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‘Founders Films’ aims to remake Hollywood with patriotism, Palantir and Ayn Rand
Semafor ^ | Updated Jul 21, 2025, 1:10pm CDT | Max Tani

Posted on 07/21/2025 5:12:51 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

As a conservative political backlash sweeps across US media, some are reaching for the ultimate prize: Hollywood.

Shifting the liberal tilt of the studios and creative culture that shapes America’s image of itself has long been a goal for the right: The late media entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart popularized the notion that politics is “downstream” from culture, and acolytes from Steve Bannon to Ben Shapiro have sought to inject their politics into the movie business, with limited success.

But conservatives have celebrated a few mainstream hits, like the patriotic Top Gun: Maverick and Taylor Sheridan’s nostalgic, libertarian-inflected Yellowstone. And a longstanding Christian culture industry has backed projects like the 2023 film Sound of Freedom, a dramatization of child trafficking that grossed more than $242 million for Provo’s Angel Studios. The Christian drama The Forge earned $30 million on a $6 million budget last year.

Now a set of prominent figures close to the software firm Palantir are pitching a new project to shake up streaming TV and film with a portfolio ranging from feature films about daring Israeli and American military operations to a three-part treatment of an Ayn Rand tome.

In a pitch deck circulated to investors in recent months, Palantir chief technology officer Shyam Sankar, early Palantir employee Ryan Podolsky, and investor Christian Garrett are raising money for Founders Films, a new production company based in Dallas that aims to push for films with a nationalistic bent and unsubtle political overtones. The company said its projects would adhere to a set of rules: “Say yes to projects about American exceptionalism, name America’s enemies, back artists unconditionally, take risk on novel IP.”

“The American Brand is broken. Hollywood is AWOL. Movies have become more ideological, more cautious, and less entertaining. Large segments of American and international viewers...”

(Excerpt) Read more at semafor.com ...


TOPICS: TV/Movies
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1 posted on 07/21/2025 5:12:51 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Do we really need a remake of Atlas Shrugged?


2 posted on 07/21/2025 5:18:56 PM PDT by yuleeyahoo (“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” - the deep-state)
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To: yuleeyahoo

The last one they tried sucked. Although Armin Shimmerman playing Floyd Ferris was an absolute hoot considering his most well known character.


3 posted on 07/21/2025 5:25:32 PM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: yuleeyahoo

The last one they tried sucked. Although Armin Shimmerman playing Floyd Ferris was an absolute hoot considering his most well known character.


4 posted on 07/21/2025 5:25:55 PM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The last thing to come out of Hollywood that I actually watched was Rogue One.


5 posted on 07/21/2025 5:39:07 PM PDT by GaltAdonis
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To: Tijeras_Slim

He fit in the role rather well.

AS if it had the backing of something like Amazon Studios miniseries would have done well.


6 posted on 07/21/2025 5:40:41 PM PDT by wally_bert (I cannot be sure for certain, but in my personal opinion I am certain that I am not sure..)
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To: GaltAdonis

I never cared for Star Wars, but I watched the series Andor (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9253284/) and like it enough to watch Rogue One, which it prequels.

I liked Andor better, but Rogue One was OK.


7 posted on 07/21/2025 5:42:33 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Democrats are the Party of racism, anger, hate and violence.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Rogue One and especially Andor are Star Wars for adults. The lead actor in both has kind of an ordinary man/war weariness about him that really worked.


8 posted on 07/21/2025 5:46:51 PM PDT by Bruce Campbells Chin ( )
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To: All

I’m sure Palantir inc is going to make some great conservative films. Maybe a comedy about letting endless h1b visa scammers invade America or a movie about how big tech spying on you is in your best interest.


9 posted on 07/21/2025 5:47:46 PM PDT by escapefromboston (Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.)
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To: escapefromboston; Openurmind
software firm Palantir

Um…..

Trump Taps Palantir to Create Database on Americans

10 posted on 07/21/2025 5:53:58 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
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To: DoodleBob

I agree with Trump on a lot of things but this isn’t one of them.


11 posted on 07/21/2025 5:56:40 PM PDT by escapefromboston (Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Love me some Ayn Rand...


12 posted on 07/21/2025 5:57:08 PM PDT by PubliusMM (RKBA; a matter of fact, not opinion. The Dhimmicraps are ALL Traitors. All of them.)
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To: Tijeras_Slim

While Ayn Rand is best known for her fiction I find her non-fiction essays higher quality.

The essays are shorter and to the point.

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


13 posted on 07/21/2025 6:01:04 PM PDT by cgbg (It was not us. It was them--all along.)
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To: yuleeyahoo

We, The Living was a good movie. Atlas Shrugged was practically unwatchable.


14 posted on 07/21/2025 6:05:41 PM PDT by GSWarrior
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Maybe fewer movies where the sympathetic, good guy hero is a lifelong psychopathic hitman who loves his kids.


15 posted on 07/21/2025 6:35:34 PM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: ansel12
Maybe fewer movies where the sympathetic, good guy hero is a lifelong psychopathic hitman who loves his kids.

That would put Liam Neeson out of business.

16 posted on 07/21/2025 6:38:16 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Democrats are the Party of racism, anger, hate and violence.)
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To: escapefromboston

The state of life, liberty, and property under Trump is a zillion times better than under Biden or Harris.

But man, o, Manischewitz…sometimes under Trump, that checkered flag comes out and suddenly BAM we drive into a wall.

Planatir is one of those “oh no! he crashed right before crossing the finish line!” moments.


17 posted on 07/21/2025 6:41:34 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I didn’t watch enough of ‘Ice Road: Vengeance’ to know what it was about, but that one should kill his career.


18 posted on 07/21/2025 6:44:10 PM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: ansel12

I started to watch it and quit five minutes in.


19 posted on 07/21/2025 6:45:19 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Democrats are the Party of racism, anger, hate and violence.)
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To: yuleeyahoo

I enjoyed the Atlas Shrugged series of movies. The problem, as I saw it, was that there were production delays. I think some of the actors changed.

I think Harvey Weinstein was going to make a movie about the Warsaw ghetto uprising. The NRA would have loved it. The New York Times would have hated it. The MSM destroyed Harvey, so the movie was never made. That could have been a good movie.


20 posted on 07/21/2025 8:05:54 PM PDT by ChessExpert (Infidels of the world unite against the evil that is Islam.)
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