In April we learned that Apple was developing a drama series based on the "Foundation" book trilogy by Isaac Asimov. We're now learning that Apple has given the project a 10-episode straight-to-series order. 

Today Variety reports that "David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman are set as showrunners and executive producers. The series will revolve around 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.

Goyer is known for his work on 'The Dark Knight' and 'Batman Begins.' In TV he shepherded Starz's 'Da Vinci's Demons' and NBC's 'Constantine.' Friedman's credits include penning the scripts for the upcoming "Avatar" sequels. He was previously showrunner of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," which aired on Fox in 2008-2009."

Deadline who broke the story notes that "The series order completes an year-long journey for the project.

Its road to the screen has been very long. The trilogy had been tried numerous times as a feature film at Fox, Warner Bros. and then at Sony. Many top sci-fi writers have done scripts and found it daunting to constrict the sprawling saga to a feature film format. Most recently, HBO tried developing a series several years ago.

The project shows a new level of ambition for Apple's worldwide video programming team led by Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, which also has a space drama series from Ron Moore.

Originally published as a short story series in Astounding Magazine in 1942, Asimov's Foundation is the complex saga of humans scattered on planets throughout the galaxy, all living under the rule of the Galactic Empire. For more on this read the full Deadline report here.

As a side note: The term a "straight-to-series order" has been used in many of our reports about Apple Worldwide Video developments. What does the term actually mean? Check out this report to help you understand this new industry practice that Apple's new executive team is adopting to attract talent.

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