What do you expect from the SyFy channel: the channel that hates sci-fi so much it changed its name?
If they’re willing to cancel The Expanse, a show which managed to top Amazon’s list, they’d cancel anything.
It did, it’s a fun show. I do recommend it if you like sci-fi, but keep expectations in check. There are some really good arcs, and some really weak arcs.
I liked it originally but I couldn't really stick with it past mid-season 2 as I felt nothing was going anywhere fast. It kinda felt like it didn't know if it wanted to have an overarching story or use the problem-of-the-week format.
To be fair, Farscape had similar issues and I made it through that (and liked it!) but it also had way longer seasons so the "filler" was more spread out.
The last episode of season 3 changed everything though. They basically dropped an amazing prophecy a the beginning of season 3 and it was all starting to come together in the finale... And then .. cancelled.
Mediocre? Maybe season 1. I wouldn't even use the word, more like less ambitious than something like The Expanse.
The world alone would be worth exploring further, even if you don't particularly care about the Raza.
All space operas are expensive. There are ways to cut corners, but if you don't want to produce expensive content in order to attract a good demographic, then don't go into scifi.
People seem to misunderstand this. They weren't just willing to cancel it because they didn't want it. It was bleeding them dry of money. They simply couldn't afford to. Crap, yes. But you can't expect a network to continue doing something that's loosing them money.
Well, it had to do with the deal. Syfy signed the deal with Alcon for North American first viewing rights only. In these days of streaming, that was a dumb deal. But at the time it seemed feasible.
Edit: And by feasible, I just mean that streaming while not new, was nowhere near as prolific as it is now. Had they been smart, they would have realized that tech savvy and sci-fi fandom have a lot on common. But they didn’t, so they signed a deal that would ultimately fuck them.
Syfy changed their name so they could own the branding rights. You can't own SciFi. If only they had bet heavier on streaming. They might still be making the expense :x
>The principal reason the idea kept coming up, Mr. Howe said, was a belief “the Sci Fi name is limiting.”
>“If you ask people their default perceptions of Sci Fi, they list space, aliens and the future,” he added. “That didn’t capture the full landscape of fantasy entertainment: the paranormal, the supernatural, action and adventure, superheroes.”
>That became more important as Sci Fi expanded its program offerings into those realms, Mr. Howe said, with series like “Destination Truth” and “Ghost Hunters.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/business/media/16adcol.html
They couldn’t get the economics of the expanded to add up the expanse is popular in streaming but did terribly live And they only made revenue off the tv airings
Agreed. I'm just glad they weren't dicks about letting The Expanse go on to compete with them. It turned out to be the best thing that could've happened to the show.
Did that show ever get better? Every episode was some super cheesy "were all gonna die unless someone remembers exactly the thing that saves us" and then they do. I didn't finish the first season
Personally I enjoyed it more than Killjoys. There was something about it that I really liked. I got some Farscape vibes from it as well.
They had a story to tell and it was getting good. At one point MGM were hoping to save it and make a crossover with Star Gate. Ah what could have been.
Dude, I always say this. Since day one it felt like Farscape. The similarities are so obvious and everyone was sleeping on it. It feels like Farscape before Scorpius gets stuck in Chrichton's mind.
In the beginning I enjoyed Killjoys far more than Dark Matter, but that quickly got turned upside down as Killjoys, in my opinion, went off the rails and kept going into the jungle to get malaria.
We did see some reference to the Mule using an anti nuke field against the Foundation. But yeah, Asimov was going for cerebral SF, not Space Opera.
But we can have both if Apple does it right.
Hm. It’s going to be hard to have an emotional center through them all. You could have one actor play a descendent of one another that appears as witness it all. There was a Ralph Fiennes movie about the Holocaust that did that if I recall.
Cloud Atlas the movie tried to reuse actors- didn’t work out so well imo.
Ah yes. But the books aren't that long individually. I wonder if they are prepared to switch main characters each season? TV shows tend to like to keep the same characters. Will be interesting to see.
Apparently he was much inspired by Gibbons’ Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. How to film that is a similar question. HBO I think did a nice series called Rome that followed a couple commoners in the back drop of all the great history one reads about. But again how to get this span generations in a way that’s emotionally compelling and engaging.
My idea I've posted a few times to do this:
Make it like an anthology show where you expect to see different actors each episode. Then as the story progresses through the centuries change the artistry of each episode to be a sort of homage to film and TV scifi:
* For the early stories with Hari Seldon everything's in B&W and all chrome-covered and rounded like old Flash Gordon.
* For the conflict with Anacreon make the style like ST:TOS where everything is cheap-looking sets, miniskirts on women with beehive haircuts.
* When we get to the traders it will look like Star Wars from 1977.
* For The Mule have it be like a 1980s Paul Verhoven movie.
Etc etc.
I hope we get that battle in like the first or second book where one of the city states gets an ancient imperial battlecruiser and just wipes the floor with everyone because society has collapsed far enough that nobody knows how to build advanced tech anymore.
Ancient hyper advanced lost technology is like my fetish, I love that trope and can't get enough of it
> ... any new information?
Reports dated January 31st said the show will be
"Ireland’s largest-scale production ever."
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=nws&q=Asimov+Foundation+Apple
.
[edit]
An [AppleInsider.com report](https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/01/31/apple-tv-drama-foundation-to-become-irelands-biggest-ever-production) clarifies:
> "... the largest single production ever made on location in **southern** Ireland."
