The New Atlas Shrugged Movie: Parable of the Obama/Tea Party Era?

By Jason Apuzzo. It took 53 years and Obama to get Atlas Shrugged into production.

That’s at least my impression of today’s news from Variety that the long-gestating adaptation of Ayn Rand’s landmark novel Atlas Shrugged (published in 1957) has finally gone into production as a $5 million indie feature, produced by John Aglialoro and Harmon Kaslow.

Variety reports: “Cameras began rolling over the weekend on a five-week shoot for Atlas Shrugged Part One with Paul Johansson directing from Brian Patrick O’Toole’s script. Aglialoro would have lost the feature rights if the film wasn’t in production by Saturday.”

There will apparently also be at least one more ‘installment’ of Atlas Shrugged filmed, as the producers have expressed the desire to break-up Rand’s massive novel into several parts.

Director Paul Johansson (“One Tree Hill”) will also be portraying lead character John Galt, while the plum role of Dagny Taggart will be going to TV’s Taylor Schilling (“Mercy”).  Check out the Variety article for more details – among which are the casting of Michael Lerner and director Nick Cassavetes.

The last time I wrote about this story was on the old version of Libertas back in 2007, when the project had Angelina Jolie attached as Dagny Taggart, in what was supposed to be a Lionsgate production produced by Howard & Karen Baldwin and Geyer Kosinski, featuring a Randall Wallace script.  All of that’s gone now, and the new project is apparently being funded by John Aglialoro, who is the CEO of Cybex – the producer of exercise equipment.  I’m thinking everyone in the cast will be in good shape.

Actor/Director Paul Johansson.

I’m sure that everyone involved in the project would call it a coincidence, but it’s fascinating to me that this project – which has been developed in fits and starts at least since the 1970’s – would finally come to life in an era when … America’s most productive citizens are feeling the squeeze of government taxation and regulation more than ever, and more industries are being nationalized.  Because that’s essentially what Atlas Shrugged is about: how America’s most productive citizens essentially decide to ‘drop out’ of productive life, after feeling the bite of excessive exploitation by the government.

What also fascinates me is that the project is not coming to life as some studio-backed, behemoth production starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz (ahem).  It’s being made essentially as a scrappy indie production by people who are obviously passionate about the film’s message.  [I know some of you are saying: a $5 million budget is ‘scrappy’?  It certainly is if you’re trying to shoot Atlas Shrugged!] Isn’t this perfectly reflective of the current Tea Party phenomenon?  A phenomenon whereby regular citizens working outside the usual channels harness their passion to hit the streets and make things happen.

I want to wish the makers of Atlas Shrugged the best in their production.  My sense is that they’ve got a challenging road ahead, due to the complexity of their project.  But I’m glad producers John Aglialoro and Harmon Kaslow decided not to ‘drop out’ themselves, but to instead pull together what resources they have and bring this extraordinary novel to life.

ADDITIONAL ASIDE: LFM Contributor David Ross adds: “Resurgent collectivism has made Ayn Rand more relevant than ever. According to the Ayn Rand Institute , Atlas Shrugged is selling as never before, with some 500,000 copies flying off the shelves in 2009, and annual sales of Rand’s four novels topping one million for the first time ever.

“Here’s Rand, in all her rebarbative glory, toying with the slickly shallow Mike Wallace: Rand-Wallace YouTube interview Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.”

Posted on June 14th, 2010 at 10:50am.

Published by

Jason Apuzzo

Jason Apuzzo is co-Editor of Libertas Film Magazine.

16 thoughts on “The New Atlas Shrugged Movie: Parable of the Obama/Tea Party Era?”

  1. I’m amazed that a major studio didn’t make this, given how many copies have been sold of Atlas Shrugged. 500,000 copies of the novel in 2009 alone – that could have been ticket buyers. Still, I’m glad these filmmakers got their production off the ground.

  2. Did the Ayn Rand Institute have anything to do with this? I wonder if this will get any distribution. Hopefully it will stay true to the original novel and will not be hamstrung too much by its low budget. I don’t know how they’ll film this for $5 million.

