Ever since we heard the news that director Roland Emmerich was working on the big-screen adaptation of Issac Asimov’s classic trilogy, “Foundation,” we’ve been wary.
Emmerich is best known for his end-of-the-world, big-budget epics like “Independence Day” and the recent “2012” with spectacle taking precedence over script and story.
Last month, we brought you a story on our Slice of SciFi podcast about how Emmerich said that he felt the only way to achieve his vision for the movie was to take a page from “Avatar.”
That statement did little to calm fears that this project could become the next “I, Robot” on the big-screen.
But Emmerich is still saying he won’t ruin the books and that the novels are in good hands.
“‘I, Robot’ as a book was so much more than it was as a film and I think, because of that, fans were very disappointed,” he tells Empire. “I don’t want to repeat that disappointment; I want to give people exactly what the Foundation trilogy is. You have to tell a story that represents the books but also works as a film. That’s the challenge.”
“Well, it depends on the script,” Emmerich continued. “We’ve got a script from Robert Rodat now and it’s 240 pages long! I said, ‘You know what guys? Edit it down to at least under 200 pages.’”
““I’m really into it. I worked with Bob on the story for weeks, sitting in a room trying to figure out how to make all the loose stories [work] and put them in a box called ‘Foundation’,” he said. “Bob’s perfect for this thing – he also knows as a writer he has to find the hero and a bad guy in the piece. We had to come up with characters that go through [the series], which is very hard.”
Emmerich will begin production on the movie as soon as he has a final script.
Where have we heard that before. I don’t know. Maybe EVERYWHERE?
These guys always say this.
One word…Godzilla.
Emmerich, leave the established stories alone and go back to competing with Michael Bay in the “more explosions, less character” category please.
oh god ! Why do you have to FIND a hero and a bad guy in an established piece ??? The characters are already there ! This has ‘re-write to something vaguely similar to Foundation” written all over it. LOVED the books and would enjoy seeing them done well but the way they’re layed out, it would be SO tough to do.
That we are even having this discussion should say it all.