Category: Atlas Shrugged Movie

In an interesting new twist on the never ending saga of the Atlas Shrugged movie. According to CanMag:

Charlize Theron has been meeting with Lionsgate and producers Howard and Karen Baldwin about taking the title role of Dagny Taggart. Her only concern is adapting the story properly. To solve this problem, Lionsgate will turn the story into a miniseries for Epix, a pay-cable network Lionsgate is forming with MGM and Viacom/Paramount.

Personally, I like the idea of a miniseries because it seems a more suitable medium for a 1000+ page work. I also like Theron as a possible Dagny.

We’ll just have to wait and see if this latest incarnation has any sticking power. Read the full article.

After returning to square one late last year, it sounds like the Atlas Shrugged movie project could get some fresh momentum if Relativity Media proceeds with plans to join Lionsgate as a backer.
A new article on the subject from the Hollywood Reporter begins:

Hollywood could soon be going Objectivist.
After decades in development hell, Ayn Randâ??s capitalism-minded â??Atlas Shruggedâ? is taking new steps toward the big screen â?? with one of the film worldâ??s most prominent money men potentially at its center.
Ryan Kavanaughâ??s Relativity Media is circling the Baldwin Entertainment project and could come aboard to finance with Lionsgate, which got involved several years ago.
Randâ??s popular but polarizing book â?? itâ??s derided by many literary critics but has a huge public following â?? 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.

See the full article for more.
UPDATE (4/4/2009) – More background courtesy of the Atlas Society:

â??Actually,â? reports Aglialoro, â??Relativity is one of three smaller studios who have expressed interest, along with two of the majors.â? Lionsgate also remains interested in continuing its involvement, despite having decided not to renew its option on the project last fall. â??This is the first time weâ??ve been in discussions with multiple studios,â? says Aglialoro. â??With the heightened interest in Atlas Shrugged these days, the time is certainly right to get this movie made.â?

The Atlas Society has news on the Atlas Shrugged movie:

The Lionsgate project came to a halt on September 30, 2008, when the company chose not to renew its option with Atlas Society trustee John Aglialoro, owner of the movie rights and current script. Now, after a waiting period through the end of 2008, Aglialoro is pursuing other options. In addition to the possibility of producing an adaptation himself, he is in discussions with private investors and film producers.
Burns of Lionsgate remains interested in the project, however, as do the Baldwins. Aglialoro is exploring with them the possibility of a new film dealâ??this time without Angelina Jolie, who was previously attached to the role of Dagny Taggart. â??Jolie failed to seize the opportunity, and weâ??re moving on,â? said Aglialoro.

Not everyone will see the omission of Angelina Jolie as a bad thing.
Read the full update for more — including which high-profile actresses have expressed interest and are currently reading the script.

There has not been an official announcement from Lionsgate, but several websites are reporting that Vadim Perelman is out as Atlas Shrugged director. The report appears to have originated at the website Cinematical. No word on why.

In a new interview with PopMatters, Atlas Shrugged movie director Vadim Perelman reflects on the task before him (making the Atlas movie) and Ayn Rand’s legacy:

Speaking of â??frustrated,â? youâ??re taking on an Ayn Rand novel, a movie thatâ??s sure to be controversial, taken from a novel that many have wanted to film but nobody can crack, â??Atlas Shrugged.â? At least you have Angelina Jolie on board.
Itâ??s been in the making for 50 years, and the length of the book has daunted people, I think, for every one of those 50 years. How can you get a manageable film out of a book that big? Adapting â??Atlas Shruggedâ? is a huge responsibility because this book, this woman, are so fervently loved and followed by millions of people. Itâ??s like taking on â??Lord of the Ringsâ? with maybe a different sort of devoted following.
Rand would be, I think, today a great libertarian icon. Perhaps thatâ??s what Angelina Jolie is interested in making the movie. For me, Rand is this writer of big, broad themes and emotions. But so am I, thematically. People accuse her of being heavy-handed, and I hear the same thing said about me. It is the Russian way, I think, of doing things. That was my window into this, growing up under the same repressive regime.

