in the form of "pseudo one dimensional diamond"), alien contact, the colonisation of Mars, space elevators, I could go on but now its time for bed.

 

Bye,

 

Nigel

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I'd add David Brinn's Uplift and James White's Sector General series as those I would like to see made for TV.

 

Also I forgot to mention that the BBC did the Caves of Steel as a radio play in the late 1980's with Ed Bishop as Elijah Bailey.

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I think I would like to see the 'Lensman' series of books by EE Doc Smith made into film, with the possible exception of the last book, Masters of the Vortex.

 

They are fast paced and totally unbelievable, but would be great escapism!

 

Ray

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42 minutes ago, Ray S said:

I think I would like to see the 'Lensman' series of books by EE Doc Smith made into film, with the possible exception of the last book, Masters of the Vortex.

 

They are fast paced and totally unbelievable, but would be great escapism!

 

Ray

That brings back memories, the Lensman series was instrumental in getting me hooked on reading  science fiction books when a friend of mine was clearing out his house prior to moving and gave me a couple of the books.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

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The closest we were going to get to any kind of real Lensman adaptation was with J. Michael Straczynski writing it, but that folded in 2014. From Wikipedia:

 

Quote

In 2008, Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment and Universal Pictures began negotiations with the author's estate for rights to film the Lensman series. The negotiations were for an 18-month renewable option.[4] At the WonderCon convention in San Francisco in February 2008, J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of Babylon 5, confirmed that Howard had acquired the rights and also hinted that he was involved in the project.[5] On 17 June 2008, Straczynski wrote that he had begun work on the project.[6] On 2 April 2014, Straczynski wrote that Universal had scrapped the project, citing excessive cost and that the rights had reverted to the estate.[7]

 

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16 hours ago, Nigel Heath said:

 

Me too, "The Fountains of Paradise" is my all  time favourite book - for me its the best that I have ever read. Its got it all, exotic materials (prophesying carbon nano tubes in the form of "pseudo one dimensional diamond"), alien contact, the colonisation of Mars, space elevators, I could go on but now its time for bed.

 

Bye,

 

Nigel

Another book I read many years ago. I had forgotten some of these.

A book that would easier to do is Robert Heinlein's "Time Enough For Love"

Sadly, my local library has gone all 'coffee shop' and internet cafe. Where there used to be shelves of SF is now a modern sculpture of some seagulls.

All the big names of SF are missing now.

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One book which I think would make an excellent four parter is Robert A. Heinlein's 'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress'. 

It has political and social intrigue, a sense of humor and some wonderful action sequences. It is also an excellent depiction of what happens when you try to combat an enemy force that is at the top of a gravity well.

 

Only negative is the Moon's social system involving Poly-Marriages. Very logical in the book, but it would either be embraced disproportionally or completely ignored, depending on who produced it.

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A book I'd like to see filmed is 'A Fall of Moondust' by Arthur C. Clarke. Wouldn't need to be that expensive - much of the 'action' takes place aboard a tourist bus which has become buried beneath the dust on the Moon (you can see where the title comes from!!) so it wouldn't need huge sets.

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  • 3 months later...

As a massive Asimov and Foundation fan, all I can say is "Oh dear...".  I really can't see this working at all.  And that's before we got into how bad a rendition John Carter was and how those books should have been easy to make into film.  In 1970.  My point is that all of this material is too dated for both the way film & TV is made these days, and the expectations that Jo/e Public has of it.  The type of sci-fi that Asimov and his peers wrote just doesn't work on the screen today or if it does, it's because it bares little resemblance to what the author wrote.  Just look at how bad the screen versions of I, Robot or Starship Troopers are in comparison to the original texts.

 

On 8/11/2017 at 3:38 PM, Niall said:

The BBC did the original 3 books as an 8 part radio series in 1973. Amazon did an MP3 download but its does not seem to be available anymore.


A man in a pub told me that you can find it on bittorrent. Apparently :wonder:

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Sorry to disagree but I believe the Foundation series has the potential to do very well on the small screen. It would need several series though to do the story arc. There is room for a slow burning, intelligent  story arc. There are enough incidents along the way to keep up the interest. Skilfully set up at the beginning, you could hook an audience. 

 

However, you will need a GoT sized budget (which includes publicity) to sell it.

 

As for ‘star quality’ there are enough meaty cameos to attract attention.

 

Lets see what happens.

 

Trevor Palvar

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But thats the problem the TV execs don't do slow burning intelligent story arcs in Sci Fi as "the audience isn't there for it" - GoT only got onto the screen because of the "t*ts and dragons" nature of the story... actually probably not so much for the Dragons to tell the truth...

 

It doesn't stand a snowballs chance in hell of being an accurate adaptation of the books. As has been stated before, the early books are too episodic and unrelated in nature to be able to build up an audience who cares about the characters. You need to build a relationship with the characters and care about them, but the early stories in Foundation are actually short stories written separately and only collected into the book later. Its only when you get to the Mule that the stories become longer.

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5 hours ago, Kallisti said:

TV execs don't do slow burning intelligent story arcs in Sci Fi as "the audience isn't there for it"

Westworld; The Expanse; American Gods; Man in the High Castle; Childhood's End; Orphan Black; Person of Interest; Stranger Things...

 

I think the intelligent story arc is alive and well and living on Netflix and Amazon Prime...

 

best,

M.

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