Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/06/26/the-trailer-to-asimovs-found.html
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I have to say that I am unhappy about Asimov being boiled down to generic CGI space opera.
And I can imagine the review from the man himself: It was very. very loud.
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I’ve enjoyed the three series from the service I have checked out so far (For All Mankind, The Morning Show, See*) so I feel a certain amount of quality will be there. How deep they take the story will be the key.
*See might not be everyone’s cup of tea and you have to take the general concept of the premise with a huge grain of salt but the fact they commit 100% to that concept gives it an adorable charm that makes you want to watch.
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Caves of Steel by Asimov would make a great movie, in the “Bladerunner” style of SciFi/Detective story.
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Beschizzled:
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The Caves of Steel absolutely spawned a small subgenre of robot buddy cop shows. Almost Human is the most recent one that springs to mind.
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"Shortening the darkness"
Yeah, the world could totally go for some of that, right now.
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How did you get to see it already?
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seriously though…
How does the tiger fit in?
I mean, I like Asimov as much as it’s possible to in the year 2020, but… that’s taking it way too far. It has its points, but complexity isn’t one of them.
Asimov had a lot of great plot ideas. “Cranky social scientist predicts the future with math and makes the galaxy great again with his infallible predictions” is a good one, for sure. And then “But what if they weren’t infallible” is fine for the sequel. And so forth.*
There are tons of great SF series that maybe can’t, almost certainly shouldn’t be filmed. Sometimes that’s because it’s too “interior,” sometimes it’s because it’s too conceptual, and sometimes it’s because even now our CGI can’t do justice to what’s on the page.
Asimov is the opposite. Even some of his worst ideas would make for great TV or movies. (Say what you will about the movie I, Robot but none of the blame for that is his.) All you have to do to write a great Foundation show is find a talented group of writers who have never read Asimov, and write this on an index card:
POLITICAL SPACE OPERA
RAG-TAG REBELLION AGAINST REMNANTS OF CRUMBLING GALACTIC REPUBLIC
GHOST OF DEAD GUY USES MAGIC TO PREDICT FUTURE
BUT ALSO DIFFERENT FROM "STAR WARS" IN CERTAIN WAYS
When they’re done, change the ghost’s name to Hari Seldon and you’re good to go. (And prepare for complaints from the diehard fans that some of the important characters are now women, but that’s pretty standard these days.)
* And so forth until it’s 30 years later and he’s cranking out the fifth of seven books in the trilogy with none of the same characters but this time there’s a sexy girl who’s also a planet and she has lots of fun sex with a professorial old man, and also there’s like a jock character there but the sexy girl-planet doesn’t like him because she only likes doing fun sex stuff with the elderly nerd…
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From memory, they only aim to shorten it down to about 1,000 years.
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I’m sure we can do better on a single planet, as opposed to the bazillion in the Foundation. 
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And the sixth book reveals books three to five were a dream…
I hope it’s as good as IRobot.
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Kinda surprised that they went with adapting Foundation and not the robot series… You know, the one with coherent, easy-to-follow stories and likable characters… But I imagine that the rights were an issue since they’re probably tied up with the iRobot and bicentennial man adaptations… Also, the whole “are robots alive” thing is well-trod terrain at this point I guess.
As for the trailer, it’s slick and has a great looking cast, but the music and sfx were a touch too “epic” for my taste… Still, could be good!
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I suspect I will give it a pass, but I will give it a couple of episodes. I find that most tv almost immediately focuses on the same 12 story lines and characters, which gets old fast.
There is a 90-minute radio play, with music and sound effects, from the height of the cyberpunk era
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OK, having watched the trailer …
I guess if they want to do Game of Thrones in space, then Foundation is not the worst place to start
but there’s probably better material out there, if not by such a Big Name
The very very loud bit is a quote from Asimov where, I think, he had been dragged along to see Star Wars.
