On Monday at WWDC20, Apple surprised audiences with a first look at “Foundation,” the highly anticipated Apple Original drama series for Apple TV+ based on the internationally revered and award-winning Isaac Asimov novel series of the same name.
In the teaser trailer, showrunner and executive producer David S. Goyer unveils a glimpse into the making of the epic saga, which chronicles a band of exiles on their monumental journey to save humanity and rebuild civilization amid the fall of the Galactic Empire.
“Foundation” stars SAG Award winner and Emmy nominee Jared Harris as Hari Seldon; Lee Pace as Brother Day; Lou Llobell as Gaal; Leah Harvey as Salvor; Laura Birn as Demerzel; Terrence Mann as Brother Dusk; and Cassian Bilton as Brother Dawn.
“Foundation” is executive produced by Robyn Asimov, David S. Goyer, Josh Friedman, Cameron Welsh, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Marcy Ross. The series is produced for Apple by Skydance Television.
“Foundation” will debut exclusively on Apple TV+, the first all-original video subscription service and home to award-winning series and films from today’s biggest storytellers. Apple TV+ is now available in over 100 countries on the Apple TV app on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, iPod touch, Mac, select Samsung and LG smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV and Roku devices, as well as at tv.apple.com.
MacDailyNews Take: Translate Asimov’s Foundation from the written page to the moving image? They said it couldn’t be done. They were wrong. Only on Apple TV+.
Will there be a Second Foundation and Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation or will they all be rolled into one.
Been waiting for something like this since 1972! When I read the first novel!
I read the Trilogy about one year ago. One of the fundamental premises of The Second Foundation is that a civilization can survive if it skillfully allows an invader who has a different culture to enter and entice it with its characteristics so that it takes on those characteristics; while blood may be spilled, the invaded culture, with modifications, lives on. A version of this process can be seen in history with China absorbing Mongols, India absorbing British, Italy absorbing Germans in the North and Berbers in the South, Spain absorbing Arabs, and First Nations absorbing Europeans if First Nations manage to survive.
Looks promising. I’ve heard that the Foundation series is actually connected to the Empire and Robots of Dawn series to make an epic spanning 20k years over 18 novels.
“I’ve heard that the Foundation series is actually connected to the Empire and Robots of Dawn series to make an epic spanning 20k years over 18 novels.”
That’s right. I’ve read through all the novels in order a couple of times. It is fantastic. Almost time to do it again now that this new series is coming out.
You heard right. Asimov joined up the Robot series and Foundation series. A bit of a stretch at points but still interesting.
Hope they leave the virtue signaling for other franchises. Hew to pure Asimov.
“Pure Asimov” has novels where the inhabitants of a post-nuclear Earth are plainly serving as stand-ins for Jews facing similar discrimination from other Galactic peoples. The Robot novels are about a “master race” imposing involuntary servitude on another race of intelligent beings. Almost every Asimov book deals with the conflict between freedom and authoritarianism. They are not politically neutral and they do signal Asimov’s notions of virtue.
Besides which, the books can portray a time when 20th-century American racial categories have become irrelevant, but a TV show must cast actors with a discernible ethnic identification. Critics will read SJW motives into every casting choice.
Note: this was meant as a reply to taosbob.
@TxUser
Thomas Bowlder produced his own version of Shakespeare in 1818 to satisfy 19th century sensibilities. Prostitutes were eliminated in Henry IV, and Ophelia’s death by drowning becomes an accident, etc. In his own mind he was doing everyone a great favor by separating greatness from dross. Over the succeeding decades Bowlder’s The Family Shakespeare became highly popular, and doubtless fully represented Shakespeare to many readers.
I’ve waited these long decades for Foundation, but fear we will served up The Family Asimov: “woke” pablum that will rightly be scorned in future decades.
That is certainly possible, but bowlerizing Asimov is more likely to involve removing its political implications than in adding any. The Foundation books are a powerful argument for the superiority of a technocracy (two of them, actually) of educated elites over other forms of social organization. That might be hard to sell in these populist times.
I hope it’s family friendly. Unlike that other trash apple made.