Atlas' Torch is still alive for a Movie


Selene

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I also want to amend this in my post: "It didn't have to play out this way."

It would have been more accurate to -qualify- it: "I don't see why it had to play out this way, why some way could not have been found to bring it out in some form - radio, tv, movie, play - across all those decades."

My post was not worded perfectly. This should, I know, come as a shock to those who have come to view me as infallible. :unsure: :-)

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Phil:

Radio - I wonder - interesting idea.

Hmmm

Adam

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Subject: On being a frequent critic [this is a post that I have had to make before - on other issues and in other venues]

> men and women whom you should be thanking for their dedication, their willingness to spend a great deal of their own money on the project, and their understanding of what needs to be done to bring so controversial a book to the big or little screen. [barbara]

The first two parts are very good points. My view of those who have tried to advance Objectivism in general (or in this case make the movie) is that I respect and benefit from their dedication. And I don't question their good will. I don't need to repeat that every time I make a criticism.

But I still reserve the right to speak out, to *strongly criticize* when I think (or even have a strong sense) mistakes are made - or the reasoning for certain approaches seem baffling to me. I don't accept the idea that Leonard Peikoff or David Kelley or the movie attempt makers *necessarily know more than I do because they are insiders*.

Until and unless I see the reasons in black and white. And, in this, I've never seen a reason why the attempt to make one of the other novels into a movie or to go overseas or to try another medium than big screen movies (a tv series is not the only one) are unreasonable if one is blocked for a time with one's first choice [i do know that the miniseries route was tried for a time.]

Maybe I could have worded it more diplomatically than 'lack of common sense'.

Phil, with all good will, I must tell you you do not know what the hell you're talking about.

Yes, when you write a post full of contempt, you do need to make clear whatever respect you have for the people of whom you're so disdainful. And I wasn't speaking of Peikoff and Kelley, but of the businessmen involved --of John Aglioloro, who has nursed the project from its beginning and has fought his heart out to make it happen.

Do you have any idea what it would cost to get the movie rights to The Fountainhead and to make a new movie of it? -- as a prelude to making Atlas? Do you have any idea of the time and effort required to do it properly? No. you don't. Yet you nevertheless put it forth as a self-evident requirement. Nor do you hesitate to recommend the madness of dashing off to Eiurope in order to dash off a movie of Atlas, then dashing back home to make a second movie of Atlas.

Phil, I shall now look down on your life from a great height, as you so often do to others. It's damn well time you stopped patronizing people who struggle in the arena and started getting your own hands dirty.. That might bring you to an understanding of why people resent being told by you how to run their lives and careers.

Barbara

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A TV miniseries would most likely be done under the auspices of a cable channel, so think in terms of something the length of one season of Rome or Tudors.

I would predict that AS, when it gets made into a film, will be a webcast movie made by people outside the traditional film industry, and doubtless not in the near future.

As for Galt's Speech--probably the only way to present it onscreen is to show Galt making the speech, with some sort of voiceover stating the key points. If the setting were modernized, probably the Speech could be presented as a podcast (with something onscreen to dramatize an immense number of downloads as a way to present its impact)--and the movie could make a full length version of the Speech available for real life download on its website.

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Couldn't A.R.I. fund a decent part of bringing AS to the screen?

Shouldn't they want to, considering they allegedly exist to promote Rand's ideas?

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> Do you have any idea what it would cost to get the movie rights to The Fountainhead and to make a new movie of it? -- as a prelude to making Atlas? Do you have any idea of the time and effort required to do it properly? [barbara]

I am not and was not talking about making the two movies **in quick succession**. I'm talking about a smaller step paving the way for a bigger one; I'm talking *across decades*, not right now in the year before the rights expire. If it were made in, say, 1980 and there had been an initial success with a less controversial book, the more controversial Atlas would probably have been 'bankable' by the 90's.

> No. you don't.

How do you know what I know or what research I've done?

> Yet you nevertheless put it forth as a self-evident requirement.

No I didn't. (i) What I said [if you reread my very first two sentences of post #9] was "obvious" was -not- that Fountainhead was the ideal, but this point from the Christian Science Monitor: "a TV mini-series – a vehicle [would be] better adapted to conveying the ideas in the massive 1,000-page novel than a standard-length Hollywood feature film." [i view this as evident on the grounds of length, complexity, number of characters and subplots of the novel - to be dealt with in say six hours instead of two hours. You are, of course, free to disagree!!] (ii) In my less intemperate (reworded) post [#25, #26], I *asked* about a movie, and a Fountainhead movie, as only -one- of number of alternatives:

"I've never seen a reason why the attempt to make one of the other novels into a movie or to go overseas or to try another medium than big screen movies (a tv series is not the only one) are unreasonable if one is blocked for a time...I don't see why...some way could not have been found to bring it out in some form - radio, tv, movie, play - across all those decades."

