AppleTV+ launches in less than a month and while it’ll start with a bang, the future of the streaming service is also ridiculously exciting. There will be a lot of fun, exciting and well-financed projects coming from Apple in the months and years ahead, including an adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s classic Foundation book series. While we have known for awhile that Apple and show runner David Goyer were tackling the sprawling books, we didn’t know who would star. Well, now we do and once again Apple isn’t letting us down.
Lee Pace and Jared Harris will lead the upcoming series, with Pace portraying Brother Day, the current emperor of the galaxy and Harris playing Hari Seldon, a genius who predicts the end of the universe and really kick-starts the whole series. The series is about a group of scientists and intellectuals who begin a generations-long quest to save the universe from itself.
The casting of Pace and Harris prove that, like the other projects in development for AppleTV+, this is being taken very seriously. They’re not the biggest names in Hollywood but both actors are solid, talented performers who have been turning in terrific work lately. Plus, they might not be as big as, say, Bradley Cooper or Chris Hemsworth but they’re not small potatoes either. These are two impressive picks for the show.
While the casting is already off to a promising start, I am still a little worried about the project resting in the hands of David Goyer. Goyer’s track record is unpredictable to say the least. He has been involved in some wonderful productions and some real stinkers too. Some of his writing projects, including Batman Begins, Dark City and Blade, are good but all of his directorial efforts are complete messes. If you ever feel brave you should sit down and watch his horror film The Unborn. It’s bad. It’s just…really, really bad. So I hope we are getting the good side of Goyer with Foundation because Asimov fans take this story very seriously. And rightfully so, it has become one of the standard bearers for the sci-fi genre. When talking about beloved science fiction books, the Foundation series is always near the top of any list. It’s not light work either, this is what people call heavy science fiction. But Apple is not afraid of tackling dense material. Hell, just look at their Terms and Conditions.
“For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. Only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future—a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save humanity, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire—both scientists and scholars—and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for future generations. He calls this sanctuary the Foundation.
But soon the fledgling Foundation finds itself at the mercy of corrupt warlords rising in the wake of the receding Empire. And mankind’s last best hope is faced with an agonizing choice: submit to the barbarians and live as slaves—or take a stand for freedom and risk total destruction.”