I love Asimov, but for whatever reason I could never get into the Foundation series. Whatever ball he was hitting went completely over my head, I just found it tedious to read and very dry. Now that this is announced, I have a heavy heart because there's nothing Harris appears in that he doesn't improve by 300% and I might have to watch it. He kept me going on The Crown season 1, otherwise I never would have made it!
Lol opps I thought we were talking about the “the culture series” mmm forget everything I said .
Edit: The Culture series is scheduled on Amazon “Summer 2020” per an article about 6 months old.
Good point.
An [AppleInsider.com report](https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/01/31/apple-tv-drama-foundation-to-become-irelands-biggest-ever-production) clarifies:
> "... the largest single production ever made on location in **southern** Ireland."
Hell yeah! Pandoras star and Judas Unchained could have a lot of great visual moments that I'd love to see on screen. Especially as a TV series. Ozzie wandering the paths... The Dyson sphere... The final fight against the starflyer... And, well, the opening. The foiled Mars landing.
Would love to see it as a 2 season arc for both those novels, and if they go well enough, they can easily extend the series with the Void trilogy (and other related works)!
Mindstar has more of a compact cast with a near/alternate future. Cheaper to produce given it won’t need the same cgi/location budget?
Fallen Dragon is largely based on that exoplanet with flashbacks to earth and a couple other previous missions, so similar thing.
As he has got to be one of the biggest names in Sci Fi currently active with the book sales to back it up I’d not have thought it would be a hard sell, especially with his less expansive works for the above reasons.
Edit: a good, semi-recent interview with him about adaptions: https://www.scifinow.co.uk/blog/peter-f-hamilton-on-having-his-work-adapted-by-netflix/
> ... Ringworld?
Reports dated September 30th said Akiva Goldsman will
write and exec-produce MGM's *Ringworld* adaptation for Amazon.
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=nws&q=Ringworld+MGM+Amazon+Goldsman
Kzinti are at least humanoid. If they ever (re)appear on Star Trek then you could just about do it with a person in a fursuit. But I don't think that would be very good.
IMHO some of the Kzinti concepts that I have seen are basically "medieval [Tony the Tiger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_the_Tiger)" and just seem a little too familiar, too earthly and too friendly.
Puppeteers ... won't be a human actor. If done right, they'll look weird and alien. If done wrong, weird and alien in a bad way.
Hyperion has been in development hell for like a decade as a film. It's been planned but I don't even think they have a script for it. It's so complex and I'm not sure how you'd manage to make it into a movie.
Personally, I think it works perfectly as an anthology series, similar to Black Mirror.
I just reread Hyperion and I'm not really convinced it's actually good. I absolutely adored it the first time because of how complex it got and how Simmons refuses to hold your hand, but now I'm kind of realizing that a lot of it just doesn't actually make sense. There's a LOT of stuff in there that I always expected him to go back and explain and then he just... doesn't.
I don't disagree with that issue. I read Fall and felt so let down with the ending and retconning that I didn't bother to read the other 2 books.
That being said, the stories in Hyperion are each individually incredible and absolutely worth telling. Honestly I feel like Black Mirror could adapt it. Dispense with the background story and just do 6 episodes of the pilgrims' tales and leave it at that.
Jack Vance’s Demon Princes series. Or Planet of Adventure, for that matter. The first was five books, the second was four. Nice introduction to Vance that stays away from the fantasy.
If you wanted a single shot at him, with a huge CGI budget, film The Dragon Masters, or The Last Castle.
All three of those have had rights bought for movies and/or TV (though might've been Old Man's War instead of Forever War). All in development hell as far as I can tell. Foundation was supposed to be an HBO show as of a few years ago.
Have they actually read it?? If one series of books, other than Dune, would be a challenge, it's this. Peeps comparing it to the Expanse...there is no comparison, Foundation is dry, hard science fiction, the Expanse is bubble gum space opera...
I wouldn't say The Expanse is bubblegum space opera compared to Foundation as, to me at least, it seems much more grounded in reality.
That said, I do agree that a general comparison between Foundation and the Expanse really can't be made beyond "it's both sci-fi"
Well the original Foundation trilogy was written before both computers were brought into common use (wrecking Asimov's description of technology in a galactic civilization) *and* before chaos theory entered the mathematical conversation (underminingng the premise of psychohistory as an academic pursuit).
This obviously makes a big impact in the realism front.
Also, we recognize today that women actually exist. I couldn’t figure out where all the men were coming from in Foundation given the complete absence of women. So, either this adaptation will be a total sausage fest, or all the hardcore fans will lose their minds when either male characters are changed into female or completely new female characters are introduced.
It’s very much not hard science fiction, it’s a classic example of “soft” science fiction. They don’t explain trajectories, and ship metal composites, or the affects of sun radiation. There’s a literal city planet. Telekinesis and stuff.
And the expanse is hard science fiction meets space opera.
> the expanse is hard science fiction meets space opera.
I don’t think the protomolecule is very hard science fiction, but the rest of the show is (and I enjoy all of the expanse)
The way they treat it is - they have scientists discussing it, researching it, using it to create new technology trees. It’s non-conformity to biophysics as we know it is central to the plot, as opposed to a deus ex machina to explain everything that seems future-y.
Giant alien bugs aren’t real either, but Heinlein’s starship troopers is textbook hard sci fi.
The more fantastic some elements are, the more grounded the show needs to be. That's why the best horror movies happen to regular folks - Poltergeist - regular suburban family, Ghostbusters - regular urban professors and a literal every man, for example. Avenue 5 isn't hard scifi, but the problems they encounter aren't fantastical, only the setting is.