    1. The timeliness of the project suggests to me that it will probably get theatrical distribution. As for the low budget, the whole thing depends on how much of the novel they’re trying to bite-off for their $5 mil.

  3. It’s long overdue and I’m thrilled it’s not the hands of the Hollywood elite. It’s always been my fear they’d make some bastardized version and totally dilute it’s impact. Like the remake of the Manchurian Candidate. Also it couldn’t come at a more perfect time considering our country is currently enduring the worst President since Jimmy Carter!

    1. John, we were waiting for you to comment on this one! Yes, somehow I think it’s good that this group of people are doing it – as it’s likely that the project will retain its theme. And as you say, the timing could not be better. I expect that this will have a good shot at getting theatrical distribution.

  4. This is very exciting! I look forward to seeing this. Lots of people have done good low-budget films about Rand and her works. Look at the Italian production of “We the Living” – wasn’t that done on a lower budget? Let’s just support this and give them the benefit of the doubt.

    1. Agreed, Prehistoric Woman. I think it’s great that they’re giving this a go, and not waiting around for the $100 million studio financing that was probably never forthcoming to begin with.

  5. The problem with splitting up the book into three movies is not the first movie or the final movie, but the middle movie. A movie that starts at the beginning of the book and makes it to the first train on the John Galt line would be a good movie. A movie that starts when Dagny wakes up in Galt’s Gulch and makes it to the end of the book would be a good movie. But a movie that starts with Dagny and Hank’s love affair and ends with a cliffhanger of Dagny crashing in the Colorado rockies, I don’t think that makes a good movie. It’s kind of like The Matrix Reloaded, a movie hurt by the fact that its not a free-standing film that can exist without its predecessor or sequel. Unlike The Two Towers, a story that has a richer existence than only its own, but can still entertain with a viewing that’s isolated from the other members of the trilogy.

    Still, I’m excited it’s finally started and I can’t wait to see the final product. And of the three characters I saw, none of them reeked of invalid, except maybe Taylor Schilling. For some reason, I just can’t see anyone but Angelina Jolie in that role. But I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.

    1. I agree – there are a lot of challenges in converting this project into something entertaining and coherent. The early reporting on this project indicated that the producers actually wanted to make 4 films out of the novel – a kind of mini-franchise. Doubtless that grew expensive, and also a bit unrealistic in terms of peoples’ appetite for this stuff.

      I also agree with you that Jolie would’ve been perfect, but the fact that this film is getting made at all is really the crucial thing. It’s amazing how timely it’s going to be, coming so many decades after the novel was originally published.

  6. According to another site, Aglialoro would have lost the feature rights if the film wasn’t in production by Saturday.
    Now, suddenly they’re rushing into production with a budget ala the Blair Witch Project and a first time director. Which means that it’s entirely possible that this will end up more a way of supressing Atlas than promoting it. The left side of the culture blogs are licking their lips and throwing poo.

    Frankly, this stinks.

    1. K, just so you know, I did mention that – I quoted directly from Variety in my post:

      Variety reports: “Cameras began rolling over the weekend on a five-week shoot for Atlas Shrugged Part One with Paul Johansson directing from Brian Patrick O’Toole’s script. Aglialoro would have lost the feature rights if the film wasn’t in production by Saturday.”

      I also wouldn’t quite call this a ‘Blair Witch’ level budget. That film was made for $17K. No matter, let the lefties guffaw … there’s still a good chance this thing will be out in hundreds of theaters once it’s done.

  7. This is not like making The Lord of the Rings trilogy. (Which I always assumed was impossible until Peter Jackson did it. And by the way am I the only person that cried crocodile tears when Guillermo del Toro pulled out of directing The Hobbit? He’s totally wrong for that size of picture. Please Peter direct The Hobbit so no one else screws it up!) Atlas Shrugged is character driven and the effects really are minimal. Again my only worry was the wrong people (99.8% of Hollywood) would try to make it into a movie.

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