grundle

http://www.riskybusinessblog.com/200...out-movie.html

With 'Atlas Shrugged,' Hollywood may have its first anti-bailout movie

By Steven Zeitchik

Hollywood could soon be going Objectivist.

After decades in development hell, Ayn Rand’s capitalism-minded “Atlas Shrugged” is taking new steps toward the big screen — with one of the film world’s most prominent money men potentially at its center.

Ryan Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media is circling the Baldwin Entertainment project and could come aboard to finance with Lionsgate, which got involved several years ago.

Rand’s popular but polarizing book — it’s derided by many literary critics but has a huge public following — tells the story of Dagny Taggart, a railroad executive trying to keep her corporation competitive in the face of what she perceives as a lack of innovation and individual responsibility.

A number of stars have expressed serious interest in playing the lead role of Taggart. Angelina Jolie previously had been reported as a candidate to play the strong female character, but the list is growing and now includes Charlize Theron, Julia Roberts and Anne Hathaway.

Although it was written a half-century ago, producers say that the book’s themes of individualism resonate in the era of Obama, government bailouts and stimulus packages -- making this the perfect moment to bring the 1,100-page novel to the big screen.

“This couldn’t be more timely,” said Karen Baldwin, who along with husband Howard is producing, with film industry consultant John Logigian advising on the project. “It’s uncanny what Rand was able to predict — about the only things she didn’t anticipate are cell phones and the Internet.” Baldwin may be on to something -- love it or hate it, "Shrugged" is seeing a resurgence, with book sales spiking as debates rage in Washington and around the country about the government's role in a faltering free-market economy.

The author’s final novel offers an embattled railroad company as a metaphor for a society that Taggart (and Rand) sees as succumbing to socialism at the expense of individual creativity. Its backbone is a 50-page speech by the mysterious but major character John Galt in which he lays out the Rand principles of Objectivism, which argues for an aggressive free market and against government activism. Let's just say it's probably not on the president's nightstand.Fra

With all the long speeches and with plot points often a Trojan Horse for Rand's ideas, it's not an easy writing or directing gig, but producers believe they've got the man who could do it. Randall Wallace, the writer on other crisis-era, politically themed works such as “Braveheart” and “Pearl Harbor,” has written the latest draft of the screenplay and is also interested in coming on to direct.(He would follow in the steps of "House of Sand and Fog" director Vadim Perelman, who had been attached to direct and fell off; we like Perelman, but would have been quite the transition for him.)

The project would likely land in the $50 million-budget range but could go higher depending on talent.

Producers are looking to shoot next year, driven in part by the timeliness, as well as by a clause in the option. A high net-worth individual with whom the Baldwins have partnered controls the option, but that option would revert to the Rand estate if production doesn't begin by the end of 2010.

An “Atlas Shrugged” movie has gone through endless development fits and starts. Faye Dunaway and Clint Eastwood had been attached to earlier versions -- if that doesn't give you an idea of how far back it goes, we don't know what will -- but with both Rand and the Rand estate very particular about how the story was handled, those iterations didn’t get traction.

This decade, Howard Baldwin and Philip Anschutz were on board to produce at their Crusader Entertainment banner, but that effort didn't take flight. The Baldwins took the project with them when the “Ray” producers split from Anschutz several years ago and pacted with the high net-worth figure, who is said to especially like the timeliness of the book's message.

Producers also say that while Relativity and Lionsgate are in the pole position to finance and distribute, other studio and financier suitors could yet materialize.

Still, Karen Baldwin praised Lionsgate and Michael Burns, who has championed the project at the studio, and also said Kavanaugh would be an appropriate partner. “The subject of the book would seem to fit with the kind of people who are willing to step up and take big chances," she said.

The Rand involvement on earlier versions -- along with the verbiage-heavy sections -- is probably why there hasn't been a Rand project on the big screen in 60 years, not since Gary Cooper played Howard Roark in Warner Bros.' "The Fountainhead." With some big-time entrepreneurs potentially coming board, there now may be a lot less shrugging and a lot more shooting.

Hokeyboy

This will be a disaster.

To truly articulate the breadth of Rand's work, the project should be a 12 hour miniseries, at least.

Secondly, the novel's purpose is to espouse objectivist theory, which is fine for thought-provoking reading but as a movie it will be rendered dramatically inert.

THE FOUNTAINHEAD is one of my top 5 books of all time, but the movie version was a major disappointment; grand philosophy idealizing the self uncomfortably staged as stilted 1940s melodarama.