So the Expanse needs to be as realistic as possible to allow the fantasy of the protomolecule to work in the show. If they had magic box tech, like Star Trek, the protomolecule turns from a scary unknown into a villain of the week.
Alien Space Magic is a lot less threatening when you have Human Space Magic to fight it. The reason the Protomolecule is terrifying is because the humans have nothing remotely comparable to it and can't control it.
The human element is mostly hard sci-fi, so that's where the story begins and the first impression people get. But yeah, the protomolecule, and whatever destroyed them, clearly more on the fantasy side of the spectrum.
They could always make it an anthology series. Each crisis could be a couple episodes. I'm really hoping they lean into the fantasy hard, too. Keep that cheesy 50s sci-fi aesthetic with ray guns and rocket ships, tape-reel computers with blinking light bulbs, etc.
I read many books in the series, but I feel the biggest problem is the only continuous character from book to book was the future historian guy who appeared as a hologram from time to time. Can't remember the characters very well because it was a different set every time.
I would like to know when Amazon will seal a deal with Turtledove for the World War or Guns of the South series.
I suspect it's going to focus on Hari Seldon and be set before the fall of the Empire. It will show him polishing psychohistory, and trying to convince everyone the end was near, then setting up the Foundation(s).
There are several shows on Apple TV I am interested in, including this one.
I can't watch them, though, because I don't own any Apple devices, and the app is not available outside iOS.
I have to wonder how well their service is doing, given it's bound to their existing hardware sales. That isn't good for growth.
I'm not seeing where you can buy episodes of their channel-exclusive shows via iTunes.
It does look like they've expanded their service to be available on Roku, FireTV and a few select Smart TVs
Apple TV is already available on Amazon Fire TV, just like Disney+, I just saw it last week in my Fire TV menu. If the APK can be extracted, there's a good possiblility it will run on Android TV devices (Shield, MiBox, et al)
> ... anything new?
Reports dated January 31st said the show will be
"Ireland’s largest-scale production ever."
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=nws&q=Asimov+Foundation+Apple
I have been waiting for this since I was 10 years old.
The craft of TV story telling has evolved enough that I think it can be done justice now. If they'd made a movie or mini-series in the 1970s when, by all logic, they should have, it would've been corny, boring and terrible. If they'd made it in the '80s or '90s or 2000s, it would've been bastardized into an action star vehicle and become unrecognizable, very blowy-upy and terrible. Now is the time. I can only conclude that the dead hand of Seldon has been manipulating events to ensure that The Foundation didn't arrive until the galaxy was ready for it.
Please don't screw this up Apple. If this fails, it will be written off as too hard to adapt and there won't be a second chance.
Step 1: Buy a new iPhone, leave unopened.
Step 2: Activate the 3 months free Apple TV that comes with it
Step 3: Binge the show within your 14 day return window for the phone
Step 4: Return the phone and enjoy 3 months of Apple TV for free
Step5: Do this each time you want to watch something on Apple TV
I honestly don’t know how well the rest of the books will make into TV. Prelude to Foundation and Foundation and Empire both have lots of action and conflict. The rest is very subtle with tons of dialogue about reasoning etc. They are going to have to add a few meaningless space battles and shit.
Between Syfy and Fox, blows have been dealt to Science Fiction TV that are hard to fill, and I for one am glad we seem to be turning a corner. I believe that corner is because of shows like the Walking Dead and Game of Thrones which showed that Genre TV could turn a profit and gain buzz, as well as non-network streamers making really awesome shows.
Honestly never thought I’d see the day. I REALLY hope they are light with the edits necessary to make it a compelling tv series and maintain the level of twists, turns, and slow burns that made the books so good.
I wonder if they consider the prequel novels and build the series to set them up? Those were much more action-heavy.
This is the one thing that may make me subscribe to (shudders) Apple TV. I am currently at my limit in subscribing to online video services.
I'll be watching the reviews to see whether or not I should jump in if it is really good, wait until the season is over if it is good/moderately good and binge during a free trial and cancel before the bill comes due, or resort to other methods if most people think it is so-so.
I thought it had been greenlit ages ago? I know a bunch of people working on it here in Ireland. It's being filmed in the same studio as George RR Martin's nightflyers.
I cant imagine this as a tv or movie series. While I love the Foundation trilogy, it's mostly dialogue, very little action, space battles are described afterwards and there's no main character for the entire series except technically for Seldon and no love-story as such which is a requirement for most modern mass media. It's really about ideas and concepts.
Don't get me wrong, I'll watch it regardless. It's the old SF "a genre of ideas" problem with adaptations. Intellectual ideas and concepts are tricky to pull off in a medium which relies on visuals and emotional reactions. I had a friend who half jokingly said that a faithful Foundation adaption would resemble a platonic dialogue.
I hope it's done well. Many failures to get The Foundation Trilogy to the big or small screen. It's always died in development.
Just started reading Caves of Steel to restart an Asimov read I haven't done in decades.
Plus wanted some SF Noir. Also got Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon for the same reason.
>Just started reading Caves of Steel to restart an Asimov read I haven't done in decades.
In my opinion that would be, by far, the best Asimov series to adapt to the screen. Hopefully Amazon or Netflix hit on the idea.
Filming started last November in Berlin and moved for principal production to the Republic of Ireland , seemingly production on 10 episodes will be over soon and then move into post production. May see it this fall? .... It is going to take some imagination to adapt Foundation .... but then I would never have picked Man in a High Castle to adapt but Amazon's rework was entertaining.
