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Thread: Feature Film version of 'Atlas Shrugged' finally begins production

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    Default Feature Film version of 'Atlas Shrugged' finally begins production

    I wouldn't count on many Oscar nominations, but the timing is highly 'coincidental'


    (snip)"Cameras roll on 'Atlas'
    Production ends 30-year trek to bring pic to screen
    By DAVE MCNARY

    The long-brewing feature version of author Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" has begun shooting in Los Angeles as a $5 million indie produced by John Aglialoro and Harmon Kaslow.

    Cameras began rolling over the weekend on a five-week shoot for "Atlas Shrugged Part One" with Paul Johansson directing from Brian Patrick O'Toole's script. Aglialoro would have lost the feature rights if the film wasn't in production by Saturday.

    A spokesman for Aglialoro -- the CEO of exercise equipment producer Cybex -- said there will be at least one more "Atlas Shrugged" shot after the current film's completed. Rand's massive novel is divided into three parts, each consisting of 10 chapters.

    "Atlas," published in 1957, takes place in a dystopian version of the U.S. in which society has collapsed as the government gains increasing control over industry. The decline occurs while the most productive citizens, led by John Galt, begin vanishing.

    Johansson ("One Tree Hill") portrays Galt. The lead role of railroad executive Dagny Taggart has gone to Taylor Schilling ("Mercy) and the part of Henry Reardon is being played by Grant Bowler ("Ugly Betty")."(snip)

    from

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    Default Re: Feature Film version of 'Atlas Shrugged' finally begins production

    Very interesting. This reminds me a tiny bit of Brazil.
    Quote Originally Posted by markx View Post
    I'd have to have a "4 simease twin strippers gave me head and then lite themselves on fire" story to blow anybody's mind here.

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    Default Re: Feature Film version of 'Atlas Shrugged' finally begins production

    Will be totally ignored by the Academy. I notice that no major name stars have gone for the main roles....not a surprise.

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    Default Re: Feature Film version of 'Atlas Shrugged' finally begins production

    ^^^ there had been an earlier ... and much higher budget ... effort to organize a MAJOR production of 'Atlas Shrugged' by Lion's Gate Films - with Angelina Jolie having signed on to the female lead role of Dagny. However, finacing for this big budget project fell apart soon after Obama took office ( pure coincidence of course )

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    Default Re: Feature Film version of 'Atlas Shrugged' finally begins production

    Wow, cannot see Jolie as Dagny. But Hollywood almost never does justice to the books anyway. This alone makes me think it will be a better film for having been produced independently.

    I wonder, when will the films be set? In the present or in the 50s?

    I would love to have a bit part asking 'Who is John Galt?'
    You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
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    Default Re: Feature Film version of 'Atlas Shrugged' finally begins production

    ^^^ according to , the script has been updated and set in the present day. From that perspective, it's understandable why 'top tier' Hollywood talent has backed away from such a project.

    I also agree that a total indie production will result in a better film ... or at least one that is more 'true' to Rand's principles. In the vast majority of cases, Hollywood treatment of 'non-liberal' subject matter ( most recently for example ) has been far from the 'truth'.

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    Default Re: Feature Film version of 'Atlas Shrugged' finally begins production

    What the hell, they stole the best line from the book already, for this new Angelina Jolie movie.

    'Who is Salt?'

    'Who is John Galt?' for the illiterate masses?

    That is either the most contrived attempt in entertainment history to fuck with a (theoretically) competing effort, or a remarkable coincidence, considering they were thinking of using Jolie for Dagny. Almost certainly coincidental, but I thought it was funny as hell.

    Hey did they ever come out with a film version of The Fountainhead? I actually liked that better as it was a bit more firmly grounded in reality. Atlas Shrugged was a better book overall until the end when it just got too fucking bizarre for me to take seriously. I like science fiction, but I prefer the type with exploding spaceships.

    She really lost me with her enormous golden dollar idol, too. Her version of Utopia, as described finally at the end there, would work about as well as something Marx (who would have abhorred modern Communism even if he was in fantasyland as well) came up with, I suspect, or maybe Dr. Suess.



