Foundation | |
---|---|
Genre | |
Created by | |
Based on | Foundation by Isaac Asimov |
Starring |
|
Composer | Bear McCreary |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 3 |
Production | |
Executive producers |
|
Running time | 49–69 minutes |
Production companies |
|
Distributor | Apple Inc. |
Release | |
Original network | Apple TV+ |
Picture format | |
Audio format | Dolby Atmos |
Original release | September 24, 2021 present | –
External links | |
Website |
Foundation is an American science fiction drama television series created by David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman for Apple TV+, based on the Foundation series of stories by Isaac Asimov. Foundation premiered on September 24, 2021.[1]
Foundation chronicles "...the thousand year saga of The Foundation, a band of exiles who discover that the only way to save the Galactic Empire from destruction is to defy it."[2]
On June 27, 2017, it was reported that Skydance Television was developing a television series adaptation of Isaac Asimov's science fiction book series Foundation with David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman serving as the production's writers. At the time of the report, the production company was in the midst of closing a deal with Asimov's estate for the rights to the book series.[5] On April 10, 2018, it was announced that Apple, through their Worldwide Video Unit, had bought the series and put it into development with the potential for straight-to-series order. It was further announced that Goyer and Friedman were also expected to serve as executive producers and showrunners. Other executive producers announced included David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Marcy Ross.[6]
On August 23, 2018, it was announced that Apple had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of ten episodes. It was also announced that Asimov's daughter, Robyn Asimov, would serve as an executive producer.[2] On April 18, 2019, Josh Friedman left as co-writer and co-showrunner.[7] On July 28, 2019, it was revealed that Troy Studios in Limerick, Ireland, would host production of the show.[8] According to Screen Ireland the series would create more than 500 production jobs at the studio.[9] Asimov's daughter, Robyn Asimov, provides familial assistance to the series.[10] Goyer pitched the series in one sentence: "It’s a 1,000-year chess game between Hari Seldon and the Empire, and all the characters in between are the pawns, but some of the pawns over the course of this saga end up becoming kings and queens."[11]
In January 2021, Goyer stated "with Foundation we can tell the story, hopefully, over the course of eighty episodes; eighty hours, as opposed to trying to condense it all into two or three hours for a single film".[12] Goyer said that this format might not succeed, but if it did it would be unique.[11] David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman were set as the production's writers; however, Friedman left as co-writer in April 2019.[5][7] Goyer also noted that telling a story that took place over 1,000 years was something a film could not accomplish and would have been a harder story to tell in that format.[11]
On October 22, 2019, it was announced that Lee Pace and Jared Harris were cast as Brother Day and Hari Seldon, respectively.[13] On December 4, 2019, five additional cast members were announced: Lou Llobell stars as Gaal, a mathematical genius from a rural, repressed planet. Leah Harvey as Salvor, the protective and intuitive warden of a remote outer planet. Laura Birn stars as Eto Demerzel, the enigmatic aide to the Emperor of the Galaxy. Terrence Mann stars as Brother Dusk, the eldest living member of the ruling family. Cassian Bilton plays Brother Dawn, the youngest living member of the ruling family and next in line to be Brother Day.[14] In a June 2021 trailer, Alfred Enoch was revealed as part of the cast.[15] New characters Brother Day, Brother Dusk, and Brother Dawn are original characters created for the series. Each is a different-aged clone in the "genetic dynasty" of the Emperor Cleon I: the youngest clone is called Dawn, the middle clone and reigning emperor is called Day, and the emperor emeritus is called Dusk.[16]
On March 12, 2020, Apple suspended production of the show in Ireland due to COVID-19.[17] On October 6, filming was resumed.[18] On January 27, 2021, Goyer announced that after quarantining and receiving special waivers from the government of Malta, cast and crew members were allowed to start filming on the island. Goyer noted, filming was always planned to be conducted in Malta; however, due to new restrictions imposed in London, they moved significant portions of production to Malta.[12] Filming in Malta concluded in February 2021.[19] Filming in Tuineje, Fuerteventura was already wrapped by March 2021.[20] The production team worked in volcanic landscapes such as the Caldera de los Arrabales and Granja de Pozo Negro.[21] The production team then moved to Tenerife, where filming resumed on March 22, 2021.[22] Filming concluded in April 2021 after 19 months.[23]