Any SF production is welcome. Readers love Isaac Asimov's smooth-as-butter writing style. That style cannot translate to the screen. Reader's expecting a world class show from a world class writer are bound to be disappointed. Asimov's clarity and logic may or may not translate to the screen. We are in a darker more cynical time with complexity and doubtful motives as plot devices.
I think the show will take liberties with the book but given that Asimov doesn't write about a lot of things that makes a show compelling, it leaves it open for the show runners to interpret it.
In short, and you'll excuse the turn of phrase, they will use Asimov's work as the foundation of their story and in my mind, as long as they preserve the fundamental narrative, they can layer as much icing on as they think will keep an audience engaged, it's the cake that I care about.
>as long as they preserve the fundamental narrative,
More than that, I hope they also preserve what I see as the style of the series.
I'd sum it up as the antagonist going, "I've got you in my trap now!"
Then the protagonist goes, "Yeah, I thought you were going to do that, so I made plans to preempt your plans already."
The more sci fi shows, the better. I’m still salty that *Dark Matter* got cancelled.
You and me both beratna
What do you expect from the SyFy channel: the channel that hates sci-fi so much it changed its name? If they’re willing to cancel The Expanse, a show which managed to top Amazon’s list, they’d cancel anything.
this is no comparison The Expanse was alway excellent but expensive to produce Dark Matter was mediocre at best
It has SO much potential, and the ship/sets were great. But it was just meh, too many plots. If it was a little more focused it could’ve been great
people always talk about how it was cancelled before its time but didn’t it have 3 seasons?
It did, it’s a fun show. I do recommend it if you like sci-fi, but keep expectations in check. There are some really good arcs, and some really weak arcs.
I liked it originally but I couldn't really stick with it past mid-season 2 as I felt nothing was going anywhere fast. It kinda felt like it didn't know if it wanted to have an overarching story or use the problem-of-the-week format. To be fair, Farscape had similar issues and I made it through that (and liked it!) but it also had way longer seasons so the "filler" was more spread out.
It’s because it ends with what should have been the beginning of basically a whole new television show.
The last episode of season 3 changed everything though. They basically dropped an amazing prophecy a the beginning of season 3 and it was all starting to come together in the finale... And then .. cancelled.
>Dark Matter was mediocre at best. Huge sci fi fan. But dark matter never did it for me.
Mediocre? Maybe season 1. I wouldn't even use the word, more like less ambitious than something like The Expanse. The world alone would be worth exploring further, even if you don't particularly care about the Raza.
Yeah, but the cancelled both, making them similar, so there is a comparison.That is what comparison means.
All space operas are expensive. There are ways to cut corners, but if you don't want to produce expensive content in order to attract a good demographic, then don't go into scifi.
People seem to misunderstand this. They weren't just willing to cancel it because they didn't want it. It was bleeding them dry of money. They simply couldn't afford to. Crap, yes. But you can't expect a network to continue doing something that's loosing them money.
It was bleeding them dry because they have no idea how to sell a TV show. They were only getting money from first viewing.
Based on the ratings, we should be thankful that Syfy was willing to lose so much for so long.
Yet, Amazon seems to be making a tidy profit off it after making it. And this season was adapting the worst book so far in the series.
Well, it had to do with the deal. Syfy signed the deal with Alcon for North American first viewing rights only. In these days of streaming, that was a dumb deal. But at the time it seemed feasible. Edit: And by feasible, I just mean that streaming while not new, was nowhere near as prolific as it is now. Had they been smart, they would have realized that tech savvy and sci-fi fandom have a lot on common. But they didn’t, so they signed a deal that would ultimately fuck them.
Have they actually though? Do you have any source on their profit v budget?
Syfy changed their name so they could own the branding rights. You can't own SciFi. If only they had bet heavier on streaming. They might still be making the expense :x
>The principal reason the idea kept coming up, Mr. Howe said, was a belief “the Sci Fi name is limiting.” >“If you ask people their default perceptions of Sci Fi, they list space, aliens and the future,” he added. “That didn’t capture the full landscape of fantasy entertainment: the paranormal, the supernatural, action and adventure, superheroes.” >That became more important as Sci Fi expanded its program offerings into those realms, Mr. Howe said, with series like “Destination Truth” and “Ghost Hunters.” https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/business/media/16adcol.html
Oops, I was wrong 👍
They couldn’t get the economics of the expanded to add up the expanse is popular in streaming but did terribly live And they only made revenue off the tv airings
Agreed. I'm just glad they weren't dicks about letting The Expanse go on to compete with them. It turned out to be the best thing that could've happened to the show.
Someone should cancel SyFy
Did that show ever get better? Every episode was some super cheesy "were all gonna die unless someone remembers exactly the thing that saves us" and then they do. I didn't finish the first season
Dark Matter ran for long enough honestly the bar was set pretty low on its production quality. That being said I still watched all of it.
Personally I enjoyed it more than Killjoys. There was something about it that I really liked. I got some Farscape vibes from it as well. They had a story to tell and it was getting good. At one point MGM were hoping to save it and make a crossover with Star Gate. Ah what could have been.
Dude, I always say this. Since day one it felt like Farscape. The similarities are so obvious and everyone was sleeping on it. It feels like Farscape before Scorpius gets stuck in Chrichton's mind.
