By April MacIntyre Jan 17, 2009, 21:11 GMT
Roland Emmerich will produce and direct an Isaac Asimov trilogy, "Foundation."
Roland Emmerich - Variety reports that Columbia won the screen rights to Asimov's complex science fiction saga. "Foundation" was published originally as eight short stories in Astounding Magazine beginning in 1942 © Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos
Variety reports that Columbia won the screen rights to Asimov's complex science fiction saga.
Emmerich and his Centropolis production house partner Michael Wimer will produce the film. Emmerich and Wimer just completed "2012" at Sony.
The feature's premise is about a diaspora of humans who are scattered throughout the galaxy, living under the rule of the Galactic Empire.
A prescient historian sees an imminent apocalyptic doom and sets to work preparing to save the knowledge of humankind.
Variety claims that this film development "owes at least a bit to the animosity between Warner Bros. and Fox over 'Watchmen.'"
According to Variety: The property, originally developed by Fox and producer Vince Gerardis, found its way to New Line, and then to Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne as the first major project announcement after the former heads of New Line formed Unique Pictures at WB.
Gerardis, whose Created By formerly repped the Asimov estate and who is producing an adaptation of Asimov's "The End of Eternity" at New Regency, was attached as producer. And Fox would have had to be compensated for its development costs. That became a problem for WB, and the studio allowed its option to lapse, expecting to quietly make a new deal with a clear chain of rights that would have left Fox and Gerardis on the outside.
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