*Atlas Shrugged, Part One *has now finished filming and will take about six months to edit. March 2011 is the projected release date unless it is accepted for the Cannes film festival, which will mean a June release. Paul Johannsson will direct and play the part of John Galt. Taylor Schilling will play Dagny Taggart, Grant Bowler will play Henry Rearden, Jsu Garcia will play Francisco D’Anconia. The budget is reported to have been about five million dollars. The film is intended to be the first of a trilogy. Next spring or early summer, you will have the opportunity to see right wing hate sex on the big screen. Enjoy.
Wow - thank you! I had been following the gossipy page on IMDB, but the last time I had looked it still just had a bunch “rumored” listings.
So like, how does that work? Inquiring minds want to know! 
Shame the the same editing effort wasn’t given to the book.
I thought I remember hearing that Brad Pitt & Jodie Foster had something to do with this? No? If so, it’s odd that now it’s starring people I’ve never heard of with a minuscule budget.
Hmm, I can’t find any reference to that on IMDB. What am I thinking of?
I see a lot of movies (though not quite as many as Equipoise) and recognize only one name in the whole cast, Nick Cassavetes. The lead is being played by someone who has not even put a head shot on IMDB.
Well, it’s not as if this is some classic of literature that is going to be ruined by mediocre acting. The best description I’d read of Rand’s characters is that they were “hacked out of concrete with a blunt ice pick”.
Really? A trilogy? Do they think this is going to be some big, tentpole franchise? Lord of the Teabags? Nothing cinematic happens in the book. It’s sophomoric, political whining in the form of a shaggy dog story. The big pay off is a giant douche gassing on about “the individual” for 50 pages. Are they going to use CGI for that part? Are they going to put in 3D?
Even on the slim chance that there’s someone out there who’s been waiting for a cinema version of Atlas Shrugged, is there anyone on Earth who’s been waiting for a trilogy?
Well, part 2 of the trilogy will consist of nothing but the 90-page monologue done by John Galt.
And the Rand-hate continues…
Seems to me it makes a lot of sense to try this out at as a Part 1. If it flops, then they don’t have to do Parts 2 and 3. If it flies, then they hit pay dirt.
I’ll bet right now that it opens number 1 at the box when its first released. Any takers?
You shouldn’t be surprised. Like, at all.
Why all the hate? It *is *a classic of literature, that’s still on the best seller list at Amazon.
What’s wrong with an intellectual talky story of characters discussing ideas? Is Michael Bay and wall-to-wall explosions now the preferred cinematic style of the cognoscenti?
I have no doubt that some folks will buy all the tickets for showings. I just doubt there will be anyone in the actual theater for those showings.
This is an Indie film, almost a glorified fan film, done on a tight budget with TV actors in order to keep hold of the rights which were due to revert back to the Ayn Rand estate in June. Filming started about two days before the deadline. I’m rooting for them to pull it off & do a decent job, bypassing the Hollywood Establishment & actually trying to get something done. I can’t say I fully expect an Indie masterpiece but a Rand-fan can always hope!
And while the fan-base isn’t LOTR-level, I think there are quite enough people who’ve been wanting an ATLAS film to make it a worthwhile project- and really a film trilogy or at least a duo would be the only way to go… tho I’d have preferred a Turner or HBO miniseries. (HBO might show us Dagny boobs… or alas, d’Anconio-Rearden-Galt ass… still shudding at the sight of Eric Stoltz ass between Helen Mirren thighs from The Passion of Ayn Rand.)
I’ll take that bet. Remember that this things budget is only five million dollars and it has no “name” actors. I doubt that they are going to spend a whole lot of money to market it. There is no way this thing is going to hit #1. It probably won’t even be in wide release. It may very well make a decent enough profit, but remember that it only needs to make 15 mil worldwide to completely fund the next two. The filmmakers have set their sights pretty low.
Several neocon little people go on a quest where they encounter evil trees aligned with the conservation movement, an army of gay elves who want to be married, illegal immigrant dwarves and Obama’s Reform & Control Sentries (ORCS) who want their guns and insist on sending them to publicly funded hospitals all while en route to the Kenyan volcano where the birth certificate is stored. Features Sarah Palin as Gal Adriel and Glenn Beck as Gundolf.
Atlas Strugged.
Objectivity: Reloaded
Ayn Rand: Revolutions
It’s set to premiere at the same time as *Martin Scorcese presents Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Paul Sorvino in *Who Da Fuck Is John Galt?
Nothing if the ideas are worthwhile. Rand’s are not. Not only is her philosophy bad, but the narrative device she uses to wrap it in is clunky and plodding and boring and unrealistic. I don’t think movies have to have action to be entertaining (I’m not even particularly a fan of the action genre), but they do have to tell a good story or, barring that, be funny or tapdance. Rand doesn’t have anything going for her at all as a storyteller or entertainer. She’s just a tedious demagogue.
Part One: walk walk walk walk
Part Two: walk walk stumble walk
Part Three: walk walk walk grab-birth-certificate walk-back
And it ends when Sean Hannity flat-out bricks in Bill O’Reilly’s mouth.