atlas shrugged, the movie


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Inside the Beltway: Ayn Rand, Part 2

By Jennifer Harper

-

The Washington Times

Thursday, May 3, 2012

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    Enlarge PhotoFilming is now underway for “Atlas Shrugged, Part II” in Los Angeles, timed for national release a few weeks before the November elections. (Image from The Strike Productions).

It’s on the way: “Atlas Shrugged Part II” is now filming in Los Angeles, the second installment of an ambitious independent movie project — due for commercial release in October, just as the presidential election looms. A source says some of the film’s background extra roles will be played by persons of note who, uh, get the significance of Ayn Rand’s original 1957 novel, and this determined undertaking.

“Part I” was released nationally more than a year ago, based on the 1,100-page novel set in the near future when a dystopian America finds its leading innovators, industrialists and artists mysteriously disappearing — resulting in the “stopping the motor of the world.” Producer Harmon Kaslow has thought much about this.

“It’s important to note that Ayn Rand was neither a conservative or a liberal,” Mr. Kaslow tells Inside the Beltway. “Ayn Rand was very simply a staunch supporter of real capitalism. While in her writing Ayn Rand warned of the dangers of crony capitalism and socialism, her primary motive was to highlight what could happen if we fail to acknowledge the rights of the world’s smallest minority — the individual. Our primary motive in making the film is the same.

“What we continue to get excited about are the droves of Ayn Rand and ‘Atlas Shrugged’ fans that continue to find us every day online on Facebook and Twitter. From people that read the book 50 years ago to kids in college that are just discovering Ayn Rand, it’s amazing to experience the diversity, and see new people.”

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David Weigel's review of Atlas ii and interview with John Aglialaro are in the National Post today. He says" the casting change works". And that Aglialoro regrets that Rand used the term "selfishness" and that he if she were on earth today she would probably put it another way. I don't know, I don't think "The Virtue of Rational Self-Interest" has the same ring to it,

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David Weigel's review of Atlas ii and interview with John Aglialaro are in the National Post today. He says" the casting change works". And that Aglialoro regrets that Rand used the term "selfishness" and that he if she were on earth today she would probably put it another way. I don't know, I don't think "The Virtue of Rational Self-Interest" has the same ring to it,

Thanks for the heads up Carol:

Dave Weigel on Atlas Shrugged Part II: The 53% shrugged

Sep 24, 2012 12:01 AM ET | Last Updated: Sep 24, 2012 8:29 AM ET

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- Samantha Mathis plays Dagny Taggart in the new movie Atlas Shrugged: Part II.

“Steve Jobs died,” says John Aglialoro. “But let’s say he disappeared and left a little note that said: ‘Who is John Galt?’ Hey, where the hell’s Steve Jobs? I don’t know. It’s only Earth. Did he get in a spaceship? Where’d he go? In 2012, we’ve got men and women going on strike.”

Aglialoro is the co-producer of the Atlas Shrugged film trilogy, and he is full of rhetorical questions. It’s Sept. 18, and we’re sitting across a table at the Heritage Foundation shortly before the first-ever screening of Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike. Aglialoro’s co-producer, Harmon Kaslow, sits nearby, sporting one of the Atlas pins that sell for $14.95 on the film’s website. Washington is still talking about the video of Mitt Romney deriding the “47%” of voters too dependent on the federal teat to vote Republican.

So Aglialoro wants me to think of Atlas Shrugged as a history of the future. “Most entitlements are promises made by politicians to the unwilling,” he says. “We’ve got generations of people on welfare. That’s not because there weren’t job opportunities, or education, or anything like that. We’ve got a problem of greed on the level of the entitlement class. Not the producers and the entrepreneurs that are creating the tax revenue. They’re the 53%. If we get to the tipping point, 57%, 58%, then you’re going to see people saying: How do I go on strike?”

In the novel, and in these films, the “strike” is the literal disappearance of industrialists and inventors. The 2012 edition of our political dictionary calls these people the “job creators.” They built that. And so on. The Bible-sized novel is broken into three long “books,” so Aglialoro and Kaslow have broken it, faithfully, into three two-hour movies.

In Part I, released early last year, we met the rail company COO Dagny Taggart, the only member of her family business who’d rather take bold, sexy risks than wait for doughy bureaucrats to redistribute wealth for her. She meets Hank Rearden, a billionaire metallurgist who’s invented a product “cheaper, stronger and lighter” than steel. They build a new line and name it after John Galt, a mysterious genius who — coincidentally! — was the first of his kind to vanish and leave a bunch of grubbing, venal government bureaucrats behind to “loot” his good works.

Since that movie came out, and made back around a quarter of its budget (“Zero percent on Rotten Tomatoes,” laughs Aglialoro), the Atlas story has mushroomed. Rep. Paul Ryan was picked to join Mitt Romney’s Republican ticket. A scandal-curious media dug into Ryan’s recent past and discovered that he loved Rand, loved Atlas, had given a speech about it to the Atlas Society — of which Aglialoro’s a member.