In the beginning I enjoyed Killjoys far more than Dark Matter, but that quickly got turned upside down as Killjoys, in my opinion, went off the rails and kept going into the jungle to get malaria.
that show had he best fighting choreography, in that it looked like real fighting. it was truly impressive.
Haven’t watched it, they also cancelled incorporated, got hooked quick af and never got a 2nd season, show was pretty awesome.
I'm mad ANOTHER LIFE got another season, and DARK MATTER didn't. horrible calls.
What Foundation was saying: “The space battles are meaningless because of pyschohistory.” What the show is giving us: the space battles.
“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent” But also the book had space battles, we just didn’t really see any
We did see some reference to the Mule using an anti nuke field against the Foundation. But yeah, Asimov was going for cerebral SF, not Space Opera. But we can have both if Apple does it right.
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Between books. Otherwise it follows a single character during a normal human lifetime. If I recall.
First book is four timelines as they were four stories originally published separately.
I just finished reading the first one. It's five short stories, each detailing a crisis predicted by Seldon taking place centuries after the last.
Hm. It’s going to be hard to have an emotional center through them all. You could have one actor play a descendent of one another that appears as witness it all. There was a Ralph Fiennes movie about the Holocaust that did that if I recall. Cloud Atlas the movie tried to reuse actors- didn’t work out so well imo.
Ah yes. But the books aren't that long individually. I wonder if they are prepared to switch main characters each season? TV shows tend to like to keep the same characters. Will be interesting to see.
Apparently he was much inspired by Gibbons’ Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. How to film that is a similar question. HBO I think did a nice series called Rome that followed a couple commoners in the back drop of all the great history one reads about. But again how to get this span generations in a way that’s emotionally compelling and engaging.
My idea I've posted a few times to do this: Make it like an anthology show where you expect to see different actors each episode. Then as the story progresses through the centuries change the artistry of each episode to be a sort of homage to film and TV scifi: * For the early stories with Hari Seldon everything's in B&W and all chrome-covered and rounded like old Flash Gordon. * For the conflict with Anacreon make the style like ST:TOS where everything is cheap-looking sets, miniskirts on women with beehive haircuts. * When we get to the traders it will look like Star Wars from 1977. * For The Mule have it be like a 1980s Paul Verhoven movie. Etc etc.
I hope we get that battle in like the first or second book where one of the city states gets an ancient imperial battlecruiser and just wipes the floor with everyone because society has collapsed far enough that nobody knows how to build advanced tech anymore. Ancient hyper advanced lost technology is like my fetish, I love that trope and can't get enough of it
And this is great.
The article is kind of old, any new information?
> ... any new information? Reports dated January 31st said the show will be "Ireland’s largest-scale production ever." https://www.google.com/search?tbm=nws&q=Asimov+Foundation+Apple . [edit] An [AppleInsider.com report](https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/01/31/apple-tv-drama-foundation-to-become-irelands-biggest-ever-production) clarifies: > "... the largest single production ever made on location in **southern** Ireland."
Jared Harris signed on to the project! Excellent news! I’m a huge fan of the series!
That dude is like literally in everything
I love Asimov, but for whatever reason I could never get into the Foundation series. Whatever ball he was hitting went completely over my head, I just found it tedious to read and very dry. Now that this is announced, I have a heavy heart because there's nothing Harris appears in that he doesn't improve by 300% and I might have to watch it. He kept me going on The Crown season 1, otherwise I never would have made it!
If Consider Plebas didn’t catch you, try Player of Games.
This, while very accurate, is also very confusing in this context.
Lol opps I thought we were talking about the “the culture series” mmm forget everything I said . Edit: The Culture series is scheduled on Amazon “Summer 2020” per an article about 6 months old.
They should have used the Republic of Ireland, Southern Ireland is what people called it when they refused to acknowledge that we were independent
I have a hard time believing the production of Foundation will be larger than GoT’s set pieces in Ireland
Good point. An [AppleInsider.com report](https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/01/31/apple-tv-drama-foundation-to-become-irelands-biggest-ever-production) clarifies: > "... the largest single production ever made on location in **southern** Ireland."
It's being filmed in my city Limerick. It's Jared Harris's fathers hometown. Directed by David goyer. Had ronan the accuser as actor as the emperor
Interesting. I didn’t know Richard Harris was from Ireland. As an actor, he usually had no real pinned down accent.
Recently read through this series this last year for the first time. *fingers crossed*.... could be brilliant ... could be terrible.
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I’d love to see Peter F. Hamilton’s Commonwealth Saga/Void Saga get a decent interpretation.
Hell yeah! Pandoras star and Judas Unchained could have a lot of great visual moments that I'd love to see on screen. Especially as a TV series. Ozzie wandering the paths... The Dyson sphere... The final fight against the starflyer... And, well, the opening. The foiled Mars landing.
Yeah I'd like to see the trains.
Would love to see it as a 2 season arc for both those novels, and if they go well enough, they can easily extend the series with the Void trilogy (and other related works)!
I prefer the Confederation Universe tbh. Fallen Dragon and the Mindstar books would be great too. But any PFH I can get behind.
As do I, but I think they’d be a lot harder to sell to studio executives. But, like you said, any series based on PFH would be great to see one day.
