mndtrp

I read the full series about a decade ago, and remember very little of it. The show looks cool, but being on Apple I'm not sure I'll get to see it any time soon. I hope it does well, though.

Eric F

How about 30yrs ago? I really don't remember any of them at all. Should be interesting.

I really want someone to do a Hyperion series.

dex14

Superman07

The visuals on that alone look stunning. I’m much more interested in this than the upcoming Dune release, although I’m not sure if people consider that an apples to apples comparison.

Josh-da-man

I am very curious about this.

I'm assuming that they'll be taking lots of liberties with the story. For one thing, Foundation was conceived and written nearly a century ago (gah!), so a lot of the content in books is going to be extremely dated. For another, the books cover several centuries, so they'll probably have to either do a lot of jumping around in the timeline, compress it into a single timeframe, or cover a different era in each season.

Still, the core concept behind the Foundation series is rock-solid, and should be easy to adapt to modern technology, science, and sensibilities. And, yes, the art direction on this looks great.

Josh-da-man

...and, on a related note, they really need to cast DJ Qualls as The Mule.

Count Dooku

I don't have Apple TV, but I'll chime in to say that I absolutely loved the original trilogy when I was a teenager and have re-read them several times over the decades.

Superman07

Not sure how I feel about this point…

Eric F

Like what? A long-form, serialized sci-fi series? There are plenty of them.

Josh-da-man

One thing about Foundation is that the story is meant to span a thousand years.

The original "Foundation Trilogy" (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation) covered about three centuries. Then, when Asimov revisited the series in the 1980s, (Foundation's Edge, Foundation and Earth), those two novels took place in the fifth century. With those two books, the series took a quite severe left turn, and Asimov died before he wrote any stories beyond that point.

I wonder if the plan with this series is to adapt the seven novels (two prequels, the original trilogy, the two 80s novels) and go forward and cover the whole thousand year arc. Or if it's going to go off in its own direction, or just straight up adapt some of the novels.

Superman07

Sorry…no. I’m perfectly fine with that! I know it’s Apple and they have deep pockets, but not convinced it will be allowed to go the full time to complete the story.

Same article I read said it’s still meant to cover 1k years. Something about setting it up so key characters live long enough to span the story. I haven’t read the source material, so not exactly sure what the implications of that are.

Josh-da-man

There are... implications to that.

We've already seem them introduce cloning into the story from the trailers (which wasn't in the books).

And Hari Seldon (Harris' character) appears as a hologram throughout the centuries.

But there are also... other things that happen later in the story.

Though I don't have complete faith in Goyer, there is a really interesting story to tell if they follow the story.

The original stories were written nearly a century ago, so those stories will need some updating to catch up with technology and scientific discovery, and by the time Asimov revisited the story in the 1980s he started pulling it in a different direction with his two prequel and two sequels to the original trilogy. Since Foundation is a tale that takes place over a thousand years -- and the novels only covered about half of that timeline -- it does present an interesting opportunity to integrate all of the concepts and novels into a single, cohesive narrative. Maybe even include some of the stuff from trilogy written by Brin, Bear, and Benford.

RichC2

I have very little faith in Goyer as a lead writer/director but here he has actual teams doing most of that, so maybe it's got a shot.

Superman07

Full trailer. Visuals look amazing!

milo bloom

It certainly looks ambitious. It's been years since I read it but I seem to recall a lot of talky parts, so changes will have to be made.

Why So Blu?

First two episodes are live!

Deftones

Reviews are positive from what I have seen. Said some changes had to be made but it is fairly easy to follow despite the multiple timelines.

Superman07

Few reviews I read said it’s bland and unoriginal, despite all the money thrown at it.

I haven’t read the source material, but am surprised at the bland comment. Seems like somebody saying Shakespeare is unoriginal even though it came first and everything since is a derivation.

Gizmo

Lee Pace? I;m in.

Dr. DVD

For those who have seen it, does reading the source material necessary or is still enjoyable? I've heard that story wise it actually starts before the original book does.

ben12

The books would not make for great television, especially not in a post-streaming world. They're more about ideas than characters, as is true of a lot of great classic science fiction. So I wouldn't count any criticism of the show as counting towards the books. They've changed and added a lot.

OldBoy

as long as no giant worm comes out of someone and flys away to end the season, should be fine.

Josh-da-man

Does anyone think that Gaal might be

They're already taking quite a few liberties with the source material.

(Spoiled because it contains references to later events in the book series.)

Bandoman

I watched the first episode and was intrigued. Visually stunning. Easy to follow (I did read the original trilogy years ago but have forgotten much of it).

Why So Blu?

Watched both episodes last night. It was great. This is some hard sci-fi, so if you want simplicity, go elsewhere. Great to see Terrence Mann in there!

The 4K DV / Atmos was great!