“The effect of Romney choosing Paul Ryan was bringing Ayn Rand back into the news,” says Kaslow. “From our perspective, promoting this movie, we need to connect the dots for someone who’s interested in economics, get him or her interested in the film.”

After a short break, we head in from the meeting room to the screening room. For all the mockery, for all the liberal gloating about box-office numbers, the first Atlas film accidentally cast too many successful actors. Taylor Schilling, the original Dagny Taggart, went on to co-star in The Lucky One and the upcoming Ben Affleck movie about the Iran hostage crisis. “She’s a bona fide movie star now,” says Aglialoro. So she’s been replaced by Samantha Mathis, a 1990s star who’s been mounting a kind of comeback. The rest of the cast is also new. It’s libertarian cinema by way of Doctor Who.

And it completely changes the tone of the story. Schilling’s Taggart was all ice and sneers, storming into meetings without disturbing her bouffant. Mathis replaces the sneer with a pout. “Where are they?” she asks her assistant Eddie, as they ride through an emptied-out Manhattan, fueled by $40/gallon gas. “Where are the people who could make a difference?”

“I’m sitting next to one of them,” says Eddie. Taggart/Mathis holds back a sigh.

Our Rearden in Atlas I was Grant Bowler, who treated the character like a smart fed-up tech whiz beset by Asperger’s syndrome. He’s been replaced by Jason Beghe, who woke up hung-over and crammed his mouth full of gravel. His wife catches him coming home from a night with Dagny (in a very un-Rand touch, we don’t see them having sex), and he dares her to divorce him while he changes into fresh clothes.

This casting change definitely works. Rearden has to deliver the big speech of Part II, when he’s called in to a star chamber for selling his metal to a friend and violating the government’s new “Fair Share” law. (In the novel, it’s the “Equalization of Opportunity” law.) On the page, Rearden’s speech is pretentious in all the best ways. “It is not your particular policy I challenge, but your moral premise,” he says. “If it were true that men could achieve their good by means of turning some men into sacrificial animals, and I were asked to immolate myself for the sake of creatures who wanted to survive at the price of my blood, if I were asked to serve the interests of society apart from, above and against my own — I would refuse.” On screen, Rearden/Beghe boils this down into a short defence of “job creators.” And it works! The Rand-curious audience wants to stand up and cheer for this hard-working, word-chewing businessman who’s just trying to pour some damn metal.

But that really is the high point. We get two action scenes — a plane chase and two trains colliding in the “Taggart Tunnel” — but the fullness of Rand’s message can only be delivered through boardroom scenes and phone calls and meetings in Washington. Most of these scenes are deadly. Your fun, as a viewer, may come from an impromptu game of “hey, it’s that guy!” The chairman of the Taggart board — Biff from Back to the Future. The “head of state” (not president) — Ray Wise, the evil dad from Twin Peaks. The talkative security guard — funny enough, that’s Teller of Penn & Teller, protecting her from people waving “We Are the 99%!” signs.

When the third installment comes, in July 2014, we’ll probably get another all-new cast. “It’s hard to lock people down,” says Aglialoro. It’s the great cultural paradox of the Tea Party age. Rand’s dramatic work of dystopian horror can teach Republicans how to think, but it’s teeth-pullingly hard to keep distributors and audiences interested.

“The left dismisses Ayn Rand,” he says. “The version of her that they attack is childish, it’s a cartoon.” But he understands why.” I wish she didn’t say ‘selfishness’ as she did. That she was for ‘selfishness.’ She was human, and probably meant that in a rhetorical way. But if she was on this Earth again, maybe she’d put it another way.”

Slate.com

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/09/24/dave-weigel-on-atlas-shrugged-part-ii-the-53-shrugged/

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There's a live streaming thingamajig going on right now from an event billed as the first showing of the film. All the actors are there, yada yada yada. So far it's cutting in and out like crazy.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/atlas-shrugged-movie

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The new Rearden seems to be a big hit with everyone. Maybe they can actually pin him down for part 3.

Incidentally our late lamented Janet has engaged Bandler on this topic on Solo. It is civil so far. I am just waiting for him to go psycho on her or vice versa,

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Here's a new clip from Reason Magazine at last night's Washington showing. I see David Boaz, but no John Allison. No doubt Allison is in Washington, having just taken the helm at Cato what, the day before?

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The live stream was a bust, but here's a new clip. Looks pretty good. I like this Rearden better.

Oh my God!!! Did you see that sculpture to the left of the entrance to Rearden's office? It's abstract! What is Rearden trying to do, destroy man's consciousness?

Boycott the movie!

J

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The live stream was a bust, but here's a new clip. Looks pretty good. I like this Rearden better.

Oh my God!!! Did you see that sculpture to the left of the entrance to Rearden's office? It's abstract! What is Rearden trying to do, destroy man's consciousness?

Boycott the movie!

J

No, no, Jonathan. That sculpture is a symbol of the overwhelming evil that has penetrated even to Rearden's office. It was placed there by an envious, mooching employee (Lilian's cousin) while Rearden was out pouring metal. Hank is too busy thinking about Dagny to notice it yet.

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Yep...I definitely would be thinking about stripping Dagny and possessing her.

