Fans of Isaac Asimov still haunted by the film adaptation of “I, Robot” will get their chance to wipe it from their memory banks: a movie version of Asimov’s “Foundation” novels is in the works, Variety reported. On Thursday, Columbia Pictures won a three-way auction for film rights to Asimov’s science-fiction epic, whose first volume concerns a mathematician put on trial after predicting the collapse of his civilization. Columbia, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, beat Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox for the rights. The studio plans to develop the film for Roland Emmerich, the director of the cataclysmic sci-fi movies “Independence Day” and “The Day After Tomorrow.” Financial terms were not disclosed, and a release date for the film was not announced.



BONUS: Paul Krugman explains how the “Foundation” novels convinced him to become an economist at his Conscience of a Liberal blog.