    The Fountainhead, however, dispensed with trying to create a shining fantasyland for frustrated capitalists, and was a real inspiration to me when the gigantic real estate bust of 1990 was kicking my naive architectural illustrator ass. Him busting his butt in the quarry, holding on to his dream, and giving the heroine that one powerful look when she saw him there was a great moment in literature.

    That's my take on it anyway.
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    Default Re: Feature Film version of 'Atlas Shrugged' finally begins production

    ^^^ a very powerful portrayal of Howard Roark by Gary Cooper, although a fair portion of Ayn Rand's novel's 'philosophy' got lost in translation to a movie script !

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    Default Re: Feature Film version of 'Atlas Shrugged' finally begins production

    Oh wow, thanks!

    I do remember hearing about that a long time ago, now that you mention it. Gary Cooper was a great actor, too. I will definitely check that out!
    You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
    Friedrich Nietzsche

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    Default Re: Feature Film version of 'Atlas Shrugged' finally begins production

    back to 'Atlas Shrugged', this interview with the Producer supposedly sets the record straight ...



    (snip)"If there’s a production with a longer and more colorful history behind its troubled march to the silver screen than Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged,” the story of that particular episode of development hell has not yet been told. Published in 1957 and a perennial bestseller ever since (the novel sold a half-million copies just last year), the struggle to realize Rand’s sprawling and epic dramatization of her theory of Objectivism as told through a dystopian tale of the world’s best and brightest, feeling they’ve been exploited by an ungrateful society, putting their talent on strike, eluded even the author herself.(snip)

    (snip)Yes, there will be an “Atlas Shrugged” movie. Well, at least a part one.

    Big Hollywood has enjoyed two visits to the film’s set, which our own Charles Winecoff will be writing more about soon, but due to the fact that much of what we’re reading in the media regarding the film’s production doesn’t coincide with what we’ve seen and heard for ourselves, I asked producer Harmon Kaslow to help set the record straight.

    Much has been made of the film’s reported budget of $5 million, especially for a project major studios have shied away from out of budgetary concerns. Like most smart producers, Kaslow won’t talk specifics, but there’s more to the story than the $5 million:

    “The amount expended on the movie is far north of $5 million. The movie is based on Part 1 of the book (the book has 3 parts) … so the film is based on about 27% of the book.”

    This is the first I’ve heard that this production is only the first of three films, and while I haven’t read ”Atlas Shrugged,” those who have tell me a trilogy is the perfect way to tell the story on screen. Like “Lord of the Rings,” the natural breaks in Rand’s novel practically demand it be told in three parts, and a single feature film, even a long one with a hefty studio budget behind it, would almost certainly short-change the novel’s legion of faithful fans who, regardless of budget, are most concerned about seeing an adaptation that doesn’t compromise Rand’s philosophy. To that end, Kaslow assures the Randians:

    “The movie is a direct ‘adaptation’ of the book included using much of the dialogue written by Ayn Rand.”

    Assuming we’re talking in the area of $15 to $20 million to film the entire novel, with no big star salaries that’s still a low budget but not a ridiculously low budget. As far as the casting of unknowns, as is the case with any film, budget constraints are a reality and when you’re working in the arena of millions as opposed to hundreds of millions, you’re not going to get a Charlize Theron or Angelina Jolie.

    In any case, like “Harry Potter” and the “Narnia” films, the real star here is the project itself, Ayn Rand, and Objectivism. If the performances rise to the occasion no one’s going to care that there’s no familiar name above the title. (snip)

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    Default Re: Feature Film version of 'Atlas Shrugged' finally begins production

    And the WSJ had this to say about the present day 'relevance' of 'Atlas Shrugged' ...



    (snip)"Being conversant in Ayn Rand's classic novel about the economic carnage caused by big government run amok was practically a job requirement. If only "Atlas" were required reading for every member of Congress and political appointee in the Obama administration. I'm confident that we'd get out of the current financial mess a lot faster.