See the full interview for more about Perelman’s recent work, including some of the criticism he’s received lately for his movie The Life Before Her Eyes.

Here are some excerpts from a Box Office Mojo interview with Michael Burns–Vice Chairman at Lionsgate.

Box Office Mojo: But Atlas Shrugged is your personal favorite Ayn Rand novel?

Michael Burns: It is. It’s one of my favorite booksâ??with some of the richest, most colorful characters of any book. I read it when I was in the ninth grade and it just stuck with me. I can still vividly remember specific scenes in the book. I can’t wait to see what [director Vadim Perelman] does with them. …

Box Office Mojo: What makes Dagny a great character?

Michael Burns: She is strong and smart but [she’s] also flawed; she’s really stubborn, almost dogmatic at times, and, if you remember the book, she goes down hard. She really does everything she possibly can to save the railroad. She’s got a brother who’s a buffoon that’s allegedly her boss, a sort of checkered life with lovers and an interesting dynamic with people who work for her and with her. She fights to the bitter end when the great minds of the world go on strike before she capitulates. That’s a really interesting character.

Box Office Mojo: Do you see her as the main character?

Michael Burns: Certainly, in the first two acts of the movie, Dagny Taggart will be the lead and, in the end, that’s who the audience is rooting for, so, if there were one lead, I think it would be Dagny. But there are other fantastic characters, [playboy] Francisco [d’Anconia] who basically fleeces all these people that he thinks have been taking advantage of societyâ??obviously [industrialist] Henry Rearden, or Hank Reardenâ??and this great character, the pirate Ragnar [Danneskjold] and John Galt, who’s sort of a tangential character in many ways, but certainly a central character.

Read the full interview for more on Burns’s thoughts on the Atlas Shrugged movie.

Excerpts from a new interview with Vadim Perelman at Box Office Mojo:

Box Office Mojo: Are you one of the men of the mind?
Vadim Perelman: Yes. [Pausing] I am. That’s my way in [to Ayn Rand’s novel]â??where I am right now and where I started, I had to be [a man of the mind]. That’s what my mom told me when she read Atlas Shruggedâ??because she knows I have to have a door to get in [to adapting a literary work] and that’s what she said: “look at your life.” To [live under communism and] have no hot water and come to Hollywood with 14 dollars and not a single contact [and succeed]â??that’s only due to my individualism and my entrepreneurial spirit. I mean, I’m not changing the world. But maybe I am.
Box Office Mojo: Would you go on strike?
Vadim Perelman: If I was feeling victimizedâ??yes, I would.
Box Office Mojo: How does having survived a childhood in Soviet Russia affect your work?
Vadim Perelman: I left with my mother when I was 14. That was 1977. [The communists] were letting [some] Jewish people out for public relationsâ??also because there was a wheat shortage. I remember that [U.S. President Jimmy] Carter and [Soviet dictator Leonid] Brezhnev struck some sort of deal and I remember thinking: we are worth a couple of loaves of bread. It kind of made me who I am. There was a lot of death in my family. That definitely has an effect on my work; it made me stronger. …
Box Office Mojo: The novel is written in three parts. Did you consider producing Atlas Shrugged as a trilogy?
Vadim Perelman: I don’t think it would hold up as a trilogyâ??remember, [J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary series] Lord of the Rings was written as a trilogyâ??but there isn’t enough climax after each part in Atlas Shrugged. …
Box Office Mojo: Is moneyâ??as Ayn Rand wrote in Atlas Shruggedâ?? the root of all good?
Vadim Perelman: I have a great quote from Ayn Rand that I actually believe: “If there’s a more tragic fool than the businessman that does not realize he’s an extension of man’s highest creative spiritâ??it’s the artist who thinks that the businessman is his enemy.” That should be on the masthead of your Web site. So, that answers your questionâ??and that’s from Atlas Shrugged.

See the full interview for much more about the Atlas movie as well as Perelman’s other movies.