atlas shrugged, the movie


tndbay

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Whatever the look ends up being, I just hope it's a good one. The sky's the limit as far as what can be done these days. I could see intermittent uses of b/w and such. Or maybe the opening. But we'll know when they do it.

As far as it being or not being a good film, I really do believe that the main premise is a strong one for film-- it's something everyone can understand, at least on the surface. Atlas is a great read even if you don't know a lick about it being a vehicle for Objectivist thought.

It could be a fine movie. Heck, it could be a very good G-rated movie.

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The observation that reviews didn't stop the book, so they can't stop the movie, cuts both ways. The bad news is that, while a book can take time to find its audience (at least until the first printing sells out and maybe longer), the first weekend makes or breaks a movie. The good news is that reviews have very little effect on the commercial fortunes of a movie (by contrast to books, restaurants and theatrical productions).

Peter

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

Here is a very informative article in the New York Times on the history of the failed attempts to make Atlas Shrugged into a movie. Randall Wallace sounds encouragingly enthusiastic about his current script.

Ayn Rand No Longer Has Script Approval

by Kimberly Brown

January 14, 2007

New York Times

(Hat tip to Jim Henderson on New Intellectual Forum run by the Enrights for pointing this article out.)

Michael

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This is first time I have seen this thread. Are the Baldwins still planning three movies? The first weekend is the case for blockbusters but for example Brokeback Mountain was allowed to build its audience. Brokeback was first released in large cities with high populations of slender men who like musical comedies. :)

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I've been sitting and watching and sitting and watching and waiting on this project for years.

Somehow, I passed through the cynical side of my nature and hoped against hope that, were such a film to be, that it would DO what Atlas DOES.

One way or another, it should have effect; the raw values should give people pause to think, to change how they operate. I think her book, translated even over years, and the Hollywood matrix, might actually even make it.

Atlas is about a revolution. It is a declaration of war, in certain respects. It was an angry, beautiful backlash.

My only concern is in the production process in general-- a lot of people will have control, it will be very much too many cooks.

Still, I have faith (yes, yes, I said faith) in her work on this book in that the strongest will come through. The liberation will come through. It will set people to think, and that's something in and of itself.

It won't be like WE here know and think, but the core will, hopefully, make it through. One principle alone will make a difference.

We Shall See.

rde

Wondering if he should wait 'til it hits the drive-in and have a real weird sexy night out.

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Atlas Shrugged was a “moral revolution” to use Nathanial Branden’s words. It wasn’t about waging a war. It was about a retreat really. It was a “war” of “we are outta here, and you are on your own.” Leaving people to their own devises has been seen as cruel, even if the abandoned has been known to use force. Very strange.

I'm looking forward to this movie. I have a date for it already. :cool:

-Victor

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I'm looking forward to this movie. I have a date for it already. :cool:

-Victor

I'm really looking forward to this movie for many personal reasons. One reason was recently added though; that is, OUR date !!! YAY :cheer: I so can't wait. It will be so much fun, a night full of excitement on so many levels. :wink:

Hey, are we still going to McDonalds for dinner? What about transportation? I really hope you got rid of your ten speed. Oh, and by the way, I was able to save up 20 bucks, although I'm strapped for cash now. But it's all good.

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I'm looking forward to this movie. I have a date for it already. :cool:

-Victor

I'm really looking forward to this movie for many personal reasons. One reason was recently added though; that is, OUR date !!! YAY :cheer: I so can't wait. It will be so much fun, a night full of excitement on so many levels. :wink:

Hey, are we still going to McDonalds for dinner? What about transportation? I really hope you got rid of your ten speed. Oh, and by the way, I was able to save up 20 bucks, although I'm strapped for cash now. But it's all good.

Can you cover both of us for the movie, too? Yeah, yeah, I'll pay you back later.

[Whew, what a catch I am!] :ike:

Edited by Victor Pross
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~ After reading all this, I have BIG expectations for this movie...to crash...in many 'O-ist' circles. It just won't be 'perfect' enough since 'too much' will be edited out (or, transliterated.) A 1st mention of Galt's speech being 60-pages to a later mention of it being 30-pages...oh dear. This mother of a 'speech of all speeches' clearly will be truncated. (Still, given that, I'd be curious how they handle even a 15-page [script-wise] monologue. Can it be better than done in TF, or worse?)

~ O-t-other-h :cool: , I have no doubt at this point that it will DEFINITELY spur those (apart from, though including, college students) who've merely heard about the book to actually go buy and read it, including this generations professional 'critics.' THIS is a super '+' on it's own, be the reader hostiley-biased or pre-intrigued from what they've 'heard', but now, are really 'interested.'

~ As someone pointed out, though, the Box-Office from the 1st-part film will make or break the whole shebang.

LLAP

J:D

Edited by John Dailey
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I saw that Robert Bidinotto and I crossed again in posting links to the same article. Here is his blog entry:

Latest update on the "Atlas Shrugged" film project

Robert linked to the same New York Times article I did in a post above (Ayn Rand No Longer Has Script Approval - except he linked to the printer-friendly version). (Edit: If anyone has difficulty accessing the article because of registration, here is the full article on AOL Entertainment News: Ayn Rand No Longer Has Script Approval.) But even better, he also linked to a transcript of a plug of Rand by Rush Limbaugh on his own site. From the blog about Limbaugh:

... a link to The Atlas Society and its scholarly subdivision, The Objectivist Center, appear at the end of the online transcript of his remarks. The link is bringing thousands of the curious to check out the novels, as well as TAS.

