{"id":6342,"date":"2009-10-28T15:28:25","date_gmt":"2009-10-28T14:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=6342"},"modified":"2010-08-23T10:20:14","modified_gmt":"2010-08-23T09:20:14","slug":"laying-the-foundation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/news\/laying-the-foundation\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Emmerich to film Foundation in 3D?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"asimovfoundation\"<\/a>Roland Emmerich, the director of the upcoming adaptation of Isaac Asimov\u2019s classic Foundation series, has expressed an interest in using 3D technology pioneered by James Cameron for his take on the material.<\/p>\n

SciFiNow had the opportunity to speak exclusively to Emmerich at a recent press event for 2012, his latest science-fiction disaster film that hits cinemas in November of this year. As well as discussing his latest property, we also asked him about Foundation, a project near and dear to the heart of science-fiction fans everywhere, and the director revealed that although the studio would like the project underway as soon as possible, he wants to wait and see what happens with a few upcoming high-profile releases before committing to what form the film will take.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, Sony Pictures, which is the studio, want to have this as soon as possible,\u201d Emmerich told us on a recent Friday evening in central London. \u201cIt\u2019s a very big and ambitious project. I actually wanted to wait for Avatar, to see if the [3D] technology is already far advanced enough.\u201d The German-born director isn\u2019t the only one who is keen to see the results of the much-hyped outing for Cameron, who recently held a global event named \u2018Avatar Day\u2019 to screen 15 minutes worth of selected scenes to the public and press alike. Emmerich didn\u2019t attend. Cameron, however, isn\u2019t the only one who is investing in 3D. Ridley Scott\u2019s adaptation of The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (analysed in depth in the Library section of this month’s issue) will also reportedly be in 3D, and Emmerich is just as, if not more, excited to see what the venerable director will do with the technology as well, even if he remains reserved. \u201cYeah, he\u2019s doing The Forever War, which I always wanted to do, so it\u2019s a little bit tricky for how you make something like that. I\u2019m also really interested to see if Ridley Scott can solve the problem that 3D doesn\u2019t look very good, for me at least,\u201d he said in a typically candid moment. \u201cIt\u2019s not quite there yet, it\u2019s always too bland, it looks too far [in perspective], there\u2019s no atmosphere, and I know that Ridley will be more innovative when it comes to the look of the film than James Cameron will be, because he\u2019s more into the camera angles, and he\u2019ll know how to use the 3D effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next<\/strong>: Reservations, Rodat and recaps…<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"040521_emmerich_vmed_12p.widec\"<\/a>Talking to Emmerich about his plans for Foundation, you can\u2019t help but feel that he isn\u2019t particularly enthused about the technology. Reports from those who attended the Avatar screenings were also mixed between indifference and positive impressions, but perhaps the main problem underscoring the director\u2019s ambitions is that, for him, he just doesn\u2019t seem all that convinced by any of the material released so far. \u201cIn truth I\u2019m not really a big fan of 3D at all, that\u2019s my problem, and I know that I\u2019ll have to do a 3D movie one day, because the studio will ask for it. But I can always watch my 2D version and be happy, right? I\u2019m interested in how these two great directors will solve the problem. Or not solve it, of course. I\u2019ve been a little underwhelmed by the Avatar trailers so far, I have to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

In terms of the property itself, to 3D or not to 3D is the least of the director\u2019s worries. Foundation itself is a tough series to convert to the screen, at least without hours and hours of verbatim transposition due to its very nature as an epic, fragmented novel. Asimov\u2019s science-fiction saga spans 15 novels and dozens of short stories, as well as numerous novels written by other authors following the iconic master\u2019s death in 1992. For those who aren\u2019t familiar with the story, the premise follows a number of threads that centre on a philosopher and scientist named Hari Seldon, who spent his life developing a branch of mathematics known as psychohistory, which is used to accurately predict events in the future on a large scale using the behavioural predictability of large groups of people. Seldon predicts the fall of the vast Galactic Empire, and a dark age that will last tens of thousands of years until a second Empire arises. In order to shorten the length of time humanity will spend isolated and cut off from each other, he established two Foundations, which are styled as havens of knowledge. The original trilogy focuses on the Foundation on Terminus, which is building a galactic encyclopaedia, and will serve as a springboard for the next empire in 1,000 years as opposed to 30,000.<\/p>\n

Given such a wide-ranging storyline that covers hundreds of years, Foundation has long been grouped into the elite collection of literary titles that have been deemed unfilmable. Emmerich, however, believes that he and his scriptwriter, Robert Rodat, have found a solution. \u201cI\u2019m waiting every day for my script to arrive,\u201d Emmerich answers quickly. \u201cI worked very intensely with Bob Rodat, the scriptwriter of Saving Private Ryan and The Patriot \u2013 I worked with him on The Patriot \u2013 and he just had the best take on it. He read all the books four or five times, he knew every character, and he had a really good idea of how to solve it. Foundation is difficult, because Asimov wrote them as short stories for magazines like Amazing Stories, and because of that, only in the second or third book he started to realise that he\u2019s writing a science-fiction epic, so it\u2019s very, very hard. But we\u2019ve figured out a way to write this movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Emmerich refused to budge on what that formula was, his enthusiasm for the material shone through far more than his muted admission of possibly using 3D technology. \u201cI\u2019m really curious to see what Bob\u2019s come up with,\u201d he said simply, with a smile.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in the print edition of SciFiNow, issue 34. To buy a copy and read our full interview with Roland Emmerich, go to www.imagineshop.com<\/a>, or see your local newsagent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Director hints at depth of vision for Asimov’s classic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[1624,140,3],"tags":[213,240,1138,563,1139],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6342"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}