Apple TV+ Picked up David Goyer’s ‘Foundation’ After a One Sentence Pitch

Foundation Apple TV+

Apple TV+ asked David Goyer to pitch his series adaptation of Issac Asimov’s sci-fi novel Foundation in just a single sentence. And it worked. The filmmaker made the revelation in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

Single Sentence Pitch for ‘Foundation’ on Apple TV+

The is the sentence Mr. Goyer said he used as the pitch:

It’s a 1,000-year chess game between Hari Seldon and the Empire, and all the characters in between are the pawns, but some of the pawns over the course of this saga end up becoming kings and queens.

He explained that he “had to figure out ways of using Asimov’s themes and ideas, but internalizing them into the characters.” Actors will continue to play characters that appear hundreds of years apart to keep familiarity and build the idea of a “genetic dynasty,” he said. “Even though we’ll jump forward sometimes between seasons and these will technically be different characters, these three guys have the same face.”

Mr. Goyer also reiterated that he planned eight seasons of Foundation. “I pitched this as eight seasons,” he said, “so if it works out, I get 80 hours.” He added that while the show is on a different scale to much of what we’ve seen go before “Apple, by and large, went for it.” However, Apple TV+ chiefs Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg “had some trepidation about the science of it all.”

Foundation will premiere on Apple TV+ on September 24.

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