'Atlas Shrugged,' Take Five

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

[RJCogburn]

Fans of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged have heard this one before: the movie rights have been sold and the enduring bestseller is coming to the silver screen.

Admirers of the epic 1957 novel may be skeptical of the news that Beverly Hills-based Crusader Entertainment bought the rights to Rand's story of the mind on strike.

Past attempts to make Atlas Shrugged into a movie have failed, though Crusader president and CEO Howard Baldwin is arguably better prepared than his predecessors. He has read Rand's gigantic novel, he has hired a top screenwriter and -- consistent with Rand's literary philosophy -- he's already thinking larger than life.

"Our goal is to adapt the book without any restrictions," Baldwin said during an exclusive interview with Box Office Mojo from his office in Beverly Hills. 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."

That's no easy task. The novel, over 1,000 pages long, presents the essential principles of Rand's radical philosophy of self-interest, reason and capitalism.

While Atlas Shrugged is routinely vilified by left-wing intellectuals, who oppose Rand's view that capitalism is the only moral economic system, and repudiated by those on the right, who shudder at Rand's rejection of religion, it remains deeply loved by readers, who named it the second most influential book of their lives in a 1991 Library of Congress/Book-of-the-Month club survey -- behind only the Bible.

As a movie, its potential to move audiences is profound. Today's times seem taken straight from the pages of Atlas Shrugged: New York City at the core of a disastrous climax, businessmen under government persecution, chronic train wrecks and the slow, grinding halt of society's basic functions. The Ayn Rand Institute describes it as "Ayn Rand's complete philosophy, dramatized in the form of a mystery story 'not about the murder of a man's body, but about the murder — and rebirth — of man’s spirit."

Baldwin said Crusader became interested last year after billionaire businessman and Crusader Entertainment Chairman Philip Anschutz -- himself the recent target of government regulators -- noticed a front page USA Today article about the tremendous influence of Atlas Shrugged among business leaders.

"Phil gave me a call and said, 'Can we get this?'" It didn't hurt that one of Baldwin's friends, businessman Ed Snider, was cited in the article. Snider had previously owned the movie rights to Atlas Shrugged, and put Baldwin on track to buy them.

Baldwin projected a long development -- funded by Crusader -- though he said he expects a script treatment by the end of this summer. Screenwriter James V. Hart (Contact, Tuck Everlasting, Bram Stoker's Dracula), who penned Crusader's Sahara starring Matthew McConaughey, is writing the script.

Crusader is the latest entertainment company to take a crack at Atlas. Rand, who died in 1982 at age 77, sold the rights to producer Albert S. Ruddy (The Godfather) in 1972 -- but a movie was never made. Later, writer and producer Stirling Silliphant (In the Heat of the Night, The Towering Inferno) wrote a script for an NBC television miniseries -- which was killed by NBC executive Fred Silverman.

In 2000, Turner Network Television sought to make an original miniseries, with Albert Ruddy as producer -- but the deal fell apart in the wake of AOL's merger with TimeWarner and the devastating Sept. 11 attack by Islamic terrorists. Ruddy later tried to make a feature-length movie but his contract expired before he could secure financing.

Baldwin said Crusader is prepared to tackle the obstacles associated with such an ambitious undertaking. In keeping with Rand's view that making money is virtuous, Baldwin said he fully expects to make a profit from Atlas Shrugged.

"Atlas Shrugged is not going to be a low budget movie," Baldwin said. "But I think the box office potential is huge, because of the enormous interest. It is one of the best-selling books of all time."

[HitmanLV]

Do it with unknowns and save a fortune on the cast budget.

[Conservative Kay]

Tommy Lee Jones as Reardon.

[Misterioso]

This is from the WSJ article about Phil Anschutz that ran a week or so ago:

"For a brief time, Anschutz and Baldwin were excited about the prospect of filming Ayn Rand's epic novel Atlas Shrugged. They snapped up the movie rights for more than $200,000 in 2003, only to discover that the 1,075-page book's sprawling nature, long speeches and many subplots made it an extremely problematic film project. Anschutz insiders say it's an open question whether they will press on."

The project looks to be dead in the water.

[Mamzelle]

I think this could also be one for the small screen--make a six-weeker out of it.

[nonliberal]

Ah, but the fun question is: Who would you cast in the major roles?

