'Atlas Shrugged:' Who is James Hart?

Box Office Mojo ^ | 5/18/03 | Scott Holleran

[BCrago66]

Sounds promising, save for the fact that the screen-writer, judging from his past work, appears to be a lightweight.

[Koblenz]

Well, you need someone who will be able to take a 1000+ page book and get it down to about 2 hours of movie, while still keeping the story line and the philosophy intact. I'd much rather have this done by someone who has experience in putting books to film than an intellectual who would make a movie four hours long that would be shown in 60 arthouses across the country before becoming a real expensive DVD that was usually unavailable. This ensures that a mainstream studio will produce it, that it will have recognizable actors, advertisements, production staff, and placement. I'd hope that a movie like this would be seen by those who may not have been exposed to her works previously.

[RJCogburn]

Baldwin said it's too early to peg the project as a three-hour movie, a miniseries or even a trilogy. "It may be two movies, it may be three," he teased. "We want to tell Atlas Shrugged properly."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/925414/posts

[kezekiel]

Julia Roberts as Dagney Taggert? Puh-LEEZE...

However, Vincent D'onofrio would make a great John Galt. Bruce Willis as Hank Reardon.

[BradyLS]

"I hated [Atlas Shrugged] in college," the 56-year-old New Yorker admitted. "It was the peace and love era and the values of the time weren't consistent with Ayn Rand's philosophy. Years later, I read it again and it blew me away. I've read it four times in the last six months."

Sounds promising, save for the fact that the screen-writer, judging from his past work, appears to be a lightweight.Uh oh. Another legendary book for Hollywood to destory. They dumbed down Startship Troopers. They turned The Two Towers into a war movie. And now Atlas Shrugged will simply become a two hour adaptation of The Julia Roberts Fantasy Bio-pic. Be afraid, people. Be every afraid!

[MarkL]

I was just thinking about a book that I haven't read in a long time. It's a "Utopian Society" book by Ira Levin (the guy who wrote Rosemary's Baby, Boys from Brazil, and the screenplay for No Time for Sergeants) titled "This Perfect Day."

I just thought that I'd toss that out here to, although it's not really "like" Atlas Shrugged, it does say some things about society.

Mark

[Larry Lucido]

"It will be not be [set in the past]," Hart revealed. "This is 15 years in our future. John Galt, Hank Rearden -- these are the kind of heroes we don't see anymore. All the main characters stay. Jim Taggart and Cherryl are in there. Eddie Willers is in there -- he's the voice."

So, if it's set in the future, what kind of company will Dagney run? An airline? And I wonder what application Rearden Metal might have in such an industry?

[Yeti]

And now Atlas Shrugged will simply become a two hour adaptation of The Julia Roberts Fantasy Bio-pic. Be afraid, people. Be every afraid!

I've noticed that Objectivism is under that special kind of attack, where it is getting redifined in stupid ways by people who allege themselves to be its proponents.

I think the Powers That Be see it as some sort of ideological threat to the ongoing "whatever thingy" that isn't going on.

Time to usurp it. In ten years, Objectivism will stand for heroically fighting the forces of xenophobia and hate, and the establishment of a new era of prosperity and freedom, as facillitated by a New World Order of Individual Producers.

Either that, or it will stand for arrogant jerks who don't know squat.

I can't wait to see which way it will go....

[chipengineer]

>So, if it's set in the future, what kind of company will Dagney run? An airline? And I wonder what application Rearden Metal might have in such an industry?

How about a balistic travel-space line: London to Sydney in 50 minutes and space station vacations. Rearden Metal could make it practical.

[Atlas Sneezed]

I was thinking about Tom Hanks as Reardan.

Willis as Ragnar Danneskjold?

[InterceptPoint]

"Julia Roberts. Jodie Foster -- she was wonderful in Contact. Ashley Judd," he suggested.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Let it be Ashley Judd.

If there is any justice in this world, Ashley Judd will be Dagny Taggart. World class beauty. World class brains. Perfect.

[eddie willers]

Ashley Judd will be Dagny Taggart.

Can't argue with that.

Antonio Banderas as 'Frisco?

[InterceptPoint]

Antonio Banderas as 'Frisco?

Sounds good to me.

[beckett]

Rand's own television script for Atlas Shrugged, which she became involved in to busy herself around the time her husband Frank died in 1979, was never produced. From memory I believe it was supposed to be a ten hour mini-series.

Hart may find some useful stuff in it. Although I don't much care for Rand, I do agree that a well produced film version of Atlas Shrugged could be very interesting. And certainly the legions of admirers of the book deserve a well done film interpretation of the book.

[decimon]

Connie Nielsen as Taggart.

[HitmanLV]

It sure looks like that, but the Guardians of the Rand Gate are very protective. If anyone wants to hijack Objectivism, they will come under heavy counter-attack.

[Larry Lucido]

Here are some possible dialogue segments, which the screenwriter may feel free to use at no cost:

"Say, Leroy, this triple-blade Rearden Metal razor gives me a closer shave than anything I've ever tried before."

"I just don't trust that Rearden Metal on my skin. No telling what an evil industrialist would put in that metal - it could cause cancer! Besides, I hear he uses non-union labor to make it, and charges so much that the poor can't get a decent shave. And it's not fair that only he gets to make Rearden Blades. He should be forced to license women and minority businesses to make Rearden Blades too."

[Benrand]

I'd be happy with a black actor cast as Rearden, I think it would be a fascinating character if it were. It would be more apropos for current society with the climate of self-destruction in the black community. A real hero, not some joking smart ass rapper.

But Galt would have to be played by someone a little bit "geeky", like the Randian hero in Spiderman...maybe the guy who played Jack Geoghan in We Were Soldiers...or perhaps Barry Pepper. Or some of the other young actos in Private Ryan.

I should sit down and read it again this summer.

[RJCogburn]

I'd be happy with a black actor cast as Rearden

I've like Denzel Washington as Galt, but he would be a good Rearden.