Even the biggest fans of Roland Emmerich will have to admit that his movies are kind of, well, stupid. My apologies, but really: Godzilla, Stargate, The Day After Tomorrow, The Patriot, Independence Day ... 10,000 BC? Your entertainment value will vary on each flick -- but I'd contend that each one is dumber than a box of rocks. Expensive rocks, perhaps, but not particularly smart ones.

So what to make of this news: That Roland Emmerich is about to direct an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. Longtime fans of Asimov's work could probably describe it better than I, but for now we'll refer to Variety, a resource that's good at encapsulating huge synopses into paragraphs like this one: "Originally published as a series of eight short stories in Astounding Magazine beginning in 1942, Foundation is a complex saga about humans who are scattered on planets throughout the galaxy, living under the rule of the Galactic Empire. A psycho-historian who can scientifically read the future sees an imminent empire collapse, and sets to work preparing to save the knowledge of mankind."

Sounds good to me, sci-fi fans ... but then I remember all the other movies that Mr. Emmerich has directed, and I start wishing that Sony had given this franchise to, say, Ridley Scott. Or Peter Berg. Or anyone.