Isaac Asimov hasn’t exactly had the best treatment in Hollywood’s hands. While I, Robot may be an enjoyable little sci-fi flick, it’s pretty far from the cool concept behind Asimov’s short story collection. The studios are trying again though, this time targeting another one of Asimov’s collections: the Foundation series.

Columbia Pictures has won the rights to develop Asimov’s Foundation trilogy into a film. The series of stories collects together the knowledge of mankind when a psycho-historian predicts the collapse of the Galactic Empire that rules over humanity. The story will be put on the hands of Roland Emmerich who, let’s face it, is pretty darn good at destroying humanity (ID4, The Day After Tomorrow, etc).

The Variety article that announces Columbia’s victory at auction lays out a complex history of this project that includes numerous studios and hands, including Alex Proyas, who was the one-time favorite for directing the project under Warner Brothers, where Foundation was previously housed. Unfortunately, the project had initially been developed at Fox, who wanted payment for development costs, which had the potential to turn this into another Watchmen type situation. Warner Brothers wound up letting the option lapse, hoping to acquire a new deal when the rights went up for auction. Instead, Columbia became a surprise bidder and wound up taking the rights for Emmerich to direct.

I have to admit, I'm not as familiar with the Foundation series as I was with Asimov's Robot stories. I just hope Emmerich gives this project a bit more respect than just creating another Will Smith blockbuster.