I sat down for a fun interview with director Roland Emmerich today, here at San Diego Comic-Con to promote 2012 in theaters (November 13. 2009). The full video interview will be up soon, but during the interview, I asked Emmerich about his work on Asimov’s Foundation trilogy. Foundation fans will recall that not too long ago, Columbia won the rights for the trilogy of books with Emmerich attached to direct, which (as I wrote back in January), “centers around a mathematician named Hari Seldon, a psychohistorian who is able to predict large-scale events using scientific principles. When Seldon foresees the downfall of the Galactic Empire, which will precipitate a dark age lasting 30,000 years, he establishes two human oases (”Foundations”) in an effort to preserve human knowledge. Asimov’s series was considered groundbreaking and won a Hugo award in 1966.”

“As a kid I loved it,” Emmerich said of the books.  “I think everyone who is a science fiction fan has read that thing.” But Emmerich also revealed that several months ago, he hired Bob Rodat, writer of Saving Private Ryan and The Patriot, to work on the script.  Emmerich said, “He’s working on it and pretty soon, I will see the first script.” Overall, Emmerich opined, “It’s very difficult to make into a movie, but I think we’ve cracked it.”

Discuss: Do you think Rodat has the chops to adapt something as complex as Asimov’s book series?