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Re:Apple confirms TV series order of Asimov’s Foundation by madengr on Thursday August 23, 2018 @01:50PM (#17829248)
Big Asimov fan, and really looking forward to this. I just hope they don't screw it up. Fortunately the stuff coming out of the internet based media companies has been good. I would not trust the blockbuster movie industry to do it. JJ Abrahms does Asimov would be an abomination. That I Robot movie with Will Smith as an abomination. At least Apple has the $$$ to pull it off.

Foundation series would be ideal though, as you could cycle through actors. Really would like to see a miniseries, maybe 10 hours for each book could do it, but I don't know about the 1 hour format. Would like to see 2 hour movies. I don't know how compatible it would be with the internet attention span.

What I don't trust Hollywood to do, is to keep it hard sci-fi, which is why I love Asimov.

For example, through the series he spends many pages covering hyper-spacial navigation. Sub light until you get outside the gravity wells, micro jump, then spend two weeks figuring out where you are, micro jump again, etc. This changes as technology is developed from Robots through Foundation.

They'd have to do the same with many other topics, such as mathematical psycho-history. That's what makes it Asimov. Otherwise they would turn it into a space-opera.

Re:Apple confirms TV series order of Asimov’s Foundation by DerekL on Thursday August 23, 2018 @04:59PM (#17830671)
> That I Robot movie with Will Smith as an abomination.

Funny thing about that movie. The movie is based on a spec script called Hardwired, and it originally had no connection to I, Robot. Also, the writer of that script wrote the screenplay for a cancelled film adaptation of Foundation.

http://www.screenwritersutopia.com/article/d19127d8

Re:Apple confirms TV series order of Asimov’s Foundation by y_molodtsov on Monday August 27, 2018 @06:37PM (#17855126)
Well the movie actually iterates on a series of the ideas from Asimov's stories so I wouldn't call it bad. Basically it's about VIKI coming up with the Zero Law.
Re:Apple confirms TV series order of Asimov’s Foundation by apetresc on Thursday August 23, 2018 @01:57PM (#17829296)
10 hours for each book seems excessive, especially since most of the actual events in the Foundation novels happen "off-screen" and are only revealed through conversations by the characters.

10 hours is the equivalent of the entire Hobbit trilogy of movies, for a book that is much shorter - and we all know how that turned out.

Re:Apple confirms TV series order of Asimov’s Foundation by stormbrew on Thursday August 23, 2018 @01:59PM (#17829324)
I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with taking a sparsely plotted novel (like The Hobbit or Foundation, both of which have a lot of details happen off-stage and sometimes bafflingly so) and fleshing out the details.

The problem with the Hobbit movies is just that they did that very badly.

Re:Apple confirms TV series order of Asimov’s Foundation by fullshark on Thursday August 23, 2018 @02:06PM (#17829375)
But that's why it would be such a great miniseries. You should use the novels as a framework, and allow showrunners to get creative fleshing out the characters and plot details. The Novels are pretty short, but dense with plot and ideas. A direct translation of the source material would be bad but the potential is there for a great adaptation if characters are more fleshed out.
Re:Apple confirms TV series order of Asimov’s Foundation by true_religion on Thursday August 23, 2018 @07:09PM (#17831344)
There is precedent.

Look at Altered Carbon which got 10 hours for the first book, or The Man in the High Castle which was adapted into 2+ seasons for a book that's only 240 pages.

Re:Apple confirms TV series order of Asimov’s Foundation by stcredzero on Thursday August 23, 2018 @01:57PM (#17829295)
JJ Abrahms does Asimov would be an abomination.

What Michael Bay is to 'splosions, JJ Abrams is to plot twists.