Apple orders TV adaptation of Asimov’s ‘Foundation’
ONE OF the best-known science fiction novels of all time is being developed into a TV series, with the daughter of its Jewish author serving as an executive producer.
Apple has ordered ten episodes of a series based on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation from Skydance Television, a firm that made a deal with the Asimov estate last year.
The novel is the first book in the Foundation series, which won the Hugo Award in 1966 for Best All-time Series, beating competitors including Lord of the Rings. It tells the story of the decline and fall of an all-embracing galactic empire, and the creation of a mysterious Foundation on the periphery of civilisation.
There have been a number of attempts to adapt the classic science fiction series for both the big and small screens, most recently by HBO.
The show is one of a number ordered by Apple, which plans to enter the streaming market and compete with companies including Netflix, Amazon and Disney.
The showrunners will be David S. Goyer, whose credits include The Dark Knight and Man of Steel, and Josh Friedman, who adapted HG Wells’s War of the Worlds for the big screen with Steven Spielberg. Other executive producers include Asimov’s daughter Robyn.
A professor of biochemistry at Boston University, Isaac Asimov wrote or edited more than 500 books during his lifetime, the most famous being his Foundation novels and his Robot stories, in which he laid out the three laws of robotics that have become well-known in popular culture.
Apple has not yet announced a timescale for the series’ production.