The long-gestating TV development looking for a possible series pick-up of Isaac Asimov's sprawling science fiction saga, Foundation, has finally found a home Apple.
In 2014 HBO and Warner Bros. TV tried to work together to bring the groundbreaking and massive science fiction saga of Isaac Asimov's Foundation book series to television which would have been written and produced by Jonathan Nolan - but nothing came of it.
For years - just like with George R.R. Martin's sprawling fantasy Game of Thrones series, J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (now to be made into an at least 5 season series by Amazon), and George Lucas' Star Wars as a possible TV series (now to be made a TV drama series by Disney), Asimov's Foundation was considered simply too big and complex in scope to be made into a TV series given budget and special effect constraints.
But no more. As premium broadcasters and streaming services are upping the ante on each other and splurging on mega TV projects in the medium's Peak TV era, all of those formerly "undoable" are now being chased and produced for the viewership, subscriber growth and revenue, prestige, and reams of press coverage they bring in.
Now Apple has grabbed a TV series adaptation of Foundation that will be produced by Skydance Television, with Apple that has given Skydance a development deal for a possible straight-to-series Foundation pick-up.
David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman will be the executive producers and showrunners of Foundation, with David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Marcy Ross who will also be executive producers.
Skydance Television is also responsible for the first season of Altered Carbon that became available on Netflix and Netflix South Africa last month.
The fascinating Foundation story is set far into mankind's future when humanity has spread out across the galaxy inhabiting millions of worlds (without ever finding extra-terrestrial life) spans across several millenia and dozens of characters.
Mathematician Hari Seldon invents psychohistory which can broadly "predict" human behaviour and behavioural patters on a massive scale, and he constructs a plan to shorten the predicted new "dark age" of the Galactic Empire by setting up the "Foundation".
The mesmerising story, filled with major twists and dramatic, unexpected turns, concludes with a few books detailing a highly adventurous journey of an intrepid group trying to find the origins of humanity, apparently a place called Earth.