    Many of us who know Rand's work have noticed that with each passing week, and with each successive bailout plan and economic-stimulus scheme out of Washington, our current politicians are committing the very acts of economic lunacy that "Atlas Shrugged" parodied in 1957, when this 1,000-page novel was first published and became an instant hit.

    Rand, who had come to America from Soviet Russia with striking insights into totalitarianism and the destructiveness of socialism, was already a celebrity. The left, naturally, hated her. But as recently as 1991, a survey by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club found that readers rated "Atlas" as the second-most influential book in their lives, behind only the Bible.

    For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises -- that in most cases they themselves created -- by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.

    In the book, these relentless wealth redistributionists and their programs are disparaged as "the looters and their laws." Every new act of government futility and stupidity carries with it a benevolent-sounding title. These include the "Anti-Greed Act" to redistribute income (sounds like Charlie Rangel's promises soak-the-rich tax bill) and the "Equalization of Opportunity Act" to prevent people from starting more than one business (to give other people a chance). My personal favorite, the "Anti Dog-Eat-Dog Act," aims to restrict cut-throat competition between firms and thus slow the wave of business bankruptcies. Why didn't Hank Paulson think of that?

    These acts and edicts sound farcical, yes, but no more so than the actual events in Washington, circa 2008. We already have been served up the $700 billion "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act" and the "Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act." Now that Barack Obama is in town, he will soon sign into law with great urgency the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan." This latest Hail Mary pass will increase the federal budget (which has already expanded by $1.5 trillion in eight years under George Bush) by an additional $1 trillion -- in roughly his first 100 days in office.

    The current economic strategy is right out of "Atlas Shrugged": The more incompetent you are in business, the more handouts the politicians will bestow on you. That's the justification for the $2 trillion of subsidies doled out already to keep afloat distressed insurance companies, banks, Wall Street investment houses, and auto companies -- while standing next in line for their share of the booty are real-estate developers, the steel industry, chemical companies, airlines, ethanol producers, construction firms and even catfish farmers. With each successive bailout to "calm the markets," another trillion of national wealth is subsequently lost. Yet, as "Atlas" grimly foretold, we now treat the incompetent who wreck their companies as victims, while those resourceful business owners who manage to make a profit are portrayed as recipients of illegitimate "windfalls."

    One memorable moment in "Atlas" occurs near the very end, when the economy has been rendered comatose by all the great economic minds in Washington. Finally, and out of desperation, the politicians come to the heroic businessman John Galt (who has resisted their assault on capitalism) and beg him to help them get the economy back on track. The discussion sounds much like what would happen today:

    Galt: "You want me to be Economic Dictator?"

    Mr. Thompson: "Yes!"

    "And you'll obey any order I give?"

    "Implicitly!"

    "Then start by abolishing all income taxes."

    "Oh no!" screamed Mr. Thompson, leaping to his feet. "We couldn't do that . . . How would we pay government employees?"

    "Fire your government employees."

    "Oh, no!"

    Abolishing the income tax. Now that really would be a genuine economic stimulus. But Mr. Obama and the Democrats in Washington want to do the opposite: to raise the income tax "for purposes of fairness" as Barack Obama puts it.

    David Kelley, the president of the Atlas Society, which is dedicated to promoting Rand's ideas, explains that "the older the book gets, the more timely its message." He tells me that there are plans to make "Atlas Shrugged" into a major motion picture -- it is the only classic novel of recent decades that was never made into a movie. "We don't need to make a movie out of the book," Mr. Kelley jokes. "We are living it right now." (snip)


    ^^^ which goes a long way toward explaining why a film production of 'Atlas Shrugged' has had so many problems raising production funding from 'mainstream' Hollywood studios, and so many 'defections' of 'mainstream' Hollywood talent.

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    Default Re: Feature Film version of 'Atlas Shrugged' finally begins production

    I agree with what Dorothy Parker said about 'Atlas Shrugged':

    “This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.”

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