Apple develops its most ambitious TV series yet: An adaptation of Asimov’s Foundation

There have been several attempts to adapt Foundation for the screen, but its scope—the story spans hundreds of years and seemingly innumerable societies and characters—has always proven a problem. Deadline recalls that Independence Day Director Roland Emmerich once explored the possibility of adapting it, as did producers at both Fox and Warner Bros, and that Westworld and Interstellar‘s Jonathan Nolan was in talks with HBO to adapt it as well.

Apple has not given a timeline for when the series will see the light of day, but it will likely be a while, as the process has only just begun. Apple has been hustling in Los Angeles out of its growing office in creative hub Culver City, California, to apply its more-than $1 billion content budget to sign filmmaking and TV producing talent to produce series for an upcoming TV streaming service expected to launch as early as next year. For the past several months, its aggressive efforts have been the talk of tinsel town, so to speak.

However, reports have suggested that the company’s rigid adherence to a family-friendly ethos has frustrated and turned away such talent as Gravity and Children of Men Director Alfonso Cuarón. It’s not clear at this point how Foundation fits into that story, but it’s worth noting that Apple had already greenlit a series from Battlestar Galactica reboot showrunner Ronald D. Moore, as well as a reboot of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories.