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"Atlas Shrugged" Movie

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If the Atlas Shrugged movie is as well done as Lord of the Rings I don't know that we could ask for more. I thought it was one of the best adaptations from a novel to screen ever accomplished.

I agree. The only thing about LOTR that was a bit of a clunker to me was having all those little hints that Grima and Saruman had taken over the shire (finding the stash of pipeweed for instance)--then leaving that whole part of the book out. Put 'em both in or leave 'em both out. I tend to think that whole sequence was an anticlimax so it should have been left out (and was).

I simply cannot imagine how anyone could consider LOTR a "Frankenmovie".

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  • 5 months later...
TOC David Kelley is indeed involved with the [Atlas Shrugged movie].

I wonder how much David Kelley will alter the ideological content of Ayn Rand's philosophy for the purposes of the movie as co-producer. I just hope that the movie does not argue that ideas cannot be judged as evil and that nobody has a good answer to the mind-body dichotomy.

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Here is my own eccentric list of cast:

Cherryl Brooks - Ragnhildur Steinunn

Dagny Taggart - Ziyi Zhang

Ellis Wyatt - Viggo Morthesen

Francisco d'Anconia - Antonia banderas

Hank Rearden - John Stossel

James Taggart - Kevin Spacey

John Galt - Brad Pitt

Lillian Rearden - Mia Farrow

Midas Mulligan - Morgan Freeman

The unnamed newsstand owner - Sean Connery

Ragnar Danneskjöld -Jhonny Depp

Well if anyone could afford this cast...

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This is a bit tangential but, having been to the movies lately, I had a distinct twitch of the heart when the trailer for M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening" ran.

It doen't really fit on all accounts but if you take it with a grain of salt you could imagine that whatever "the happening" is could be the event discribed by the disappearence of all the producers in the country ala Atlas Shrugged.

I guess it's just neat that this disaster type angle could actually work for an adaptation of Atlas Shrugged.

One part in the trailer has the protagonist asking a bunch of train conductors "What do you mean you've lost contact? Lost contact with who?" to which one of the conductors says "Everyone." heh :dough: I thought that was neat.

>>>>>>MENTIONED TRAILER<<<<<<

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Relevant movie update:

http://www.theatlasphere.com/columns/08022...ugged-movie.php

They're aiming for Russell Crowe for Rearden, as I had hoped!

I think what's most interesting of all is his statement about the response it will get:

I think the extreme right and the extreme left will unite in a rare unity to denounce the movie and its philosophic message. We will have hostile reviews. But the quality of this production will win out.
Edited by brian0918
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This is of course assuming it doesn't hash up the message so badly no one opposed to Objectivism will have a complaint.

Or that it doesn't distort Objectivism into exploitativie "egoism" which of course would give people misconceptions we will have to combat for the next 100 years.

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2.5 hours is not a lot of time to take a serious look at the ideas put forward in an 1100+ page book. I'm sceptical that it can be done well. They should have made a trilogy.

My .02

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Or they'll fill the entirety of Galt's Speech with shots of Angelina Jolie's cleavage.
Well, they'll have to fill it with something other than a continuous shot of Galt speaking. As long as what they do fits the movie, is interesting and beautiful, added cleavage couldn't hurt.

Looks as though this movie will never get made. And as for Angelina Jolie, it seems like she's out, unfortunately.

Edited by JASKN
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Galt's Speech abriged alone is 45 minutes. WHich means they will probably cut it down to 10 for the average dumb-american attention span. Or they'll fill the entirety of Galt's Speech with shots of Angelina Jolie's cleavage.

LOL.

I think that they could do an abridged version hitting the salient points and not bore the non-Objectivist to tears if they do it in the same way as the "This Is John Galt Speaking" series on youtube.

BTW if you haven't seen this series, you should.

Oh, and take

while you're there. Mine is the first one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKDl24_qZzA.
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LOL.

I think that they could do an abridged version hitting the salient points and not bore the non-Objectivist to tears if they do it in the same way as the "This Is John Galt Speaking" series on youtube.

BTW if you haven't seen this series, you should.

Oh, and take

while you're there. Mine is the first one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKDl24_qZzA.

The use of Fred Thompson talking about "self-sacrifice" and "the common good" before being interrupted by Galt's "Mr. Thompson will not be speaking to you tonight" is inspired!! Almost made me spit my coffee out all over my keyboard.

!Viva el poder de los ideas!

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Maybe they will have Galt speaking throughout the movie, later revealing that they are excerpts from his speech.

Or have a voice over for most of the speech but to have a montage of flashbacks; and a montage of silent scenes that were not dramatized yet but are implied by those already dramatized, or are happening at the same time as ones already dramatized.

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Maybe they will have Galt speaking throughout the movie, later revealing that they are excerpts from his speech.

I just pictured random scenes of all the people that Dagny met through out the novel going on during Galts speech. Like it'll show Mrs. William Hastings, Eugene Lawson, Fransisco d'Anconia, Eddie Willers, Ellis Wyatt ect., and they'll all be listening to the broadcast.

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I just pictured random scenes of all the people that Dagny met through out the novel going on during Galts speech. Like it'll show Mrs. William Hastings, Eugene Lawson, Fransisco d'Anconia, Eddie Willers, Ellis Wyatt ect., and they'll all be listening to the broadcast.

We could have that too. It is a long speech after all.

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And speaking of speeches, I'd like to see the d'Anconia speech included as well, though that seems even less likely that a fair shake for Galt.

I wouild be surprised if that scene wasn't still included though. Especially since the visualtation Rand establishes at the end of that scene is so artistic and beautiful - Dagny, Rearden, and D'Aconia standing as three pillars of calm in a fury of chaos. So my guess is they will include his speech in essence, even if it's just a condensed paragraph.

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I just had the most wonderful and exhilirating realization. For twelve years (pun intended) we have seen Hollywood destroying our cities due to aliens, earthquakes, volcanos, monsters, global warming, etc. With Atlas Shrugged, we will finally see a movie where our cities are destroyed by the true destroyers - the altruists of mankind.

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I just had the most wonderful and exhilirating realization. For twelve years (pun intended) we have seen Hollywood destroying our cities due to aliens, earthquakes, volcanos, monsters, global warming, etc. With Atlas Shrugged, we will finally see a movie where our cities are destroyed by the true destroyers - the altruists of mankind.

Yeah but the ending will be the same... America to the rescue! I'm looking forward to the gratuitous shot of the Stars and stripes flying proudly in the wind.

Yes, that is sarcasm but no I don't mean any offense to the USA or USA'ins.

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Would you prefer Canada to the rescue!? lol

Remember when Canadian diplomats snuck out several US diplomats from Iran after the embassy was taken?

America to the rescue has become a sort of cliche in the movies. At elast this one has a basis in fact, seeing how the US did come to Europe's rescue twice. I woulnd't mind an occassional movie where, say, the 69th Fighter Squadron went to the rescue, or an SAS batallion, or even a lone agent (come to think of it, James Bond does that a lot).

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The IMDB page was updated on March 5, 2008. It now says that Angelina Jolie is "rumored" to be playing Dagny Taggart. I wonder if this status change is due to her pregancy. The site still says that Jamie Clay will play John Galt but also that Brad Pitt is "rumored" to play that role, as well. IMDB is pretty reliable, but I am not sure what to make of this.

I do not know what "rumored" means exactly.

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