Hank Rearden-John Malkovich
John Galt-Gary Sinise
Francisco-Andy Garcia
Dagny-maybe Sela Ward or someone like that
Ragnar-Ted Nugent
Hugh Akston-Robert Duvall
Eddie Willers-Drew Carey
James Taggart-Kelsey Grammer
Orren Boyle-Dennis Franz
Ellis Wyatt-Brad Pitt

[nonliberal]

I would throw in David Ogden Stiers as Halley.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Some books are too important to make shallow, facile films from. I wish Hollywood would just leave Atlas Shrugged alone.

[TradicalRC]

I would throw in David Ogden Stiers as Halley.

While he does have the aristocratic bearing, he does not have the "look".

I would have DOS as Jim Taggart and Kelsey Grammar as Halley.

And now that I think about, there's gotta be a spot for George Clooney somewhere.

[RoarkMan]

Given my handle is "Roarkman," you know I gotta give this a ping.

Ping.

[nonliberal]

Clooney is a flaming pinko.

More cast members:

"Non Absolute"-Freddie Prinze, Jr.
Wesley Mouch-Steve Buscemi
Lillian Rearden-Patricia Heaton
Quentin Daniels-Stifler from American Pie
I would also make room for Jeff Daniels in the cast.

[r9etb]

I hope they do the book justice. It is a great read, and prescient.

Not to mention immensely juvenile. Whittaker Chambers eviscerated the novel, and he's correct.

[r9etb]

I hope they get someone to who is 'into' the book to Direct and write the screenplay...

Let's be honest, Doc: it would be an awful movie. The only way it could work is as camp, in the same way they did Dragnet.

[TradicalRC]

I'd have Matt Damon play Quentin Daniels.

[TradicalRC]

Clooney is a flaming pinko.

One must assume that everyone in Hollywood is a flaming pinko, whether willfully or by default because they are generally too stupid to make a living at doing anything but repeat dialogue.

You simply can't use that as a standard for hiring, we can count the Hollywood conservatives on one hand and they are not really all that conservative (except for Mr. Gibson).

[TradicalRC]

I read both Witness and Atlas Shrugged and enjoyed them both.
Yes, Chambers was correct in attacking her atheistic philosophy but wrong in not even attempting to find common ground or debating her philosophical principles point by point.
He was too broad in his dismissal of her. It would have been more helpful if libertarians and conservatives could have been on the same side while the liberal Leviathon was (is) expanding. Too bad they don't declare a truce until government starts getting smaller. Then we could debate on exactly how small is small enough.

[Fishface]

I agree. Diane Lane would make a great Dagny Taggart.

I also think that Deniro would make a great Hank Reardon.

[r9etb]

The problem with Ayn Rand is that she was nothing more or less than an intellectual fraud. Her philosophy is built on a set contradictory assumptions that cannot be demonstrated by application of reason, except as a relativist philosophy.

You say Chambers was correct in attacking her atheistic philosophy. But you need to ask yourself whether her philosophy even makes sense if her atheism is wrong -- and it doesn't.

So we're left with a novel that "exposes" a bunch of things that we already knew were bad, and she writes it down with all the style and grace of a German jazz band.

[Guvmint_Cheese]

I dunno if Hollywood can put together a decent movie for Atlas Shrugged. First, it would have to be a "Winds of War"-type mini-series that would last a week. Second, they'd have to figure a way to get D'Anconia's "Money" speech and Galt's radio broadcast down to seven minutes each. Considering the ever-shrinking attention span of television viewers, will any network take the risk to show it? Plus, I can't imagine which Hollywood producer or director can put something like this together without working in a Leftist slant.

But if someone can pull this off, I'll get the beer and popcorn.

[Aquinasfan]

While Atlas Shrugged is routinely vilified by left-wing intellectuals, who oppose Rand's view that capitalism is the only moral economic system, and repudiated by those on the right, who shudder at Rand's rejection of religion,

I'm one of those right-wingers. Beyond that, her philosophizing is very shallow. Her philosophy is a house of cards, resting on nothing but her rhetoric. She does a lot of hand-waving, and claims Aristotle as her inspiration, but I doubt that she read him. She never mentions the basics of his philsophy, which includes substance and accident, the four causes, and the problem of change. She also claims to admire Aquinas, at least to a degree, but never mentions the five transcendentals, his "five ways" of proving the existence of God, the problem of universals, and his resolution of the antimony of God's transcendence and immanence.

[Aquinasfan]

I have also come to believe that there are people that must do things that while maintaining the freedom and liberty of the majority, dooms their souls.

You should reconsider this position. It's Machiavellian, and not consonant with Catholic teaching.