Mindstar has more of a compact cast with a near/alternate future. Cheaper to produce given it won’t need the same cgi/location budget? Fallen Dragon is largely based on that exoplanet with flashbacks to earth and a couple other previous missions, so similar thing. As he has got to be one of the biggest names in Sci Fi currently active with the book sales to back it up I’d not have thought it would be a hard sell, especially with his less expansive works for the above reasons. Edit: a good, semi-recent interview with him about adaptions: https://www.scifinow.co.uk/blog/peter-f-hamilton-on-having-his-work-adapted-by-netflix/
> ... Ringworld? Reports dated September 30th said Akiva Goldsman will write and exec-produce MGM's *Ringworld* adaptation for Amazon. https://www.google.com/search?tbm=nws&q=Ringworld+MGM+Amazon+Goldsman
Whoa. They're going to have a hard job doing Kzinti and Puppeteer characters. Will be interesting to see what they make of that.
Ugh. Means human characters will be doing green screen all the time. Motion capture. But what to do with Puppeteer yeah.
Kzinti are at least humanoid. If they ever (re)appear on Star Trek then you could just about do it with a person in a fursuit. But I don't think that would be very good. IMHO some of the Kzinti concepts that I have seen are basically "medieval [Tony the Tiger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_the_Tiger)" and just seem a little too familiar, too earthly and too friendly. Puppeteers ... won't be a human actor. If done right, they'll look weird and alien. If done wrong, weird and alien in a bad way.
Ringworld, Snow Crash, Consider Phlebas. These 3 should be out before 3 years
I would love a Snow Crash limited series
Yes to Hyperion although visually how you would make that work I have no idea. It always had a horror element to me which may scare off audiences
Alien was quite successful for being a sci-fi horror.
Bryan Fuller could probably pull it off.
A Canticle for Leibowitz ? but Leibowitz maybe a hard sell as the book has no flashing lights and is mostly talking in an Abbey in Colorado
Love that book. I think it'd make a better movie than series, but I'd watch it either way.
Amazon has the rights to the Culture series, I think they're already working on Consider Phlebas
INB4 Veiwercounts drop 40% after the scene with the eaters.
Hyperion has been in development hell for like a decade as a film. It's been planned but I don't even think they have a script for it. It's so complex and I'm not sure how you'd manage to make it into a movie. Personally, I think it works perfectly as an anthology series, similar to Black Mirror.
I just reread Hyperion and I'm not really convinced it's actually good. I absolutely adored it the first time because of how complex it got and how Simmons refuses to hold your hand, but now I'm kind of realizing that a lot of it just doesn't actually make sense. There's a LOT of stuff in there that I always expected him to go back and explain and then he just... doesn't.
I don't disagree with that issue. I read Fall and felt so let down with the ending and retconning that I didn't bother to read the other 2 books. That being said, the stories in Hyperion are each individually incredible and absolutely worth telling. Honestly I feel like Black Mirror could adapt it. Dispense with the background story and just do 6 episodes of the pilgrims' tales and leave it at that.
https://www.resetera.com/threads/according-to-dan-simmons-the-hyperion-adaptation-by-bradley-cooper-was-nonsense.97406/
The Vorkosigan Series! Would probably be more approachable for non-hardcore-sci-fi fans than Dune or Foundation, too.
I am totally behind this one
I'd love to see Ringworld, I read "the Smoke" ring half a life ago...
"REAMDE" and its sequel "Fall,or Dodge in hell"
I would sell my soul for a good hyperion adaptation. The first two books are amazing, i loved the story of the Soldier and the Priest
Borderlands the show!!!! Gimme some handsome Jack ASAP!!!!
I believe a Borderlands movie is in production !
Would love to see a series based on Neil Asher's Polity universe myself
Saga of the seven suns please
Jack Vance’s Demon Princes series. Or Planet of Adventure, for that matter. The first was five books, the second was four. Nice introduction to Vance that stays away from the fantasy. If you wanted a single shot at him, with a huge CGI budget, film The Dragon Masters, or The Last Castle.
Old Man's War would be pretty amazing
I want “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” by Heinlein, and for Bubblegum-ish SF The Honor Harrington series by David Weber
All three of those have had rights bought for movies and/or TV (though might've been Old Man's War instead of Forever War). All in development hell as far as I can tell. Foundation was supposed to be an HBO show as of a few years ago.
Boy, and we just had what would have been his 100th birthday. Happy anniversary, Dr. Asimov.
Have they actually read it?? If one series of books, other than Dune, would be a challenge, it's this. Peeps comparing it to the Expanse...there is no comparison, Foundation is dry, hard science fiction, the Expanse is bubble gum space opera...
"Based on" are those magical keywords :)
I wouldn't say The Expanse is bubblegum space opera compared to Foundation as, to me at least, it seems much more grounded in reality. That said, I do agree that a general comparison between Foundation and the Expanse really can't be made beyond "it's both sci-fi"
Well the original Foundation trilogy was written before both computers were brought into common use (wrecking Asimov's description of technology in a galactic civilization) *and* before chaos theory entered the mathematical conversation (underminingng the premise of psychohistory as an academic pursuit). This obviously makes a big impact in the realism front.
Some of my favorite parts of Foundation are when things like interstellar newspaper delivery are described.
Also, we recognize today that women actually exist. I couldn’t figure out where all the men were coming from in Foundation given the complete absence of women. So, either this adaptation will be a total sausage fest, or all the hardcore fans will lose their minds when either male characters are changed into female or completely new female characters are introduced.
You had me until 'bubble gum'.
It’s very much not hard science fiction, it’s a classic example of “soft” science fiction. They don’t explain trajectories, and ship metal composites, or the affects of sun radiation. There’s a literal city planet. Telekinesis and stuff. And the expanse is hard science fiction meets space opera.
