Apple Developing Drama Series Based on Isaac Asimov’s Novel “Foundation”

Apple has started working on a straight-to-series TV adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s science fiction novel trilogy “Foundation”, that tells the story of humans scattered on planets throughout the galaxy, Deadline is reporting.

The Cupertino tech giant is working on the Skydance Television project with David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman, who will co-write, executive produce and serve as showrunners on the drama.

For those who aren’t familiar, the Foundation book trilogy takes place in a time when the Milky Way is under the control of the Galactic Empire. A mathematician named Hari Seldon develops a method to predict the fall of the empire, leading him to form a group known as The Foundation to preserve and build on human knowledge and speed the rise of a new empire.

“Even the Game of Thrones‘ creative team would marvel at the number of empires that rise and fall in Foundation. Asimov’s trilogy has been tried numerous times as a feature film at Fox, Warner Bros (with Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, who greenlit The Lord of the Rings), and then at Sony with Independence Day director Roland Emmerich. Many top sci-fi writers have done scripts and found it daunting to constrict the sprawling saga to a feature film format.”

Apple has already given out several straight-to-series orders to date, including a morning show drama from Jennifer Anniston and Reese Witherspoon, an untitled M. Night Shyamalan thriller, and a reboot of “Amazing Stories” from Steven Spielberg.