Foundation Trilogy Movie Status

Coito ergo sum
Posts: 32040
Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 2:03 pm
Contact:

Re: Foundation Trilogy Movie Status

Post by Coito ergo sum » Thu Feb 23, 2012 3:49 pm

Animavore wrote:Ronald Emmerich? Don't get your hopes up.
What are some other Roland Emmerich films?

Any good ones?

User avatar
amused
amused
Posts: 3873
Joined: Fri Apr 30, 2010 11:04 pm
About me: Reinvention phase initiated
Contact:

Re: Foundation Trilogy Movie Status

Post by amused » Thu Feb 23, 2012 3:55 pm

He's known for quiet little introspective character study films.

Coito ergo sum
Posts: 32040
Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 2:03 pm
Contact:

Re: Foundation Trilogy Movie Status

Post by Coito ergo sum » Thu Feb 23, 2012 4:16 pm

O.k., let's look at his filmography, then: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000386/filmoyear

Big Budget films:

The Patriot -- SUCKED - but, that was mostly the historical inaccuracy and the storyline that sucked -- it was shot well, and the acting was good.

2012 -- oh, my effin' gawd....SUCKED ASS ... awful movie from top to bottom.

10,000 BC -- didn't see it -- looks like it sucked.

The Day After Tomorrow -- AWFUL.

Independence Day -- kind of silly, but it was fun to watch.

Universal Soldier -- never saw it.

Huh -- well, I can kind of see why he was picked. He has some capacity to make a sci-fi type film, and can make stuff look all big and space-like.

Well, he plans to do it in 3-D: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2010/02/11/ex ... ture-epic/

That may be o.k., if -- IF -- they don't make the movie "trying" to make use of 3-D by forcing everything to fly towards the screen all the time. Just relax, and make the movie, let the story be the story, and let the 3-D just make it a nicer picture to watch.

As for the script - apparently Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan) wrote the first draft, and now Dante Harper is writing the second draft of the script: http://collider.com/foundation-dante-harper/117996/

Hmmm... it's going to be all C.G.

And, it is going to be 3 separate movies, so that's good. The books are much much shorter than LOTR, so I think it may well adapt better as a story. I am slightly encouraged.

Coito ergo sum
Posts: 32040
Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 2:03 pm
Contact:

Re: Foundation Trilogy Movie Status

Post by Coito ergo sum » Thu Feb 23, 2012 4:57 pm

For anyone interested, here is a link for the free streaming BBC radio series adapting the Foundation Trilogy: http://www.archive.org/details/IsaacAsi ... ionTrilogy

Coito ergo sum
Posts: 32040
Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 2:03 pm
Contact:

Re: Foundation Trilogy Movie Status

Post by Coito ergo sum » Fri Feb 24, 2012 4:53 pm

Coito ergo sum wrote:For anyone interested, here is a link for the free streaming BBC radio series adapting the Foundation Trilogy: http://www.archive.org/details/IsaacAsi ... ionTrilogy

I listened to the first part of the BBC radio series -- not bad. Pretty entertaining. I am going to finish it this weekend, I think. I'll give it a thumbs up so far, if you like radio dramas.

Coito ergo sum
Posts: 32040
Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 2:03 pm
Contact:

Re: Foundation Trilogy Movie Status

Post by Coito ergo sum » Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:34 pm

I'm up to Foundation's Edge in my re-reading of Asimov's Foundation books. Next will be Foundation and Earth and then the prequels, also written by Asimov.

There are three books commissioned by the Asimov estate after the Good Doctor's death, including this one:

Image

I hear this one sucks, but maybe someone has read it.

User avatar
Clinton Huxley
19th century monkeybitch.
Posts: 23739
Joined: Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:34 pm
Contact:

Re: Foundation Trilogy Movie Status

Post by Clinton Huxley » Mon Feb 27, 2012 3:00 pm

Emmerich is a hack. This will suck more than a super-massive black hole.
"I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled"

AND MERRY XMAS TO ONE AND All!

Imagehttp://25kv.co.uk/date_counter.php?date ... 20counting!!![/img-sig]

Coito ergo sum
Posts: 32040
Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 2:03 pm
Contact:

Re: Foundation Trilogy Movie Status

Post by Coito ergo sum » Mon Feb 27, 2012 3:23 pm

Clinton Huxley wrote:Emmerich is a hack. This will suck more than a super-massive black hole.
That seems to be the prevailing wisdom on the topic.

I thought, after reviewing his filmography, however, that I gleaned some rationale behind choosing him. He has experience with big budget blockbusters and disaster films. The Foundation trilogy is, at bottom, a disaster film.