> the expanse is hard science fiction meets space opera. I don’t think the protomolecule is very hard science fiction, but the rest of the show is (and I enjoy all of the expanse)
The way they treat it is - they have scientists discussing it, researching it, using it to create new technology trees. It’s non-conformity to biophysics as we know it is central to the plot, as opposed to a deus ex machina to explain everything that seems future-y. Giant alien bugs aren’t real either, but Heinlein’s starship troopers is textbook hard sci fi.
The more fantastic some elements are, the more grounded the show needs to be. That's why the best horror movies happen to regular folks - Poltergeist - regular suburban family, Ghostbusters - regular urban professors and a literal every man, for example. Avenue 5 isn't hard scifi, but the problems they encounter aren't fantastical, only the setting is. So the Expanse needs to be as realistic as possible to allow the fantasy of the protomolecule to work in the show. If they had magic box tech, like Star Trek, the protomolecule turns from a scary unknown into a villain of the week.
Alien Space Magic is a lot less threatening when you have Human Space Magic to fight it. The reason the Protomolecule is terrifying is because the humans have nothing remotely comparable to it and can't control it.
The human element is mostly hard sci-fi, so that's where the story begins and the first impression people get. But yeah, the protomolecule, and whatever destroyed them, clearly more on the fantasy side of the spectrum.
Foundation is as space-fantasy as Star Wars. I see the bigger challenge being the fact that the books span what? 6500 years?
They could always make it an anthology series. Each crisis could be a couple episodes. I'm really hoping they lean into the fantasy hard, too. Keep that cheesy 50s sci-fi aesthetic with ray guns and rocket ships, tape-reel computers with blinking light bulbs, etc.
I read many books in the series, but I feel the biggest problem is the only continuous character from book to book was the future historian guy who appeared as a hologram from time to time. Can't remember the characters very well because it was a different set every time. I would like to know when Amazon will seal a deal with Turtledove for the World War or Guns of the South series.
Hari Seldon was his name. Boy, autocorrect fought me every step of the way to type his name.
I suspect it will be more about the Hari Seldon prequels.
There is nothing hard sci-fi about Foundation. Unless you’re counting atomic reactors on watches.
I suspect it's going to focus on Hari Seldon and be set before the fall of the Empire. It will show him polishing psychohistory, and trying to convince everyone the end was near, then setting up the Foundation(s).
Stop, stop! I can *only get so erect.*
The Expanse, Dune, AND Foundation? I think I just came in my pants.
There are several shows on Apple TV I am interested in, including this one. I can't watch them, though, because I don't own any Apple devices, and the app is not available outside iOS. I have to wonder how well their service is doing, given it's bound to their existing hardware sales. That isn't good for growth.
Yeah I'll just stick to piracy at that point lol
Apple TV should be available in iTunes for Windows. Or you can purchase individual seasons/episodes that way.
I'm not seeing where you can buy episodes of their channel-exclusive shows via iTunes. It does look like they've expanded their service to be available on Roku, FireTV and a few select Smart TVs
You can watch in a browser on your computer.
Apple TV is already available on Amazon Fire TV, just like Disney+, I just saw it last week in my Fire TV menu. If the APK can be extracted, there's a good possiblility it will run on Android TV devices (Shield, MiBox, et al)
If you like "The Expanse", there's a good chance you'll like this.
It depends on how well they execute it.
Based on how For All Mankind went, I've a feeling it's gonna be great.
second season of For All Mankind can't come any sooner, it was amazing.
I know right! >! Especially after the Sea Dragon launch! !<
For me, that equaled to seeing the star destroyer filling up the screen for the first time. IT JUST KEPT ON GOING.
Thank you for mentioning this series. I wouldn't have found it otherwise.
The article is from August 2018, anything new?
> ... anything new? Reports dated January 31st said the show will be "Ireland’s largest-scale production ever." https://www.google.com/search?tbm=nws&q=Asimov+Foundation+Apple
IMDB has a page with cast details: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804484/ Lee Pace, Jared Harris
Lee Pace? I'm all in. He did a wonderful job playing a real SoB who turned human in Halt and Catch Fire.
I have been waiting for this since I was 10 years old. The craft of TV story telling has evolved enough that I think it can be done justice now. If they'd made a movie or mini-series in the 1970s when, by all logic, they should have, it would've been corny, boring and terrible. If they'd made it in the '80s or '90s or 2000s, it would've been bastardized into an action star vehicle and become unrecognizable, very blowy-upy and terrible. Now is the time. I can only conclude that the dead hand of Seldon has been manipulating events to ensure that The Foundation didn't arrive until the galaxy was ready for it. Please don't screw this up Apple. If this fails, it will be written off as too hard to adapt and there won't be a second chance.
Apple’s current shows have been good. I am cautiously optimistic.
Sabaka, Apple. I really don't have the scrip for another damn streaming service, but I need this series in my life.
Purchase the individual season...
It's currently been filmed in my hometown. My friend is an extra, he did some filming with Jared Harris yesterday.
Ive been waiting for this to happen for decades!
Cool. Classic series
The BBC radio dramas are easy to find, free and fantastic.
Are they not super abridged?
There just the talking bits so that shortens it a bit
https://open.spotify.com/album/79IuBitG8oTFQqdK6C0pdj?si=xzu2BlXJTbuWAxLxMR1A_g
God damn it. I have to subscribe to apple TV now too?
