Roland Emmerich to direct Foundation movie.

PsychoKirby · Post by **PsychoKirby** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 2:46 am

This is actually fairly old news, but since it's never been discussed here as far as I know and recently resurfaced, I thought I should share the news.

First article of him directing: http://www.variety.com/article/VR111799 ... id=13&cs=1

Article about screenwriter being attached: http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=57499

Article about Emmerich's challenges in a Foundation movie:
http://io9.com/5378571/director-emmeric ... foundation

I'm a huge Isaac Asimov fan, as the signature implies, and I'm really not sure how to feel about this. The Good Doctor hasn't had a good track record when it comes to film adaptations. The Nightfall movie didn't care about faithfulness at all. The Bicentennial Man movie, while enjoyable and fairly faithful, couldn't decide if it wanted to be a normal Robin Williams comedy or a tearjerking drama film (it did not help that Disney advertised it as a full comedy. I had yet to discover Asimov when I saw the movie, and was...surprised, to say the least). And the less said about the I, Robot movie, the better.

Now, on one hand, Emmerich claims to be an Asimov fan and that he was disappointed by the I, Robot movie, and wishes to make the movie as faithful as possible. There's also a competent screenwriter attached.

On the other hand, this is Roland Emmerich! He's practically famous for not caring about being scientifically or historically accurate. I know you can't expect perfect factual accuracy from movies, but sometimes I feel Emmerich deliberately goes out of his way to get things wrong. (Mammoths building pyramids?) So him directing an adaptation of a book that's both a work of hard science fiction and a giant historical allegory doesn't bode well. Not to mention the Foundation series has generally been regarded as unfilmable simply because of the huge timespan it covers. The first book alone (and Emmerich says he wants to make a trilogy out of the first three books) covers 197 years with four different main characters. How can Emmerich handle the complex mythology of Foundation when he couldn't even handle the complex mythology of Godzilla?!

But it can go either way. I guess we have no choice but to wait for more information. Can I hear some opinions from other Asimovians, though?

1001011001 · Post by **1001011001** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 3:18 pm

Having witnessed the abomination that became I, Robot, I have no appetite for watching another great Asimov novel ruined by Hollywood.

inky 2 · Post by **inky 2** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 2:58 pm

Roland Emmerich be unfaithful to accuracy and logic!!!!!! surely you jest, are you saying you didn't find Jake Gyllenhaal out running cold believable haha