I would love to be an extra in this movie if at all possible (Atlas Shrugged is my favorite book of all-time), even if just in the background somewhere. How does one get a message to Mr. Johansson (or could my e-mail be passed along to him in case he needs someone)?! My wife and I have “Gone Galt” (testing the waters for a year…we’ve quit our jobs, sold the house, and are traveling in our RV across North America and then down into Mexico….or so the plan currently stands).

Again, great interview and I’m glad to have found your site.

Cheers, Derek

I am highly disturbed by the first scene talking about US dependence on foreign oil – the Atlas Shrugged the countries of the world are all People’s States and the US is the last man standing. I understand that they are trying to make things sound relevant, but this is just going to create contradictions.

I wanted to see this movie in the Mad Men style – i.e. what someone from the 1950s thought the near future would be like. Instead it’s got CG, CNN style sets, LCDs, Plasma displays, etc…

How will people be expected to consider trains relevant in today’s age? Obviously they are, but a movie pretending to be in the 1960s would make the train theme more relevant.

What I liked was that they mentioned the movie being neatly started and wrapped up with the Wyatt storyline. Although the director spooks me when he talks about blasting away all the explicit dialogue and replacing it with choices… I understand keeping the essential and trimming the fat for a movie, but he makes it sound like he’s purposely avoiding any dialogue that could sound … prescriptive in nature. Combine this with his talk of “not wanting to sound arrogant”, and I really start to wonder.

I hope the movie ends up being great – and I would like to see some post-edited scenes posted to give us a feel for it. I know I will go see it, and probably go quite a few times with all my friends if it ends up being good.

Congratulations on wrapping up production of the movie, Atlas Shrugged. As the writer/director of another film in development that was inspired by Ayn Rand, I understand what an accomplishment it is to have completed shooting your film.

However, after watching this interview, I was disturbed to hear you repeat a couple of times, that ‘Atlas Shrugged’ is about the nobility in man’s spirit.

Nobility? Really?? Is this is how you and your producers are going to frame ‘Atlas Shrugged’?

While Ms. Rand’s novel is about many things — laisse faire capitalism, objectivism, individual rights — I don’t think it’s about the nobility in man’s spirit. Rather, I think it reveals something much darker lurking there.

Consider that Atlas Shrugged repeatedly sells hundreds of thousands of copies each year despite being over fifty years old, and that several years ago it was listed by the Library of Congress as being one of the most influential American books, second only to the Bible. Indeed, many conservative political and business leaders cite the book as being ‘profoundly influential.’

If, as you say, Atlas Shrugged is about the nobility of man’s spirit, wouldn’t we expect those sectors of society that have embraced it, along with many of Ayn Rand’s other philosophies, to reflect nobility?

Places like the floor of the senate where Republicans held up unemployment insurance benefits for cash-strapped families while simultaneously working to extend tax breaks for the rich. Or Wall Street where Goldman Sachs made millions of dollars while selling securities that were secretly designed to fail. Or in West Virginia where a coal mine operator skirted regulations and left 25 dead, or BP, a corporation that did the same thing and left 12 dead along with the worst environmental disaster in American history.

Are these the places where you see the ‘nobility of the human spirit’?

Mr. Johansson, please take back the word ‘nobility’ when discussing Atlas Shrugged. To describe this book and the ideas it has spawned as ‘noble,’ is to do a grave diservice to those things that really do deserve the honor of the word.

In the meantime, I truly wish you all the best with the post-production of the film.

James Lantz, writer/director
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http://www.HideFoxTheMovie.com

I will take a closer look at Rand’s “Romantic Manifesto” (which I read some years ago), and John Galt’s speech in “Atlas Shrugged” to assess Rand’s handling of these themes. Nonetheless, I believe Johansson has the right idea when he speaks about the importance in Rand of the value of the individual, of the nobility of man’s spirit. If Johansson gets those themes right in the film, as we discussed in the interview, then he will get the overall idea of the novel right, whether or not we all agree on the exact definitions he uses when discussing Rand’s work.

I’m sorry, Mr. Johansson. But, religion doesn’t hold a monopoly on morals, ethics or an ideological worldview.

One of the key aspects of Rand’s message in the book, discussed at length by Galt during his speech, is the fact that mankind can derive a metaphysical system without any help from religion, and indeed Galt’s speech is an indictment not just of collectivism but also mysticism, of which the world’s religions play a huge part.

Johansson’s statement about Rand’s deficiency in metaphysics is especially startling when one recalls his mention of Rand’s other books in the Pt. 1 interview, which leads one to believe he’s read and liked them. A huge chunk of Rand’s nonfiction deals explicitly with metaphysics. It’s a statement like that that makes me wonder just how firm a grasp Johansson has of the themes in “Atlas Shrugged” and the worldview Rand meant to convey in her novel.