OwlAtHome

http://www.baldwinent.com/prod_atlasshrugged.html

Anglina Jolie will be playing Dagny Taggart. Seems like an interesting choice but I really don't know who I'd cast in that part, maybe Cate Blanchett? For some reason I think Will Ferrell would be good as Hank Reardon but who is John Galt?

So far Jolie is the only actor cast. The screenplay was written by Randall Wallace of Braveheart and We Were Soldiers.

I recently saw The Fountainhead for the very first time and loved it. Of course the screenplay was written by Rand herslf but I think now is a great time for the two novels to me adapted and re-adapted for the screen.

Josh-da-man

My dream cast:

Dagney Taggert = Juliette Lewis
John Galt = Crispin Glover
Hank Rearden = Christopher Walken
Francisco d'Anconia = John Leguizamo

Jon2

Sounds more like the cast for an Atlas Shrugged parody.

They'd have better luck with a cast of unknowns, rather than going with names (like Jolie) who have a bunch of baggage (in more ways than one).

antennaball

Braveheart and We Were Soldiers? Guess we'll see Mel Gibson as Hank Rearden.

John Galt

I've been eagerly awaiting this since I first heard the news several months ago. I highly doubt it will live up to my expectations but am excited that it will finally see the light of day (maybe then people will realize this isn't my real name). Angelina Jolie was in no way what I had in mind for Dagny but from what I have read she is a huge fan of the novel and this is her dream part so I'm thinking she will do a good job with the part. As for John Galt, I hope they find a relatively unknown person to play the part so that it will keep the mystery in his identity during the film.

Lateralus

For this book to be given any sort of justice the movie will need to be at least 5 or 6 hours long.

Josh-da-man

It's next to impossible to read the novel, especially with modern sensibilities, and not come to the conclusion that the lead characters are all barking mad.

The only way the movie would work is if it was done with a healthy dose of surrealism and satire ala "Brazil."

The characters (at least Rand's heroic ideals) are all so straight-laced and earnest that the audience would be laughing at them in a straight-up adaption. And even then, the novel is still kind of silly with all of the death rays and torture machines.

Jon2

It's not my intent to engage in any sort of back-and-forth, prolonged discussion about Rand's work, but I couldn't disagree more.

They are "so straight-laced and earnest" because they are projections of "heroic ideals," not a dumbed-down, wisecracking, James Bond-style (or fill in the name of a current faddish character representation of a) stereotype of hip, cool sophistication.

The notion that a (modern or contemporary) "audience would be laughing at them in a straight-up adaption" is similar to statements I've read before. Some may. Many people have an inappropriate response when faced with situations they don't comprehend, or fear. Sometimes people laugh, and not because they find something unintentionally funny.

Besides, the continuing sales and popularity of Rand's work leads me to think that most people won't have a problem.

However, I do think there is one major story element that modern audiences may have a problem with. The railroad industry. Rand completely missed it with that one.

Rand purists would have a fit (and I understand why), but if they do finally adapt Atlas Shrugged, they should change the railroad industry story elements to the airline/aerospace industry. All things considered, the airline/aerospace industry today is at about at the place in society that the railroad industry was when Rand wrote AS.

You are referring to two small (in and of themselves), separate story elements that bookend the novel. Is any story with such elements inherently silly? The field of SF literature is rife with stories filled with those two particular devices. Considering that the story has SF undercurrents (a setting in the "not-too-distant-future" being one of them), and that the devices (as described in the novel) actually do existing now, I fail to see the silliness.

But that's just me.

mike7162

I read a while back that Robert Halmi Jr. was going to do a miniseries of the book for TNT. I guess that's off the table now?

Kim Delaney = Dagney Taggert
Armand Assante = Hank Reardon
Jonathan Tucker = John Galt

Think of the possibilities!

Panda Phil

Man, gonna be a lot of pissed off middle-aged, humorless political nerds out there if this isn't a slavish word-for-word adaptation.

Troy Stiffler

So did everyone preorder their tickets for Atlas Shrugged Part II?

Josh-da-man

I didnt' even know they were making this, and looked it up on IMDB, and there it is.

Why does this have a completely different cast? I don't think one person from Part I is listed in the credits.

RocShemp

Wasn't there originally a much bigger thread for the first flick. I seem to recall someone posted the trailer there and it looked like a Lifetime Original.

Solid Snake

There was a thread for it:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/movie-talk/...4-15-11-a.html

Jason

If you saw even a few minutes of this stinkburger you'd know that the original cast have all since changed their names and gotten out of acting.

lamphorn

This was such a waste. They went from what was reportedly a great script with Angelina Jolie and a respectable director attached to a quickie, written-in-a-week, shot-in-10-days, crapfest.. all because the dolt who held the rights didn't want them to expire (and cost more to renew, or lose it to someone else) before Jolie would have become available. So he literally wrote the horrible hackneyed script himself and slapped half a production together.

I made it through about 30 minutes of it on Netflix streaming. It's not worth the bandwidth it rode in on.. and I'm writing as someone who loved the novel (granted it's been a LONG time since I've read it and don't know if I'd love it now). People are under the mistaken idea that Ayn Rand fans love this horrific abortion of a movie. A shit movie is a shit movie, and this is a shit movie.

Of course they dumped the cast for Part 2.. probably in some attempt to convince viewers that this one will be better. I don't have high hopes.