Posted on 04/28/2006 10:28:38 AM PDT by Ed Hudgins
[The owner of the "Atlas" movie rights and executive producer is an Atlas Society/Objectivist Center Trustee. So here's the inside scoop!]
The effort to film Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged has just taken a big step forward. Daily Variety reports a leaked story that Lionsgate, the independent studio whose movie "Crash" recently won the Oscar for best picture, will be distributing the film.
We've confirmed today that a deal is going forward under which Lionsgate will take an option to finance and distribute the film. The executive producers are John Aglialoro, a Trustee of The Atlas Society and The Objectivist Center, and Howard Baldwin, whose movie "Ray" won an Oscar for best actor (Jamie Foxx). Lionsgate will put around $35 million into the film.
The film will be based on a script of the first part of the novel, written by Jim V. Hart and reviewed by David Kelley, founder of The Atlas Society-The Objectivist Center. Hart also penned the script for the film "Contact," based on the novel by astronomer Carl Sagan. It is anticipated "Atlas" will be a multi-part film.
So far no actors have been cast; that will be done by the director, once one is chosen, in conjunction with the executive producers and Lionsgate.
Variety also reports that stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are interested in parts in the film. This will come as no surprise to subscribers of The New Individualist. Subscribe
The current issue features the two on the cover, and in an article by the publication's editor, Robert Bidinotto, which looks at the interest in Rand's works among Hollywood's elite.
Cover:
We will keep you apprised of further developments.
You know, if I hadn't read Atlast Shrugged when I was a teenager who knows what ideology I'd be embracing right about now...
And it wasn't on my reading list either.
Jolie is supposed to be a big fan of Ayn Rand...yet Jolie is also devoted to one-world government and worships at the altar of the U.N.
That book changed my life...
I guess that is why Hollywood would embrace it.
After hearing that John Revolting is playing JR and J-Blo is doing Sue-Ellen Ewing in the upcoming "Dallas" movie, my interest dropped faster than the "space ship" in Contact!
Somebody should be embarassed.
"Jolie is supposed to be a big fan of Ayn Rand...yet Jolie is also devoted to one-world government and worships at the altar of the U.N."
Like so many conservatives, who listen to utterly subversive, even outright communist rock lyrics and don't have a clue, many liberals likewise read Ayn Rand and just don't "get" it. Jolie would appear to be among these.
The big stylistic question is will the movie be set in the Art Deco era or will it be updated to the present day?
If it's set in the past the question is will it have impact only as a noir thriller or will the parallels to today be able to be pulled through.
This country could use a John Galt or two these days.
I hope it's a better job than the movie of "The Fountainhead."
I thought that was J-Ho.
It was originally his second choice, but the role of John Galt in "The Fountainhead" had already been cast.
If it's done as a highly stylized, perhaps noir-type of film ... Blade Runner? Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow? ... they can basically tell the story, but it "won't really mean anything".
I'm seriously surprised that Hollywood would consider giving the story a wide audience. It's a devastating look at how to make a society crumble.
I have come to realize that nothing these two will do individually or together in any future project will be of any consequence. I think they are both toast. I don't like either one of them, and I will never pay to see any of their films.
HOLLYWOOD WILL BUTCHER THE BOOK IN THEIR MOVIE!.....
I read it too. Believe it or not, at the request of my 11th grade English teacher!
Thats funny ... the communist in hollywood want to make a movie about economic freedom/capitalism? I wonder how bad they will distort it.
Exactly!
I find that alot of people who are Rand fans dont really "get" her, mostly libs, but even alot of "conservatives".
The english teacher who turned me on to Rand was a flaming liberal. Still one of my favorite teachers though..
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