The early registration deadline for The Objectivist Center’s 17th Summer Seminar is Monday, May 8, 2006. Register before this deadline passes and save 18%. You can register online at The Objectivist Center’s registration website or by calling 800-374-1776. For more information about the seminar and registration, visit The Objectivist Center’s website
Category: The Atlasphere
All things Atlasphere can be found here, columns, podcasts, interesting anecdotes, and more.
Indian Actress Raageshwari, Ayn Rand Fan
A new article in the Times of India delivers yet another beautiful Indian celebrity who is an admirer of Ayn Rand’s work: Singer, actress, and anchorwoman Raageshwari.
It is Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged which has helped singer and actor Raageshwari acquire a similar broad perspective of life. “In this world everybody tries to exploit the creative mind for their own benefit. A fact which I resented greatly and which caused me untold trauma till I read this wonderful book.
“It made me less angry about such situations and gave me the strength to fight them.” However, it was Robert James Waller’s Bridges of Madison County which keeps the hope in this young romantic’s heart alive “that I will meet my soulmate someday. And hopefully, I will not be married by then!” she chuckles.
You can learn more about Raageshwari at India-Today and in her bubbly culinary profile at Upper Crust India, from which this photo was taken.
In the past, we’ve noted several other beautiful Indian celebrities who are also fans of Ayn Rand’s writings: Miss “India Earth” Niharika Singh, actress Preity Zinta, and India’s first woman astronaut, Kalpana Chawla, who was tragically killed in the Columbia shuttle explosion. Then there’s India’s richest woman, Kiran Majumdar-Shaw. And fashion model Lakshmi Rana has also dipped her toe in the world of Atlas Shrugged, though we don’t yet know what she thought.
Let’s just say, if you’re a single fellow looking for a beautiful and intelligent bride — or even just someone to lust after — you should not overlook the jewels of India.
And we’ll give a free Atlasphere subscription to anyone who can persuade one of the starlets above to join the Atlasphere’s dating service! 🙂
Update on Oliver Stone's Fountainhead Movie
The Variety article that has sparked so much discussion about an Atlas Shrugged movie also provided this update on the prospects of a new Fountainhead movie:
Oliver Stone was attached to direct a remake of “Fountainhead” for Warner Bros. and Paramount, but the project has languished in development. Along the way, Pitt expressed interest in playing Roark.
Too bad the project has been languishing; in many ways it’s a much easier novel than Atlas Shrugged to adapt for film.
Plans for an Anthem movie have also been bandied about in recent years, although there seems to be little news about its progress.
In other Fountainhead-movie-related news, Kentucky.com has an article that provides a handy overview of the career of Patricia Neal, who played Dominique in the 1949 Fountainhead movie.
Atlas Shrugged Movie to Come in Multiple Parts?
More on the development of an Atlas Shrugged movie, in an announcement from the Objectivist Center:
“Atlas” Movie One Step Closer! The Inside Scoop
April 27, 2006 — The effort to film Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged has just taken a big step forward. Daily Variety reports a leaked story that Lionsgate, the independent studio whose movie “Crash” recently won the Oscar for best picture, will be distributing the film.
We’ve confirmed today that a deal is going forward under which Lionsgate will take an option to finance and distribute the film. The executive producers are John Aglialoro, a Trustee of The Atlas Society and The Objectivist Center, and Howard Baldwin, whose movie “Ray” won an Oscar for best actor (Jamie Foxx). Lionsgate will put around $35 million into the film.
The film will be based on a script of the first part of the novel, written by Jim V. Hart and reviewed by David Kelley, founder of The Atlas Society-The Objectivist Center. Hart also penned the script for the film “Contact,” based on the novel by astronomer Carl Sagan. It is anticipated “Atlas” will be a multi- part film.
So far no actors have been cast; that will be done by the director, once one is chosen, in conjunction with the executive producers and Lionsgate.
Variety also reports that stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are interested in parts in the film. This will come as no surprise to subscribers of The New Individualist. The current issue features the two on the cover, and in an article by the publication’s editor, Robert Bidinotto, which looks at the interest in Rand’s works among Hollywood’s elite.
The New York Post is also reporting today on these same developments.
UPDATE: The original story in Variety, which spawned much of the media chatter on this topic over the past few days, gives a lot of useful background, including this:
In 2003, [producers Howard and Karen Baldwin] acquired the film rights to the novel from Aglialoro, a New York businessman, after launching Crusader Entertainment with Philip Anschutz. [Writer James V.] Hart was hired at that time to adapt.
