Asimov’s foundation.
- Thread starter Frizzy
- Start date
Jim Audiomisc
pfm Member
Completely agree. Some PFH Is right up there but too many misfires and a bit more gung ho without the deeper concepts/thought.
I have the Banks shelf (with one fellow genius interloper)
And the rest of them shelves
I wouldn't be able to find anything if my shelves of SF weren't alphabetical by author, and by date for magazines in the cupboards! Have a fair number of the old Analog/Astounding issues, plus old Ted Carnell 'New Worlds' for the UK, and an assortment of other US mags from the distant past.
That said, the shelves of paperbacks are 'double banked' with some book series as a lift for the back sets. So I can try to find items there even when most of the spine is hidden. You can collect a lot of books if you have 60 years to do it.
There are still old books I'd like to find, though. e.g. the 'Malone' books that have a character kept in hospital who thinks she is Queen Elizabeth the 1st but is telepathic, etc, and thus useful to the security services. They're quite entertaining.
iansr
pfm Member
I’ve been reading SF for more than 50 years. Read lots of great stuff and plenty of mediocre stuff as well. I remember thinking Up The Line by Silverberg would make a great film - I also remember thinking, this is the best time travel novel I’ve ever read. I must re-read it as its so long since I’ve read it that I will not remember any of the plot. Very much looking forward to seeing Dune tomorrow on a XL screen.
Hans Zimmer, whose music I find intrusive and noisy these days, but he reined in the noise levels here: apparently he’s a big fan of the source material (he turned down the big-budget Tenet so he could score this film), so he might have put a little more effort into doing this film than some of his more recent work.
I went yesterday with my wife, who has never read the books — never heard of them, actually, and she got every bit of it, although didn’t remember any of the names exactly. She could totally see where the ideas for Star Wars came from.
I’ve read the book, and I thought it was a good adaptation of that, but it also pulled off the harder, and more important, job of being a good film in its own right. As an aside, I found it refreshing to see characters in a sci-fi film not wisecracking their way through life-and-death situations.
alanbeeb
pfm Member
I am surprised. I have often found anything by Hans Zimmer is full of plagiarism and OTT. He seems to be omnipresent.... he did the Bond movie too.
Such a shame Jóhann Jóhannsson is no longer with us. His music for Villeneuve's Arrival was impressive in a non-distracting way.
Jezzer
Unspecified
Dune Part 2 officially gets the green light!
https://variety.com/2021/film/news/dune-part-2-sequel-1235094974/amp/
https://variety.com/2021/film/news/dune-part-2-sequel-1235094974/amp/
stephen bennett
Mr Enigma
I’ve just seen the new Dune and it’s a pretty faithful rendition of the books. I felt that if the makers of Foundation had produced it they’d have sidelined spice, ignored the quasi religious elements, made the emperor immortal and concentrated on the love affairs and the battles between the houses. The worms would come along later and make no sense. If it’s possible to condense a complex book into six hours, surely Foundation’s creators could have attempted to make a series or two that actually reflected the author’s work?
Someone brought a baby to the cinema. Good grief.
Stephen
Someone brought a baby to the cinema. Good grief.
Stephen
stephen bennett
Mr Enigma
Funnily enough, I’ve just read The Paradox Men by Charles L Harness. This novel from 1953 has a personal shield that can be penetrated only by slow moving blades. It’s also directly based on Arnold Toynbee’s historical and philosophic work. Worth a read.
Stephen
stephen bennett
Mr Enigma
I was thinking during the movie how much fun (some) film music must be to make. You don’t need to worry about originality at all. Got a vaguely Arabic scene? Get out the Duduk, wailing voices and African drums. For the rest, just change a few notes of Carmina Burana, The Planets or New Word Symphony and you’re done. Just make it really loud.
Actually the best musical bit in the film was the massed bagpipes-and I’m not joking.
Stephen
stephen bennett
Mr Enigma
It's pretty obvious by now that Foundation really is just another relatively low-grade SF series, albeit a good looking one.
It's annoying me now that it's supposedly 'based on' Asimov's books, because it's not really. Just mentioning the author's ideas and concepts mean not a jot if you are going to ignore the central concepts of the work. 98% of the TV series is exposition about spaceships, battles, revenge, violence and love affairs—the stuff Asimov isn't interested it at all.
And what that means is that we'll probably never get a 'proper adaptation' of the books.
I'm not a big fan of Denis Villeneuve's work, post-Arrival. But seeing what he's done with Dune, I so wish he had the opportunity to have a go at Asimov.
Stephen
It's annoying me now that it's supposedly 'based on' Asimov's books, because it's not really. Just mentioning the author's ideas and concepts mean not a jot if you are going to ignore the central concepts of the work. 98% of the TV series is exposition about spaceships, battles, revenge, violence and love affairs—the stuff Asimov isn't interested it at all.
And what that means is that we'll probably never get a 'proper adaptation' of the books.
I'm not a big fan of Denis Villeneuve's work, post-Arrival. But seeing what he's done with Dune, I so wish he had the opportunity to have a go at Asimov.
Stephen
narabdela
who?
I doubt if a 'proper adaptation' would ever really be possible. There's just not enough dialogue/action which could be wrestled into a workable script that would tempt serious studio investment.
I agree that what we've got isn't Asimov, but even allowing for the cheesiness(?), I'm quite enjoying it.
stephen bennett
Mr Enigma
I started to realise that, if you strip out the Asimov references, the whole thing is a total mess.
I'm not sure about this 'un filmability' trope. Dune is pretty action-light. And there's plenty of dialogue! The most difficult part would be the 'span' over which the story unfolds—which they have tackled in the series by noticing what an anagram of Cleon is!
I would have used the Robot storyline as a thread that runs through the series, but follow the book's timeline.
But of course,TV series needs characters who are there all the way through.
The Apple TV series is just a really, really unambitious as a story. Disappointing.
Stephen
Martian Sunrise
pfm Member
a proper adaptation would just be two blokes in a room talking for eight hours
stephen bennett
Mr Enigma
Bliss. They could be any gender or background though.
Seriously, there is plenty of potential for action and spectacle.
But Asimov's characters don't solve problems by shooting or running or Karate. How radical.
I'd probably lose the whole bit about white goods.
But with a bit of imagination I could think of some technologies that, if the Government removed, might cause civil unrest!
Stephen