No. | Title [24] | Directed by | Written by [24] | Original release date [25] | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "The Emperor's Peace" | Rupert Sanders | David S. Goyer & Josh Friedman | September 24, 2021 | |
The prodigy Gaal Dornick travels from her academically-repressive homeworld of Synnax to Trantor, capital of the Galactic Empire, to study under the famed Hari Seldon, the creator of the predictive mathematical subfield of psychohistory, as a reward for solving a centuries-old conjecture. They are both arrested on charges of treason; Seldon because his model predicts the imminent collapse of the Empire due in part to the stagnation caused by generations of rule by clones of Emperor Cleon I, and Dornick because the Empire wants her to discredit psychohistory. Dornick instead confirms Seldon's model during his trial and condemns them both, but they are spared by Brother Day (Emperor Cleon XII) after the Starbridge, Trantor's space elevator, is destroyed by apparent terrorists from the feuding Periphery kingdoms of Anacreon and Thespis. Brother Day exiles Seldon and Dornick to the Periphery world of Terminus, where they are to build the "Foundation", a repository of human knowledge that Seldon claims will shorten the dark age that will follow the Empire's demise. | |||||
2 | "Preparing to Live" | Andrew Bernstein | Josh Friedman & David S. Goyer | September 24, 2021 | |
Seldon and his followers proceed to Terminus aboard a slow starship and prepare for their new lives on the barren world. Dornick reveals to her lover, Seldon's adopted son Raych, that the psychohistory model is incomplete, alarming him. One night, Dornick finds Raych fatally stabbing Seldon in his quarters. Raych then ushers the incredulous Dornick into an escape pod and jettisons her from the ship. Meanwhile, the Empire investigates the Starbridge attack, but is unable to identify its mastermind, or conclusively attribute it to Seldon or the governments of Anacreon and Thespis. Despite Brother Dusk (Cleon XI) urging that the detained delegations from the two kingdoms should be granted clemency, Brother Day opts for a public execution of all delegates except the two ambassadors, simultaneous with orbital bombardments of their homeworlds. | |||||
3 | "The Mathematician's Ghost" | Alex Graves | Olivia Purnell | October 1, 2021 | |
Nineteen years after the Starbridge attack, the genetic dynasty of Cleon I undertakes its traditional transfer of power: Cleon XIV is born as the new Brother Dawn, Cleon XIII is elevated as Brother Day, Cleon XII retires as Brother Dusk, and Cleon XI assumes the mantle of Brother Darkness before being euthanized. Seventeen years later, Seldon's followers arrive at Terminus and discover the Vault, an enigmatic artifact guarded by a "null field" that repels all life. In the present day, the Foundation is well-established and Salvor Hardin, a second-generation colonist, serves as Warden of Terminus. Hardin is troubled by the sudden expansion of the Vault's null field, but a larger crisis looms as three Anacreon warships appear in Terminus's skies without warning. In the hours before the ships' arrival, Hardin chases a child into the scuttled colony ship and finds herself surrounded by an Anacreon landing party. | |||||
4 | "Barbarians at the Gate" | TBA | Lauren Bello | October 8, 2021 | |
5 | "Upon Awakening" | TBA | Leigh Dana Jackson | October 15, 2021 | |
6 | "Death and the Maiden" | TBA | Marcus Gardley | October 22, 2021 | |
7 | "Mysteries and Martyrs" | TBA | Caitlin Saunders | October 29, 2021 | |
8 | "The Missing Piece" | TBA | Sarah Nolen | November 5, 2021 | |
9 | "The First Crisis" | TBA | Victoria Morrow | November 12, 2021 | |
10 | "The Leap" | TBA | David S. Goyer | November 19, 2021 |
On June 22, 2020, as part of its Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple released a teaser trailer for the series.[26] In February 2021, it was reported that the series would premiere in late 2021.[27] In June 2021, Apple announced that Foundation would premiere in September 2021.[28] Later that month, Apple released a second official trailer and confirmed the premiere date as September 24, 2021. The series premiered with a two-episode release,[1] with the remaining eight episodes scheduled to be released weekly.[29]
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 75% approval rating with an average rating of 7.3/10, based on 63 reviews for the first season. The website's critical consensus reads, "Foundation's big-budget production and impressive performances are a sight to behold, but it struggles to wrangle the behemoth that is its source material into a fully satisfying series."[30] Metacritic gave the first season a weighted average score of 63 out of 100 based on 22 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[31]
Presented content of the Wikipedia article was extracted in 2021-10-01 based on https://en.wikipedia.org/?curid=58242674