I think that people overestimate or misremember the books to the extent that they think they are profoundly scientific and eggheaded. That's really not it at all, and is never what Asimov's science fiction was ever about. A running theme in the books, and in Asimovs other writings, is the translation of mathematics and science into real world meaning and understanding. There are no formulas in the books and almost all hard science is eschewed in the books in favor of plain-speaking explanations.

The dialogue is not high-brow at all. The books were written, originally, I think for pulp publication in the John W. Campbell style of "Amazing Stories" and "Astounding Tales" type stuff in the 1940's. So, I think it is merely fashionable to look at these books as overly intellectual, or even highly intellectual. The intellectual parts are explained simply and are easy to understand, and the rest is mystery, suspense and action.

So, where can Emmerich take his experience in Independence Day, etc.? I think there is a lot of room for him to produce something visually groundbreaking and exciting. The special effects can create a Trantor that will be an amazing site in and of itself. Hyperspace travel will be fun to watch, and there are space battle scenes replete with ray-gun weapons, etc. The army soldiers and police carry and fight with "blasters" and "neuronic whips" which can make for some good special effect scenes.

Plot spoilers:
Trigger Warning!!!1! :
At some point in the first book, Trantor is sacked in the Great Sack, which would allow for lots of Independence Day style special effects and whatnot.
Trigger Warning!!!1! :
And, the plot is so simple it is really right up Emmerich's alley. Asimov based it basically as a Galactic Roman Empire. There is an Emperor, and he doesn't know the Empire is falling. It's been around for 12,000 years, so the fall takes a really long time. And, like all of history, it's only long after the fact that historians point to specific years and say "here was the fall of the _____ Empire" -- at the time, nobody really notices it exactly. The same happens there.

It's too late to save the Empire, but one man with a new science of statistical psychology is able to make reliable future predictions based on the movements of masses of people, on a scale of billions. So, he spends his life working on a solution, not to save the Empire, but to minimize the intervening Dark Ages that would befall the galaxy. Unless something is done, the dark ages will last at least 30,000 years. If the right things are done, then the interregnum can be shortened to 1,000 years. Out of that interregnum will emerge a better, stronger and kinder Empire for the galaxy."
That is it. That's the "complex" plot that everyone is scared that Emmerich can't handle. There are no dissertations on the science. It's merely a futuristic concept that we can't understand now, but that we have to assume and accept - suspend disbelief - is something that is real and possible.

The key to the movie is going to the writing of the screenplay, I think. The quality of Asimov's books are not in the action or the science. It's in the dialogue and pace and the clarity of the characters. You see them immediately. You identify with them, and they talk. They don't talk science -- the setting is sci-fi - the story is a mystery and suspense thriller, without gory murder.

I've started to think the choice of Emmerich is not bad at all, because what his role will be will be to add the "Independence Day" effects and directing to a (hopefully) good screenplay and story.

If they can translate the story to the screen, and if they don't fuck it up by changing it all around, then it will be a good movie.

User avatar
Clinton Huxley
19th century monkeybitch.
Posts: 23739
Joined: Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:34 pm
Contact:

Re: Foundation Trilogy Movie Status

Post by Clinton Huxley » Mon Feb 27, 2012 4:02 pm

Interesting post, CES, and I take your point. I'm expecting this to be adequate Friday night popcorn, nothing more. I've not read the books in an age. Can't remember much about them.

Remember reading Asimov's Nightfall for English "O" level. That was good.
"I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled"

AND MERRY XMAS TO ONE AND All!

Imagehttp://25kv.co.uk/date_counter.php?date ... 20counting!!![/img-sig]

Coito ergo sum
Posts: 32040
Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 2:03 pm
Contact:

Re: Foundation Trilogy Movie Status

Post by Coito ergo sum » Mon Feb 27, 2012 4:26 pm

Clinton Huxley wrote:Interesting post, CES, and I take your point. I'm expecting this to be adequate Friday night popcorn, nothing more. I've not read the books in an age. Can't remember much about them.

Remember reading Asimov's Nightfall for English "O" level. That was good.
Nightfall would have made a good "Twilight Zone" episode. It was a groundbreaking Sc-Fi story at the time.

I think, after having re-read the original trilogy in the last week (yes, all three books took me about 6 hours of total reading time, I think), I realized that they're all primarily dialogue.

The second and third books turn into mysteries, Foundation and Empire,
Trigger Warning!!!1! :
involves the search for the Mule and the Second Foundation. The Mule mystery is solved, but we are left at the end with the mystery of the Second Foundation still existing, because Bayta Darrell kills Ebling Mis to prevent him from revealing the secret of the location of the Second Foundation to the Mule. That saves the mystery of the Second Foundation for book three, which deals with the search for the Second Foundation and how Arkady Darrell supposedly figures out where it is located, and then the Second Foundation is supposedly wiped out.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest