'Foundation' is Apple TV's answer to 'GoT': Details here
What's the story
Foundation is the latest lion-sized entrant into mainstream sci-fi entertainment, and Apple TV+ is banking its success on this "Autumn 2021" release. Apple has created quite a hype around this 80-episode TV series by saying last year that when the show begins production in Ireland, it will create over 500 jobs. It also pitched Foundation to be an apt answer to Game of Thrones.
Fact
TV series is based on Isaac Asimov's 1951 novel
"Game of Thrones was really the first of these big giant novelistic shows and you know now with Foundation we can tell the story, hopefully over the course of 80 episodes, 80 hours, as opposed to trying to condense it all into two or three hours for a single film," said showrunner David Goyer. Foundation is based on Isaac Asimov's 1951 eponymous novel.
Context
'Foundation was an enormous influence for Star Wars'
The trailer, released on June 22, 2020, begins with an interview excerpt of Goyer, where he says, "Foundation was an enormous influence for Star Wars." This sort of sets the level of expectation a viewer should have from the sci-fi series because well, Star Wars is a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon, which started way back in 1977 and is still extremely popular.
Civilization
Seldon, played by Jared Harris, creates a colony
The teaser trailer gives us a feel as epic as that of Dune, where we see Jared Harris of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, essay the role of scientist Hari Seldon, who founded the concept of psychohistory. This discipline can predict the future, and Seldon creates a colony of specially-abled individuals to safeguard all human knowledge to allow civilization to restart.
Expansion
Apple chooses bigger studio than 'GoT's in Ireland
Seldon's job is to reduce the civilization's inevitable chaos by shortening it to his maximum ability. And Apple's job is to create history with its current scale of production in Ireland, where GoT was filmed. Instead of shooting at the 106,000 sq.ft-wide Titanic Studios in Belfast where eight seasons of GoT were filmed, Apple TV+ is choosing the 350,000 sq.ft wide Troy Studios.
Information
Based on the fictional Galactic Empire, filming has started
The series is based on the fictional Galactic Empire, a futuristic re-imagination of ancient Rome, where a group defies the empire to protect it eventually. The first season will be exclusive to Apple TV+ with ten episodes. Filming has already started at Malta Film Studio.