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Oh my God!!! Did you see that sculpture to the left of the entrance to Rearden's office? It's abstract! What is Rearden trying to do, destroy man's consciousness?

Not so fast! I'm sure you've heard of "Chekov's Gun". Well, I don't want to ruin this for anyone, so I'm going to format it as a spoiler. Fair warning.

The idea is that in part 3, when they do the attack on the mills and the Wet Nurse changes sides, the bad guys are going to lay him out on the piece to the left, sort of over a box rather than over a barrel, while they sodomize him with the pointy looking piece on the right. It's going to be a scene rich in symbolism.

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Hmmm, on closer inspection, I see that the sculpture is ruggedly masculine, and that the motion of its composition is that of an eruption. The lamp at the left follows the squirting path of a parabola, and is surrounded by spirals reminiscent of squirming sperm tails. The etched glass image at the right appears to be some sort of winged entity thrusting and exploding upward. The artistic elements on the pilasters in the office's four corners are knobby vertical shafts with bulbous heads on them, as are all of the items on the sideboard behind Rearden's desk. So it appears that the common theme of the artwork in his office is boners and ejaculation.

J

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I followed (really just half-followed) the stream from the LA premiere last night. There was between 500 and 600 followers online. The main take-aways are that Aglialoro said no screenings (or video copies?) are being provided to reviewers, on the grounds of not providing rope to the hangmen, or some words to that effect. Nathaniel Branden was there, and got a standing ovation just for walking in. He didn’t say anything. Aglialoro did a little talk, just a bit of Objectivist boilerplate, along with the obligatory acknowledgements. One funny line had to do with the presence in the lobby of so many actors who played looters, and that they were there because of the free food.

One thing I’m concerned about is the fact that the full premiere is the day after the Vice Presidential debate. Last time they relied on publicity from the political commentariat, Hannity, Stossel etc. but aren’t those types going to have their hands full next week? And the week after that? I know I know, they have seasoned professionals on the case, somebody or other who was involved in marketing Lord of the Rings. Hope it all works out, I know I’ll be going the first weekend, and this time it’s playing at a theater walking distance from where I live. Not that a short drive stopped me last time.

Here’s the place to look up theaters:

http://thegulch.atla...vie.com/events/

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Jeez Jonathan, have you been hanging out with Adam a lot lately?

Sorry. No, it was actually kind of an inside joke, which on second thought, I should have posted privately to a couple of people.

J

No need to be sorry, your post was very funny. I for one am taking more notice of public art and architecture due to your sage comments on the forum!

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One thing I’m concerned about is the fact that the full premiere is the day after the Vice Presidential debate. Last time they relied on publicity from the political commentariat...

It is a movie for fans, like LOTR or the 100 remakes of Pride and Prejudice. But like those and Star Trek (2009) and Harry Potter (never read one), the movie might bring new people to the books. I saw Golden Compass in the theater before I read the book. Then I read the book. Then, I realized that the movie blew through the book, delivering a minimal of understanding because movies cannot provide narrative.

Millions are not going to flock to the cinema to understand current events and then quit their jobs the next day. Promise.

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... movies cannot provide narrative.

Michael,

Wow.

What a statement.

The epistemological implications of that are nothing short of astounding.

Don't ever write a screenplay. And, here, let me just take it to the surface for the sake of simplicity. Don't ever write a screenplay with VO (voice over) so you won't ever have to confront your statement--should you decide to run with it--in the light of day.

Save yourself some grief.

:smile:

Michael

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As one of those coincidences that happen in life, I just got an email from Amazon plugging books.

Here was a college text they suggested based on my searches in screenwriting books: A History of Narrative Film, Fourth Edition by David A. Cook.

I haven't read this one yet, but I might get it. First published in 2004, it is now in its fourth edition. It's over 900 pages. Colleges are teaching from it. Maybe Michael should get in touch with the author and let him know he wasted his time since "movies cannot provide narrative"?

:smile:

Michael

(EDIT: I'm ribbing Michael, but he did focus on something that is real. When you read words, your referents--both conceptual and perceptual--for images and sound all come from your own memory and assumptions. When you see a film, the images and sounds are provided--usually altered from the way they would normally appear in reality, or even added to with special effects, music and so on. This makes the narrative a different kind of experience for each, albeit related. A book gives a more personalized experience, meaning it weds better to a person's individual life since the images and sounds literally come from his life to follow the narrative. Both reading fiction and watching a movie puts you in a "story trance," though.)

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As one of those coincidences that happen in life, I just got an email from Amazon plugging books.

Here was a college text they suggested based on my searches in screenwriting books: A History of Narrative Film, Fourth Edition by David A. Cook.

I haven't read this one yet, but I might get it. First published in 2004, it is now in its fourth edition. It's over 900 pages. Colleges are teaching from it. Maybe Michael should get in touch with the author and let him know he wasted his time since "movies cannot provide narrative"?

:smile:

Michael

I will play devil's advocate for MEM here; his post to me suggests that he is talking about "narrative" as in your own sense of "larger worldview or explanation of events in ideological context." The Big Picture so to speak.

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