Apple’s upcoming adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy has found its leads! Variety has reported that Lee Pace (The Hobbit, Halt and Catch Fire) will star as “Brother Day, the current Emperor of the Galaxy,” while Jared Harris (Mad Men, The Terror) will play Hari Seldon, “a mathematical genius who predicts the demise of the empire.”
In case you’ve yet to read it, here’s the book series’ synopsis, from the Barnes & Noble Collectible Edition:
A landmark of science fiction’s “Golden Age,” Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy–which comprises the novels Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation–has long been regarded a visionary masterpiece whose astonishing historical scope perfectly conveys science fiction’s sense of wonder. First published as a cycle of stories in the 1940s and ’50s, Asimov’s iconic trilogy has endured to become, like the author himself, a legend of science fiction.
Set in the far future, Foundation envisions a Galactic Empire that has thrived for 12,000 years, but whose decline into an age of barbarism lasting some thirty millennia is imminent–if the predictions of renegade psycho-historian Hari Seldon are accurate. Hoping to shorten the interval of this impending new Dark Age, Seldon convinces the Empire’s Commission of Public Safety to allow him enact a diversionary plan–one full of surprising subterfuges and intrigues intended to create and protect a Foundation on which the future Empire will be erected.
Foundation and Empire advances the story farther into the future, in which a technologically advanced Foundation triumphs over attacking forces of the collapsing Empire. Yet even as the Foundation emerges valiantly, in fulfillment of Hari Seldon’s scheme, at the far corners of the Empire a powerful mutant, whose existence was never accounted for in Seldon’s projections, emerges to overwhelm the Foundation and establish his own tyrannical version of the Empire.
In Second Foundation, a new Second Foundation, whose whereabouts have been kept secret from the original Foundation for safety’s sake, asserts itself as the true fulfillment of Hari Seldon’s plans for the Empire–and thereby pits itself against a Foundation resentful of its usurped authority.
According to Variety, David S. Goyer will act as showrunner for the Foundation series. He’ll also executive produce alongside Josh Friedman, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Marcy Ross, and Robyn Asimov, the late sci-fi writer’s daughter. Skydance Television will be the production studio, and according to IMDb, the series will have 10 episodes.
There’s no word yet on a release date, production schedule, or any plot details.
So…this is also going to use some of the prequel novels, I assume? Mostly because although it’s been a while since I’ve actually read Foundation, from what I recall, Hari Seldon was really not that present in the titular novel. (hologram Hari, yes!!) And I don’t remember the Emperor being in the novel at all!! (Especially not one named Brother Day – perhaps my memory really has finally failed me).
Now if we’re talking Prelude to Foundation…that’s much more Hari-centric. But doesn’t sound like that’s what they’re going for here. And as for Forward the Foundation, I really didn’t enjoy that much, but that book actually sounds like it’s going to be closer to this series…
I am excited though and slightly optimistic. :) Hope they can capture the feel/tone of Asimov….
Jared Harris is marvelous in every role he plays. Looking forward to this.
I agree that having these characters lead the show is weird. I’ve only read the trilogy, but it sounds like they are focusing on prior events. Maybe they don’t think people will tune in if they think it will focus on events prior to the trilogy and the second season will focus on the first book.
Sounds great. But who are the Chefs?
#thegreatsheldon
“Brother Day”? I don’t catch the reference there at all.
“Hari Sheldon”? I hope that’s a typo, though if it’s a good adaptation a name tweak can be forgiven.
Typo corrected, thanks.
It’s been a while since I read these (although I remember being wowed by them as a kid) but in my mind these books just seem unfilmable, given the span of history and everything needed to do justice to the story. But the same thing was said about GoT so I guess we’ll see…
I dunno — there’s a part of me that thinks that this really should’ve been filmed as a 1980s BBC miniseries with Doctor Who/HItchhiker’s-level effects. I love the books, but they’re mostly people sitting in beige rooms talking to each other, which would’ve been well within the aesthetic of the time. Just add a few scenes where they run through that one quarry past that one rocky outcropping.
(Edited to say: I love the original trilogy, was OK with Foundation’s Edge/Foundation & Earth, and was not that enthused about the Asimov-authored prequel novels where Hari Seldon was actually running around like Ethan Hunt.)