> [You] recommend the madness of dashing off to Europe in order to dash off a movie of Atlas, then dashing back home to make a second movie of Atlas.

Not exactly my recommendation. Barbara, you're oversimplifying my alternatives from the way I tried to qualify them:

1. Multiple artistic productions would clearly be across several decades, or some years apart. I never said -anything- about quick succession, so no "dashing"! Instead, some years later one success makes possible another. That's why I specified "sometime in the last thirty years".

2. Atlas + Atlas was not the only alternative in my posts.

3. I said not necessarily all movies. Other media. First breakthrough might be radio, might be tv, might be domestic (or overseas, and not necessarily Europe).

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[From above Post article] ""When Ayn was alive, she worked on a script for a TV series -- she always envisoned 'Atlas Shrugged' as a TV series," [brook] says.

I assume her reasoning was the same as the Christian Science Monitor's reasoning, which seemed to me commonsensical.

I wonder if the script she was 1/3 through still exists? If it will be handed to the Epix people? If it was used by Randall Wallace and others as a jumping off point? She was a successful/ingenious playwright (NOJS) as well as a novelist.

Would be a -great- starting point!!!!

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[From above Post article] ""When Ayn was alive, she worked on a script for a TV series -- she always envisoned 'Atlas Shrugged' as a TV series," [brook] says.

I assume her reasoning was the same as the Christian Science Monitor's reasoning, which seemed to me commonsensical.

I wonder if the script she was 1/3 through still exists? If it will be handed to the Epix people? If it was used by Randall Wallace and others as a jumping off point? She was a successful/ingenious playwright (NOJS) as well as a novelist.

Would be a -great- starting point!!!!

[clears throat]

Not to mention some experience as a screenwriter.

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Phil: "1. Multiple artistic productions would clearly be across several decades, or some years apart. I never said -anything- about quick succession, so no "dashing"! Instead, some years later one success makes possible another. That's why I specified "sometime in the last thirty years".

2. Atlas + Atlas was not the only alternative in my posts.

3. I said not necessarily all movies. Other media. First breakthrough might be radio, might be tv, might be domestic (or overseas, and not necessarily Europe)."

The reality of the situation is that the people attempting to get the movie produced are not planning to live forever. They do not have several decades to spend on lead-ups to the film. Besides, there never has been a better time than the present to introduce the movie, when the interest in Atlas has gone through the roof.

And if you say the steps you recommend should have been taken years ago -- the rights were not available years ago. And who could have dreamed of the insanity that has stalked the book in Hollywood for so many years?

Barbara

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Who has the partial screenplay written by Rand?

Seems like a third of the writing is already done.

Edited by Las Vegas
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Phil: "1. Multiple artistic productions would clearly be across several decades, or some years apart. I never said -anything- about quick succession, so no "dashing"! Instead, some years later one success makes possible another. That's why I specified "sometime in the last thirty years".

2. Atlas + Atlas was not the only alternative in my posts.

3. I said not necessarily all movies. Other media. First breakthrough might be radio, might be tv, might be domestic (or overseas, and not necessarily Europe)."

The reality of the situation is that the people attempting to get the movie produced are not planning to live forever. They do not have several decades to spend on lead-ups to the film. Besides, there never has been a better time than the present to introduce the movie, when the interest in Atlas has gone through the roof.

And if you say the steps you recommend should have been taken years ago -- the rights were not available years ago. And who could have dreamed of the insanity that has stalked the book in Hollywood for so many years?

Barbara

In a perverse kind of way this novel not being made into a movie may be now making people ask why not?--and encouraging them to read the damn thing!

--Brant

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Brant:

Now that is a silver lining I did not think of.

Adam

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There are two particular things to be noted about making Atlas Shrugged into a movie, assuming one has optioned the rights.

1) Money--to make the movie

2) Money--about the same amount--to distribute the movie.

You'd need to be able to come up with at least $300,000,000.

Normally this studio would kick in so much and another so much, etc. Not with AS.

Ever hear of the blacklist? Those poor commies who suffered so much? Well, there are blacklists and there are blacklists.

--Brant

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