A new in-depth interview by the Hollywood Reporter with producer David Goyer, dives deep into many of his key projects past and future including 'Blade', 'The Dark knight,' 'The Tomorrow War', 'The Night House,' and future 'Sandman' and 'Foundation.' Obviously our interest in the report centered on Goyer's work on 'Foundation,' then new Sci-Fi series coming to Apple TV+ on September 24.

Hollywood Reporter James Hibberd noted in his report that writers have long struggled to adapt the sprawling sci-fi epic, but David S. Goyer was able to convince Apple executives to fund his series. Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy is many things: An epic sci-fi classic about the fall of the galaxy. A tale that spans 1,000 years and dozens of planets. A contemplation of mathematics and humanity’s ageless questions. What Foundation is not, however, is easy to adapt.

Since the 1990s, New Line, Sony and HBO have all tried to develop film adaptations of the ultra-complex trilogy, but to no avail.

So when David S. Goyer met with Apple TV executives about making Foundation into a series, he was ready.

"Apple asked me if I could pitch it in one sentence," Goyer told The Hollywood Reporter in a deep-dive career retrospective interview covering his past hits and future projects. "They sort of asked it laughingly. I said: ‘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.'"

So, a bit like Game of Thrones in space — but over a much, much longer time span.

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In adapting the seemingly unadaptable, Goyer determined there were a trio of problems others had faced along the way.

“There are three tricky aspects to Foundation that I think have tripped up all the other adaptations,” he said. “The first is that the story is supposed to span 1,000 years with all these massive time jumps — that’s hard to tell. It’s certainly hard to capsulize in a two- or three-hour film. The second aspect is, the books are kind of anthological. You’ll have a couple of short stories in the first book with main character Salvor Hardin, then you’ll jump forward a hundred years and there’ll be a different character.”

He continued, “The third thing is that they’re not particularly emotional; they’re books about ideas, about concepts. So a lot of the action happens off-screen.

Goyer has pitched the project as a potential 80-hour story spread across eight seasons. “No one knows if it will work, but I can say there’s definitely never been a show like it on TV before,” he said.

Q: The Foundation trailer looks incredible. Haven’t the big challenges of that story been that it’s concept-driven rather than character-driven, plus it spans so many years?

(Pulling his thick Foundation trilogy paperback off the shelf behind him that his father gave him, Goyer shows that it’s full of yellow highlights and Post-It notes.) There are three tricky aspects to Foundation that I think have tripped up all the other adaptations. The first is that the story is supposed to span 1,000 years with all these massive time jumps — that’s hard to tell. It’s certainly hard to capsulize in a two- or three-hour film. The second aspect is the books are kind of anthological. You’ll have a couple of short stories in the first book with main character Salvor Hardin, then you’ll jump forward a hundred years and there’ll be a different character. The third thing is that they’re not particularly emotional; they’re books about ideas, about concepts. So a lot of the action happens off-screen. In the books, the Empire, which is on 10,000 worlds, literally falls off-screen — like, it happens in between chapters. Obviously, that wasn’t going to work for a television show.

So without giving too much away, I figured out a way to have some of the characters extend their lifespans. About six characters will continue from season to season, from century to century. That way it becomes a half anthological, half continuing story. When Apple asked me if I could pitch it in one sentence —

Q: Apple actually asked you to pitch Foundation in single sentence?

They sort of asked it laughingly. I said: “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.” It’s a generational saga. But the anthological time element didn’t take me too long to figure out. What was [harder] to figure out was: How do I make the show emotional? Because the books aren’t particularly emotional and, in general with television, people watch for emotion. They want to fall in love with these characters. So I had to figure out ways of using Asimov’s themes and ideas, but internalizing them into the characters.

Q: How does the Apple series compare to when you were prepping Foundation as a feature film?

If I were to do it as features, even if it were a trilogy of large features, that would be about nine hours. I pitched this as eight seasons, so if it works out, I get 80 hours.

Q: I’ve read you suggesting that number before. What is Apple’s reaction to it?

No one knows if it will work, but I can say there’s definitely never been a show like it on TV before. It takes some big-ass swings. And Apple, by and large, went for it. We do very unusual things in the show. We use unusual structural things. They had some trepidation about the science of it all. [Apple TV+ chiefs] Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg had come from Sony, so they had done The Crown and Breaking Bad, and I remember what I said to them was: “Don’t note me on the science-fiction. I can handle the science fiction. Note me on the drama, note me on the characters, note me on their relationships. I’ll take care of the other crap.”

Q: How does its budget compare to some of the big features you’ve worked on?

It’s pretty up there. It was an ample budget. I will say this: On an average per hour, if you were to take two episodes and put them together, the budget is bigger than some of the movies I’ve done.

You could read the full in-depth interview with David Goyer on Hollywood Reporter here and here.

Archive: Apple TV News