by Thinus Ferreira
Although the series will only be released in 2021 Apple TV+ has surprised viewers by releasing a first teaser of the upcoming science-fiction drama Foundation, based on Isaac Asimov's iconic book series.
Although production of the epic series filmed in Ireland by Skydance Television as that country's largest TV series ever, was shut down in mid-March because of the growing global Covid-19 pandemic, the series with showrunner and executive producer David S. Goyer has clearly done a lot of filming and post-production work already.
The 10-episode first season of Foundation is based on Isaac Asimov's seminal science fiction series about a mathematician in the far-flung future, when mankind has spread through the entire galaxy, predicting the fall of the Galactic Empire and setting up a way to limit the duration of the destruction to preserve humanity.
There are 6 books in the series with Foundation that was first published in 1951.
The official logline from Apple about Foundation is that "the series will revolve around the thousand year saga of the Foundation, a band of exiles who discover that the only way to save the Galactic Empire from destruction is to defy it".
Mathematician Hari Seldon invents psychohistory which can broadly "predict" human behaviour and behavioural patterns 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".
With this "predictability power" Hari, of course, becomes a threat to the galactic government that doesn't understand what he's trying to do, setting of sprawling interplanetary intrigue with a lot of surprising twists and characters who often are not who they initially appear to be.
In the teaser for the Apple Original, David S. Goyer gives a glimpse into the making of the epic saga, that stars 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.
"People have been trying to make Foundation for over fifty years," says David S. Goyer.
"Foundation was an enormous influence for Star Wars. It was the greatest science fiction work of all time. The story is sprawling, it unfolds over the course of a thousand years. If ever there were a company that was hoping to better people's lives through technology, through connectivity it's Apple. And that's something very much that Asimov was hoping to do."
