Roland Emmerich has a reputation as one of the most disastrous directors in the business, given his work on numerous end of the world flicks such as “Independence Day”, “The Day After Tomorrow” and “2012”, but it looks as if the filmmaker is tiring of such blockbusters. His next two films are set to move away from the tried and tested formula, the first being “Anonymous”, a political thriller set in the Elizabethan era, while the second looks likely to be a much coveted project, an adaptation Isaac Asimov’s seminal “Foundation” science fiction saga.
“We’ve got a script from Robert Rodal now and it’s two hundred and forty pages long,” he told Empire magazine. “I said “You know what, guys? Edit it down to at least under two hundred pages!” Of course, it will be no mean feat to turn a seven book series into one film, but Emmerich is convinced he can pull it off. “I’m really into it,” he says. “I worked with Bob on the story for weeks, sitting in a room trying to figure out how to make all the loose stories (work) and put them in a box called “Foundation”. Bob’s perfect for this thing – he also knows as a writer he has to find the hero and a bad guy in the piece. We had to come up with characters that go through (all the stories in the series), which is very hard.”
He admits that previous Asimov adaptations have fallen flat, but hopes to avoid that with “Foundation”. “”I, Robot” as a book was so much more than it was as a film, and I think, because of that, fans were very disappointed. I don’t want to repeat that disappointment.”