This is really good news.

Michael

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As for art direction and production design, part of me wants to see it done in futuristic art deco (a la "Sky Captain And The World of Tommorow" or the computer game "Bioshock") or in Blade-Runner style Cyberpunk with the world growing darker and more miserable (beyond edgy and into dystopia) as time goes on.

After all, AS is somewhat Sci-Fi.

But regardless, I will be there at the opening, with dollar sign lapel pin and smoking like a chimney where possible.

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I like the idea of the movie in b&w until the valley sequence when it goes to color. I am thinking that it should be a deeper b&w after Dagny returns. Michael; Thanks for all the links.

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As for art direction and production design, part of me wants to see it done in futuristic art deco (a la "Sky Captain And The World of Tommorow" or the computer game "Bioshock") or in Blade-Runner style Cyberpunk with the world growing darker and more miserable (beyond edgy and into dystopia) as time goes on.

After all, AS is somewhat Sci-Fi.

But regardless, I will be there at the opening, with dollar sign lapel pin and smoking like a chimney where possible.

On the other hand, sci-fi movies with overt "futuristic" sets tend to pidgeonhole the movie into a sci-fi rut. ?I would prefer a more subtle, "future indeterminate" look, such as with "Gattaca," in which the future looked a lot like 1963 Sweden.

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As for art direction and production design, part of me wants to see it done in futuristic art deco (a la "Sky Captain And The World of Tommorow" or the computer game "Bioshock") or in Blade-Runner style Cyberpunk with the world growing darker and more miserable (beyond edgy and into dystopia) as time goes on.

After all, AS is somewhat Sci-Fi.

But regardless, I will be there at the opening, with dollar sign lapel pin and smoking like a chimney where possible.

P.S. : Although I'm a non-smoker, I'll be there with my dollar-sign smokes, and dashing black cape as well! :devil:

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P.S. : Although I'm a non-smoker, I'll be there with my dollar-sign smokes, and dashing black cape as well! :devil:

I understand that often 'sci fi' can get too over the top, but I would like at least some.. just a personal aesthetic preference. But its good to see you will be there in Objectivist garb, lol. Im thinking how many Objectivists will be there.... just follow the smoke clouds, lol. Ill see about getting some gold paper dollar signs glued onto my cigarrettes before I go.

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The female part of the Baldwins at TOC Summer Seminar said she would be wearing her Reardan Metal bracelet. I guess will have Taggart Transcontinent calendars and Reardan Steel paper weights. I'm sorry I can't do better on the Baldwin's frist name.

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  • 3 months later...

Just curious.... is there any new news on the Atlas Shrugged movie project?

- Angelina cast as Dagny

- Jim Hart is out and Randall Wallace is in as writer

All this is old news and no word in months.

- Have they hired a director?

- Is it still due out in 2008?

- Are they having to go back to the drawing board and rewrite the script?

Angelina Jolie seems really busy with other projects and building a family, Baldwin hasn't updated the info on their website in ages and Lionsgate doesn't list it in at all from what I can see on their site. I kind of get the feeling that this is being put on the back burner or dead in the water again....and I'm not holding my breath.

Anyone with any updated news please share.

btw - Here are the links:

Baldwin Entertainment Group

Lionsgate

IMDB

Variety

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Just curious.... is there any new news on the Atlas Shrugged movie project?

- Angelina cast as Dagny

- Jim Hart is out and Randall Wallace is in as writer

All this is old news and no word in months.

- Have they hired a director?

- Is it still due out in 2008?

- Are they having to go back to the drawing board and rewrite the script?

Angelina Jolie seems really busy with other projects and building a family, Baldwin hasn't updated the info on their website in ages and Lionsgate doesn't list it in at all from what I can see on their site. I kind of get the feeling that this is being put on the back burner or dead in the water again....and I'm not holding my breath.

Anyone with any updated news please share.

btw - Here are the links:

Baldwin Entertainment Group

Lionsgate

IMDB

Variety

Perhaps Atlas is just not destined to ever make it to the big screen. There have been so many false starts already, so many changes in writer, screenplay, director, producer, concept, etc. At one point, Atlas was going to be a movie, then a miniseries, then a trilogy, then back to a movie again. Attempts to turn Atlas into a movie go all the way back to Albert Ruddy. Rand herself wrote the first version of the screenplay but only finished about one third of it. I think there have been multiple screenplays written since then. Considering how a great novel like The Fountainhead translated into a mediocre movie, perhaps it's for the best that Atlas simply remain a great novel rather than a potentially mediocre to bad movie. And I say this from the perspective of someone who truly loves the novel and would love to see the story and characters translated to the big screen, but only if the movie could be at least half as great as the novel.

Martin

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Martin & Kat; I too have been worried about the movie of Atlas. It's not the only famous novel that has resisted efforts to turn into a movie. Entertainment Weekly every once in a while does a story about some of them. I'm not ready to give up hope yet.

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A lifetime of following entertainment news has taught me that these people are obsessive self-promoters whose word doesn't mean much. "Done deal" means a couple of phone calls. "In development" means one phone call. Anything else means the idea crossed somebody's mind. You'll know the production is underway when and only when the movie opens.

If you start seeing stories to the effect that the project is in trouble, brace yourself. It means that the movie is going to be a critical and commercial failure - "Heaven's Gate," "Cleopatra," "A Chorus Line" and "Milagro Beanfield War" are all cases in point.

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