Last year, we reported to you that Sony Pictures is adapting Isaac Asimov’s classic Foundation trilogy for the big screen with Roland Emmerich (2012, The Day After Tomorrow) at the helm. The big news then on this project was Emmerich’s decision, coming high off of James Cameron’s Avatar, to shoot the film in 3D using CGI motion capture. Adapting this epic sci-fi series is an imposing feat in itself, but the reasoning for Emmerich’s decision for 3D was disheartening for a sci-fi classic as the Foundation trilogy:
“It has to be done all CG because I would not know how to shoot this thing in real, I think now everybody who does bigger movies has to shoot them in 3-D.
[Avatar has] just shown that if you do a movie in 3-D, you can ask for more money and that’s the trick.”
Putting Emmerich’s money-grubbin’ attitude aside for a moment, Deadline reports that Sony Pictures has tapped scribe Dante Harper to write the adaptation of Foundation. Harper’s notable sale had been his adaptation of the Hiroshi Sakurazaka novel, All You Need is Kill to Warner Bros Pictures last year. Harper had also had a hand in rewriting Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton with Doug Liman at the helm. Hansel & Gretel is also shot in 3D.
Foundation is not the only property of Asimov’s to be in development right now. Just last week, we reported to you that 20th Century Fox is developing a live-action adaptation of Asimov’s anti-robot murder mystery, The Caves of Steel with Henry Hobson directing and John Scott 3 writing the script.