Solid Snake

^what he said.....

Raul3

Agree with the above posters.

RichC2

Damn that Andrew Ryan. I tend to agree with the above as well, somebody call HBO.

The Bus

Your comments are very insightful.

TheMadMonk

I'm getting tired of Hollywood and its conservative agenda.

cleaver

That's one of the top 10 posts I've ever seen. I salute you sir.

Hokeyboy

Lusty, busty serving wenches too.

Nick Martin

You all aren't agreeing with what he said based solely on how dang intelligent he was about it are ya?

bunnydojo

This definitely seems like the kind of thing they could put into a mini-series where they insert segments throughout each 'episode' in an interesting way.

Randall Wallace didn't do a bad job adapting The Man in the Iron Mask and We Were Soldiers, so he seems like he'd be able to hold up his end as well as anyone trying to turn 1,100 pages into a couple hours.

Lead-wise, though, Jolie, Theron, Hathaway, and Roberts would each take things in a very distinct direction, so either they have no idea how they're making the movie or the article is just dropping names for the fun of doing so. It's hard to imagine Angelina Jolie and Anne Hathaway in particular ever going up for the same role.

Hokeyboy

I'd imagine most guys here could figure out a role for both.

Nick Danger

I wonder if they plan to make Atlas Shrugged with a nonunion crew?

Tracer Bullet

Rypro 525

Officer Barbrady: Yes, at first I was happy to be learning how to read. It seemed exciting and magical, but then I read this: Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. I read every last word of this garbage, and because of this piece of shit, I am never reading again.

Jon2

I'll accept the reality of this happening when I actually see it.

Every time I hear about Atlas Shugged being in development, I remember reading an announcement in Starlog magazine about 30 years ago, that ABC was developing Atlas Shrugged as a TV miniseries. Then, a few months later, there was a followup announcement of the project's cancellation.

In the followup piece, an unnamed ABC executive was quoted as saying, "It made people think too much."

Even though I had not read any of Rand's writing at the time, was disinclined to do so and would not for about another decade; I was not surprised by the unnamed executive's reputed statement. I had been hearing such "criticisms" about Rand and her writing for many years from both ends of the political spectrum.

golden_rod

I read this about eight years ago when my friend gave it to me. She had picked it up randomly at a bookstore based on the cover, read a little of it, then gave it to me because she seemed to genuinely loathe it. Even though I consider it one of the most absurd books I've ever read, it's also one of the most entertaining books I've ever read.

The one actress I always envisioned as Dagny was Gillian Anderson. No one else. The Angelina Jolie rumors have been around for years and if she's actually cast in it, I'd rather donate my money to the RNC than sit through it. Ugh.

Boba Fett

I actually just bought this book a week ago, after hearing it largely influenced Bioshock's storyline.

FM

I loved the book when I read it as an undergrad, but then I grew up. I can't really see a movie blaming suffering people for the state of things doing well in this economy. I'm sure that plenty of responsible, hard-working people are out of work through no misconduct of their own. Although, if it got people with pitchforks to march on AIG, et al...

wendersfan

It's also hard to imagine moviegoers buying the concept of clowns like Rick Wagoner or Ed Liddy as "men of the mind".

grundle

Thank you!

grundle

I read the book over a decade ago, and as I recall:

SFranke

grundle

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jj...upcoming-film/

Exclusive: ‘Atlas Shrugged’ Producer Sets Record Straight On Upcoming Trilogy

by John Nolte

If there’s a production with a longer and more colorful history behind its troubled march to the silver screen than Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged,” the story of that particular episode of development hell has not yet been told. Published in 1957 and a perennial bestseller ever since (the novel sold a half-million copies just last year), the struggle to realize Rand’s sprawling and epic dramatization of her theory of Objectivism as told through a dystopian tale of the world’s best and brightest, feeling they’ve been exploited by an ungrateful society, putting their talent on strike, eluded even the author herself.

Throughout the decades, stars from Barbara Stanwyck to Angelina Jolie have expressed interest in bringing the novel to life, but it’s going to be producers Harmon Kaslow and John Aglialoro who finally break the curse. Directed by Paul Johansson, who also stars as John Galt, and co-starring Taylor Schilling as Dagny Taggart and Matthew Marsden as James Taggart, principal photography wrapped this very day. Which means…

Yes, there will be an “Atlas Shrugged” movie. Well, at least a part one.

