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Asimov projects are hott
Eight years after his death, prolific
science-fiction author Isaac Asimov has suddenly arrived
as a hot Hollywood commodity, with screen deals for
his novels and short stories landing all over town.
A deal closed recently at Warner Bros. to adapt the
Asimov short story The Ugly Little Boy into a film.
The picture will be produced by Denise DiNovi and Demi
Moore as a starring vehicle for Moore.
In other recent deals, Fox has optioned Asimov’s
most popular novel series, Foundation, for Shekhar Kapur
(Elizabeth) to direct; Paramount is working on turning
End Of Eternity into a film that Ridley Scott (Gladiator)
will likely direct from a script by Total Recall co-writer
Gary Goldman; and Sony Pictures Family Entertainment
is developing into an animated film series Norby, The
Mixed Up Robot, a series of 10 children’s novels
that Asimov wrote with his wife Janet, who’ll act
as creative consultant. Most of the deals will be worth
seven-figure paydays if the films get made.
Asimov wrote more than 460 works in either book or short-story
form. While he wrote some non-fiction and mysteries,
his specialty was sci-fi, with futuristic stories that
were alien-free and high on pro-humanistic themes. His
work has influenced many prominent sci-fi filmmakers,
but Asimov action had been sparse. The most recent adaptation
was the Robin Williams picture Bicentennial Man.
Part of the reason was that Asimov’s sole passion
was his books and his family. He was hardly pushy about
getting his works adapted, known to grant film options
for as little as $50.
The catalyst for the surge in screen activity is that
Asimov’s estate is now represented by Created By,
a partnership created 1-1/2 years ago by Vince Gerardis
and Ralph Vicinanza, who currently handle the screen
rights of about 200 major sci-fi, fantasy and horror
authors.
The Ugly Little Boy, the most recent deal, is a time-travel
drama that would star Moore as a nurse, whose empty
life is filled with an unusual patient, a Neanderthal
boy brought forward in time, temporarily by scientists
trying to discover what sparks human evolution. The
nurse’s bond with her patient turns out to be a
pivotal component.
Fox is tackling Foundation, an eight-book series whose
first installment was published in 1951 and has sold
20 million copies, making it one of the biggest selling
sci-fi series of all time. The series focuses on how
the future human race is put on autopilot by a scientist,
who has mathematically mapped out exactly how the world
will run — a programme that goes awry upon the
unpredicted arrival of an evil mutant bent on conquering
the universe. Attempts have been made to adapt the series
before, but Fox has found a helmer in Kapur who believes
the sprawling tale can be boiled down into a feature
film. “I’ve been an avid reader of Asimov
since I was a child and always dreamed of making the
great science-fiction film, and only recently wondered
why nobody has made a film of Foundation,” said
Kapur. The director turns the evil conqueror into an
anti-hero, who fights his own destiny to become a “prophet
of love.”
End Of Eternity is a love story set against a sci-fi
action backdrop and will be scripted by the sci-fi vet
Goldman.
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