DESIGNING FOUNDATION

FOUNDATION PRODUCTION DESIGNER RORY CHEYNE REVEALS THE SECRETS OF BRINGING ISAAC ASIMOV'S SEMINAL SCI-FI SAGA TO LIFE

- TARA BENNETT

For decades, many a screenwriter and filmmaker found the task of adapting Isaac Asimov's Foundation novels for film - with their mind-bogglingly high concept sci-fi ideas and world-building - impossible to do. It took the advent of the latest golden age of television, with its big budgets and ambition, plus major advancements in visual effects, for David S Goyer to nail the assignment with his Apple TV+ series.

Production designer Rory Cheyne tells SFX that even before production was complete on the recent second season, he was already preparing for the third season, researching Goyer's locale, vehicle and set-piece needs.

However, he believes that it's going to take a lot to best what he and his team achieved in season two. Here he looks back at some of his favourite creations, with illustrations by him. 

COMBINING CREATIONS 

Foundation is teeming with so many entirely invented worlds, technologies and concepts, and it falls to Cheyne to translate all of it into a grounded reality. Three seasons into that process, he says "It was a challenge to get through season one and set this style. Now, it's getting easier to come up with these objects." Cheyne says that for season two, Goyer provided him a beat sheet of new and existing planets, environments, ships and key set-pieces needed for the narrative. "I have three piles: the spaceship pile, the built-set pile that are going to go into studio sets, and then the location pile. Some of those piles filter together.