Columbia has won to rights to develop a big screen version of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series of books, which director Roland (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow) Emmerich will develop, reports Variety . The series is a sprawling, centuries-spanning epic about the fall of one great Galactic Empire and the rise of another. A scientist, who devises a means of predicting the future, develops two Foundations at opposite ends of the galaxy, which hold libraries of all human knowledge in the hope that they can help shorten the period of barbarism between the two empires. The books are very episodic and full of great ideas rather than great plotting, so expect some major rewriting for the cinematic version. But wouldn’t it be great if they could use those wonderful Chris Fosse cover illustration as a starting point for the production design?