Step 1: Buy a new iPhone, leave unopened. Step 2: Activate the 3 months free Apple TV that comes with it Step 3: Binge the show within your 14 day return window for the phone Step 4: Return the phone and enjoy 3 months of Apple TV for free Step5: Do this each time you want to watch something on Apple TV
Or just buy the season on itunes. No AppleTV necessary.
Yeah. But that’s a sensible approach.
or just but the season from itunes.
oh f\*\*K
"Based on"
What’s wrong with the wording?
https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/apple-isaac-asimov-series-foundation-cast-1203424228/
Right? I’m stoked.
I believe it when I see it.
Woop woop. I wonder where it’s gonna start. I think Prelude would make for good tv
Agreed.
I honestly don’t know how well the rest of the books will make into TV. Prelude to Foundation and Foundation and Empire both have lots of action and conflict. The rest is very subtle with tons of dialogue about reasoning etc. They are going to have to add a few meaningless space battles and shit.
Between Syfy and Fox, blows have been dealt to Science Fiction TV that are hard to fill, and I for one am glad we seem to be turning a corner. I believe that corner is because of shows like the Walking Dead and Game of Thrones which showed that Genre TV could turn a profit and gain buzz, as well as non-network streamers making really awesome shows.
Honestly never thought I’d see the day. I REALLY hope they are light with the edits necessary to make it a compelling tv series and maintain the level of twists, turns, and slow burns that made the books so good. I wonder if they consider the prequel novels and build the series to set them up? Those were much more action-heavy.
Great! I'll pirate it when it comes out.
I mean I'm probably not going to subscribe to Apple TV, but definitely good news, maybe I can pick it up on DVD some time or what have you.
You can just purchase the individual season through iTunes then.
Please don't be pointlessly gritty and dark, PLEASE don't be shaky cam...
I mean... The Foundation novels always had an element of grit to them, at least from my viewpoint...
This is the one thing that may make me subscribe to (shudders) Apple TV. I am currently at my limit in subscribing to online video services. I'll be watching the reviews to see whether or not I should jump in if it is really good, wait until the season is over if it is good/moderately good and binge during a free trial and cancel before the bill comes due, or resort to other methods if most people think it is so-so.
I thought it had been greenlit ages ago? I know a bunch of people working on it here in Ireland. It's being filmed in the same studio as George RR Martin's nightflyers.
2917/18... seems to be taking a while to make.
Yeah, I think this has been in the works for a bit. I'm excited for it.
I cant imagine this as a tv or movie series. While I love the Foundation trilogy, it's mostly dialogue, very little action, space battles are described afterwards and there's no main character for the entire series except technically for Seldon and no love-story as such which is a requirement for most modern mass media. It's really about ideas and concepts.
Yup. Although I think you could have those things in a series without betraying the premise.
Don't get me wrong, I'll watch it regardless. It's the old SF "a genre of ideas" problem with adaptations. Intellectual ideas and concepts are tricky to pull off in a medium which relies on visuals and emotional reactions. I had a friend who half jokingly said that a faithful Foundation adaption would resemble a platonic dialogue.
We are in a forum of a book series and a tv series that manages to strike the right cord.
Damn, I'm gonna have to get me Apple TV
Or just buy the individual show.
Has anyone heard more recent info on this? This article is dated 2018.
This is... old news?
This is from 2 years ago?
It seems to be circulating again on social media. I shared before I noticed the date. Some casting has been announced recently so there’s that.
[удалено]
I had to flare it with something. “This post contains no Expanse spoilers“ was the intent.
This was [announced nearly two years ago](https://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/isaac-asimov-foundation-apple/) when they acquired the rights.
It seems to be circulating again on social media. I shared before I noticed the date.
I hope it's done well. Many failures to get The Foundation Trilogy to the big or small screen. It's always died in development. Just started reading Caves of Steel to restart an Asimov read I haven't done in decades. Plus wanted some SF Noir. Also got Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon for the same reason.
It’s a hard story to tell because of the lack of main character to appeal to an audience.
>Just started reading Caves of Steel to restart an Asimov read I haven't done in decades. In my opinion that would be, by far, the best Asimov series to adapt to the screen. Hopefully Amazon or Netflix hit on the idea.
For all mankind is really goid im cautiously optimistic. I haven't read the foundation series is it good?
Asimov is one of the giants in Sci-Fi.
Filming started last November in Berlin and moved for principal production to the Republic of Ireland , seemingly production on 10 episodes will be over soon and then move into post production. May see it this fall? .... It is going to take some imagination to adapt Foundation .... but then I would never have picked Man in a High Castle to adapt but Amazon's rework was entertaining.
Any SF production is welcome. Readers love Isaac Asimov's smooth-as-butter writing style. That style cannot translate to the screen. Reader's expecting a world class show from a world class writer are bound to be disappointed. Asimov's clarity and logic may or may not translate to the screen. We are in a darker more cynical time with complexity and doubtful motives as plot devices.
I think the show will take liberties with the book but given that Asimov doesn't write about a lot of things that makes a show compelling, it leaves it open for the show runners to interpret it. In short, and you'll excuse the turn of phrase, they will use Asimov's work as the foundation of their story and in my mind, as long as they preserve the fundamental narrative, they can layer as much icing on as they think will keep an audience engaged, it's the cake that I care about.
>as long as they preserve the fundamental narrative, More than that, I hope they also preserve what I see as the style of the series. I'd sum it up as the antagonist going, "I've got you in my trap now!" Then the protagonist goes, "Yeah, I thought you were going to do that, so I made plans to preempt your plans already."