‘Founders Films’ aims to remake Hollywood with patriotism, Palantir and Ayn Rand

Semafor ^ | Updated Jul 21, 2025, 1:10pm CDT | Max Tani

[yuleeyahoo]

I liked The Fountainhead with Gary Cooper.

[GSWarrior]

Agreed.

[Publius]

Atlas ping.

In November 2022, there was an announcement of a new Atlas Shrugged effort from a coalition of players.

• Executive Producers: Scott DeSapio, Joan Carter, Danielle Cox
• Daily Wire in Nashville: Jeremy Boreing, Ben Shapiro, Caleb Robinson
• Bonfire Legend in Dallas: Dallas Sonnier, Amanda Presmyk
• Atlas Distribution & Cinema Cloud in Los Angeles: John Aglialoro, Harmon Kaslow

This coalition had a major job ahead of them. The three “Atlas” movies of a decade ago were financed on a shoestring with the participants donating their talents in the hope that the movies would show a profit over time. To my knowledge the three movies never showed a profit.

• The first movie stripped the story down for 90 minutes of action and was quite good.
• The second movie was less good.
• The third movie was so bad that I was glad to be alone in the theater because I was cringing for 90 minutes. I couldn’t believe something that bad would be released theatrically.

At first I thought the new coalition was going to do it right. That would be three seasons corresponding to the three parts of the book with each season consisting of roughly five episodes. It’s the only way to do justice to the book.

Considering that I was co-author of Who is John Galt: A Navigational Guide to Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, along with our own Billthedrill, I turned the first part of the book into five one-hour scripts. Upon contacting Dallas Sonnier, I discovered that they were going to handle all writing in-house. From a cost control standpoint, that made sense. I asked to be considered for a position on the production team. Then I discovered that they had shelved the project and moved on to other efforts. Their website showed “Atlas” as “S1E1,” which told me it was a placeholder and they were having trouble lining up financing.

This announcement with Founders Films tells me that they have finally come up with a partner in the position of raising the necessary financing. What astonished me is that they are planning on producing yet another three-part version. Those of us who have read the book know this is a fool’s errand. How will they be different from the failed films of a decade ago?

[Rocco DiPippo]

The novels are endless—and the characters tend to be caricatures which end up wooden when put into movies.

And some of the plot action is laughable too. Utter BS. I got around to reading "Atlas Shrugged" a few years ago. When I got to the part where Dagny leaves Rearden; the steel magnate she was boinking, for Roark, instead of being pissed off, Rearden's thrilled for her because he thinks that Roark's an incredibly special genius. Yeah, right. I fell out of my chair laughing at that bit.

There are some right-on characterizations of leftist/government parasites in her books and some killer observations too. But both Atlas and the Fountainhead are turgid reads, often flat and unrealistic.

[Rocco DiPippo]

Why “conservative” or “leftist” art? Why not honest, heartfelt, well-executed art instead? I don’t usually care for art pushing a political view, period.

[Openurmind]

Thank you for the ping. Yep, Palantir is the CIA. I am not sure Trump even understands the situation concerning Palantir fully. I think someone is slipping Palentir in the backdoor on him.

[cgbg]

Yup—in the real world even the very best of us will give in to their animal instincts now and then....and the worst of us may still love puppies and kittens.

Lol.

[nitzy]

Yes, the only way it could work is a multi-season, multi-episode Netflix or Amazon series.

[nitzy]

I think that the best stories involve the use of of timeless ideals...

the good in honesty, the evil in betrayal , the good in faith, the evil in jaded pessimism, the good in hard work and persistence, the evil in shortcuts and taking the easy way, the good in personal responsibility, the evil in greed and jealousy, the good in self control , the evil in gluttony and vice, etc....

I’m not saying that the movies should preach these things but they often use the themes to tell the story. Since these truths are written on our heart, the stories ring true to us.

What people are referring to as “conservative movies” recognize these universal truths and use them in the storytelling.

What people see as “liberal movies” either ignore these truths and try to make up their own truths in very uninteresting ways because they don’t ring true to us or they spend the entire film trying to prove that the way we understand these truths is actually backward.

[Publius]

Not Roark, Galt. Roark is from The Fountainhead.

[Rocco DiPippo]

Yes. You’re right!

[Rocco DiPippo]

"What people are referring to as “conservative movies” recognize these universal truths and use them in the storytelling. What people see as “liberal movies” either ignore these truths and try to make up their own truths in very uninteresting ways because they don’t ring true to us or they spend the entire film trying to prove that the way we understand these truths is actually backward."

Well said. Another way to put it is to replace "conservative movies" with "movies that ring true" and present life as it actually is.

Leftist rely on relentlessly pushing unreality to wreck the existing social order. Two plus two equals five and all that. The leftist mission has always been to pulverize the existing "capitalist," "bourgeois" social order to prepare the ground for the ushering-in of communism. Movies, art, schools, the media are always used by leftists as transmission belts to that end.

The leftist will to destroy is perfectly summed up in that famous line by Mephistopheles (Satan) in Goethe's "Faust: "All that exists deserves to be destroyed." Marx loved that line. Figures.