The ambitious Apple TV+ sci-fi series “Foundation,” based on the award-winning novels by Isaac Asimov, chronicles a band of exiles on their monumental journey to save humanity and rebuild civilization amid the fall of the Galactic Empire. But, the production of season 3 has been beset with problems.
Issues with budgeting and physical production/ prompted the delay of filming in Prague and Poland, which had been scheduled to begin this month, sources tell Deadline. Cast and crew who had already convened for the shoot were told to return home while production issues are sorted out, with the budget brought down. No new start date has been set.
This is the second time Season 3 production has been paused on the series that stars Jared Harris and Lee Pace… According to sources, the sci-fi drama filmed for several weeks in spring 2023 before shutting down due to the strike. About a third of Foundation’s third season is in the can, sources said.
MacDailyNews Take: Ugh! Doesn’t it seem like, since the blossoming of steaming (and not just because of the twin writers’ and actors’ strikes), every new season of pretty much every series comes around really late; from Stranger Things to Severance and everything in-between?!
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Much like pro sports, but pro spots goes on each year. Sign or don’t.
In Hollywood, no Distributors like Apple to NBC know what’s good. I thought that’s what execs were for?! Seriously, they green light all this stuff right?!
So if they claim “Yah, this is great. Go for it!” And in the same breath. “Oh, we are doing one season only. See if it’s any good first.”
WHAT?!?!?!?!
Morons, you buss is leaving…
Thus, they sign actors for one season. Then when a show becomes popular so do those actors and a 1/3rd of the way into the launch of season one, those actors are signing onto bigger projects. And then of course, the Distributors, such as Apple, wait until nearly the end of a hugely obviously popular show like Severance, and say “Okay, we’ll do another season. Can we sign you guys?” And they can, but schedules are more difficult, delays are inevitable as these actors are doing other gigs, and their price demands go through the moon.
Agent: “Oh, you can have Adam Scott, but he’s really busy and if you want him, we are looking at 10x for him now…” Granted, many have contingency contracts for at least two seasons, but it’s still all horrible.
Bottom Line: Executives that green light shows, should be forced to commit to these shows beyond a pilot or first season. If they really know what’s good then they’d truly know what is good right?… Ugh… What a bunch of scared children all playing the same lame game.
Pretty sure you have no idea how television contracts generally work — and besides, nothing you’re blathering on about has anything to do with the issues with Foundation’s third season: Apple, like all streamers, is cutting back on the blank checks they’d been cutting, forcing revisions to budgets.
Giving television episodes the production values of movies is laudable, but economically unsustainable. Amazon Prime spent nearly half a billion dollars just for the RIGHTS for the Lord of the Rings spinoff series, and another quarter billion shooting the first season. Madness! My hunch is the second season is being rewritten and scaled down, just like Foundation.
I’d be astounded if actors’ contracts and salaries were that big of an issue — except if strike delays led to unexpected scheduling conflicts (if Lee Pace, hypothetically signed a contract for a movie role, but production delays caused schedules to overlap, that could also cause scripts to be rewritten and production delays).
Honestly, who cares? This show completely sucks…
I like the “mood”? Of the show. But the premise and logic is just nonsense.
P.S. I was balancing my checkbook this morning and the mathematics told me I’d have gas 3.4 minutes later…. And BOOM! I did.
The premise of the collapse and rebuilding of an empire is nonsense?