Big Hollywood has enjoyed two visits to the film’s set, which our own Charles Winecoff will be writing more about soon, but due to the fact that much of what we’re reading in the media regarding the film’s production doesn’t coincide with what we’ve seen and heard for ourselves, I asked producer Harmon Kaslow to help set the record straight.

Much has been made of the film’s reported budget of $5 million, especially for a project major studios have shied away from out of budgetary concerns. Like most smart producers, Kaslow won’t talk specifics, but there’s more to the story than the $5 million:

“The amount expended on the movie is far north of $5 million. The movie is based on Part 1 of the book (the book has 3 parts) … so the film is based on about 27% of the book.”

This is the first I’ve heard that this production is only the first of three films, and while I haven’t read ”Atlas Shrugged,” those who have tell me a trilogy is the perfect way to tell the story on screen. Like “Lord of the Rings,” the natural breaks in Rand’s novel practically demand it be told in three parts, and a single feature film, even a long one with a hefty studio budget behind it, would almost certainly short-change the novel’s legion of faithful fans who, regardless of budget, are most concerned about seeing an adaptation that doesn’t compromise Rand’s philosophy. To that end, Kaslow assures the Randians:

“The movie is a direct ‘adaptation’ of the book included using much of the dialogue written by Ayn Rand.”

Assuming we’re talking in the area of $15 to $20 million to film the entire novel, with no big star salaries that’s still a low budget but not a ridiculously low budget. As far as the casting of unknowns, as is the case with any film, budget constraints are a reality and when you’re working in the arena of millions as opposed to hundreds of millions, you’re not going to get a Charlize Theron or Angelina Jolie.

Kaslow told me, “The talent cast in the movie was selected on the basis of the director’s and producers’ belief in their acting skills without taking on the ‘distractions’ often associated with ‘A-List” talent.’”

I’m sure that doesn’t mean they would’ve turned down the distraction of an Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron or another A-lister, but as we’ve seen many times before, acting ability, screen presence and the chops necessary to deliver a memorable performance can come from unknowns. After all, like all great actors, at one time Jolie and Theron were unknowns.

In any case, like “Harry Potter” and the “Narnia” films, the real star here is the project itself, Ayn Rand, and Objectivism. If the performances rise to the occasion no one’s going to care that there’s no familiar name above the title.

In a Sunday piece for Daily Finance, Bruce Watson took some pretty hard shots at the production claiming it’s nothing more than a desperate and cynical rush job using an inexperienced director in order to allow Aglialoro to hold onto the film rights, which were set to expire last month had filming not begun. I asked Kaslow about this directly:

“John Aglialoro finally decided to marshal the production because it was apparent that a studio would not …

“While the rights would revert back to the estate if production did not commence by June 14, 2010, the goal of the producers is to produce a film worthy of epic nature of the novel that will satisfy the millions of persons who have read the book, but also appeal to a wide audience (so as to introduce them to the Ayn Rand’s work).

“During the course of Aglialoro’s efforts to get the film into production, the project had definitely attracted a number of very reputable directors … however, given Johansson’s passion for the material and desire to execute a faithful cinematic vision of the book, the producers believe they found a director that most will believe is a diamond in the rough.”

Kalsow also took exception to Watson’s description of Johansson’s directing experience as mostly confined ”to the set of the teen-oriented soap opera.”

Johannson did win a Daytime Emmy for writing the “Mrs. Ritchie” screenplay and was nominated for his direction that won Gena Rowlands an Emmy and James Caan a nomination.

No one, including the ”Atlas” producers, can predict how a project will ultimately turn out, and that’s true whether your budget is $5 million or $200 million. And no one would argue that the challenges involved in bringing such an ambitious and epic story to the screen aren’t made that much more difficult with with limited resources, including taking a chance on a director making his theatrical feature debut. However, from all we’ve seen and from our discussions with the producers, director, and cast, there’s no doubt that everyone involved is passionate about telling this story and most importantly, dedicated to remaining true to Ayn Rand’s philosophical vision — which would’ve likely have been compromised bigtime by a major studio.

As of now the plan is to release part one of “Atlas Shrugged” in theatres sometime during the second quarter of 2011 and start production on the second part the following fall.

Hokeyboy

Disaster waiting to happen.

Am I the only one who'd love to see Michael Bay take a crack at this? Or Uwe Boll's dramatic presentation of Siddhartha?