Anschutz, however, ultimately decided not to make the movie.
The Baldwins then took the project with them when they left Crusader and formed the Baldwin Entertainment Group.
“What we’ve always needed was a studio that had the same passion for this project that we and John have,” said Baldwin.
Generally speaking, Lionsgate keeps production budgets below $25 million. “Atlas” is likely to cost north of $30 million, but the studio will reduce its exposure through international pre-sales and co-financing partners. Actors would likely take less money upfront — a common practice for the indie.
Atlas Shrugged Movie: Lionsgate Moving Forward
New Individualist editor Robert Bidinotto reports that Lionsgate is moving forward with its plans to produce the Atlas Shrugged movie:
According to Variety, “Ray” producers Howard and Karen Baldwin believe they’ve cracked the challenge of turning the 1,100 page novel “Atlas Shrugged” into a manageable feature. Lionsgate has acquired worldwide distribution.
And reportedly both Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are very interested in the project:
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have been linked to the film adaptation of Ayn Rand’s bestselling novel ‘Atlas Shrugged’.
Variety reports that the couple are rumoured to be considering starring as lead characters Dagny Taggart and John Galt.
‘Atlas Shrugged’ tells the story of the economic collapse of the US in the future when American industrialists go on strike and retreat to a hideaway in the mountains.
The book espouses Rand’s philosophy of objectivism, which the author described as: “the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”
Both Pitt and Jolie are fans of Rand’s work.
Lionsgate Films, who like to keep their films under a $25M budget, are looking to spend north of $30M for Atlas Shrugged.
Bidinotto promises that “The New Individualist WILL have exclusive, behind-the-scenes news and interviews with the principals about this coming project in the very near future. (John Aglialoro, who owns the screen rights, is a co-executive producer on the project, and also serves on the Board of The Objectivist Center — the publisher of The New Individualist.)”
About the Atlasphere's Business Model
This morning one of our members sent us the following message:
Guys at the Atlasphere — as an investor in a couple dating sites, and the CEO of a pretty large internet subscription company — I thought I’d point out that it’s most common to show the pictures to basic members, so that they get really motivated to contact the other party and then pay to upgrade. Hiding the photos is hiding your best sales tool!
We receive some version of this question several times a year, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to answer in public, since no doubt many other people have wondered the same thing: Why doesn’t the Atlasphere adopt the same business model used at other social networking sites, of showing photos for free?
As it happens, the Atlasphere’s subscription rate — the rate at which our free members elect to purchase paid subscriptions — is about six times the industry average.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean we’re taking in millions of dollars each year. We’re a tiny fraction of the size of ordinary social networking sites, since our target market is limited to admirers of Ayn Rand’s novels — and so our base of potential customers is accordingly much smaller as well.
I’m not certain why our subscription rate is so much higher than the industry average, but my guess is that it has to do with the strong interest that Rand fans have in getting to know one another.
The Atlasphere seems to have struck into an untapped market in Objectivism: The desire for meaningful one-on-one contact, without the hassles and aggravation of participating in the (always controversial and time-consuming) online discussion forums.
This is why we’ve never had discussion forums at the Atlasphere, and why we’re unlikely to do so any time soon. (Another question we receive regularly.)
Returning to the original question: Would our subscription rates be even higher if we allowed members to see one another’s photos for free? We were curious to find out, so we tried adopting this membership structure during the 4th quarter of 2004 (Oct – Dec).
During this time, our subscription rates immediately dropped, by more than 80%, and did not recover until we reverted to our old membership structure.
So that’s our answer to the question raised above: Been there, done that, and found out it doesn’t work well at all for our target market.
If you have any other ideas for improving the Atlasphere, please (by all means) drop us a note! We welcome ideas for further improving our service.
Rand Fan: Tennis Star Billie Jean King
A squirrely review of HBO’s new Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer includes this bit:
For these early years, Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer sticks close to the story lines laid down in the autobiography she wrote in the early eighties with the help of Frank Deford, who is also interviewed here like a wise old tortoise. Though executive producers Ross Greenburg and Rick Bernstein choose not to mention her past enthusiasms for astrology and Ayn Rand, nor the fact that sheâ??s part Seminole, we do spend quality time in blue-collar Long Beach, with her firefighter father, homemaking mother, and baseball-playing brother (Randy Moffitt), among the grammar schools and concrete courts in the public parks where the lower classes could play tennis for free.
Here is a familiar story of upward social mobility via organized sports instead of organized religion or organized crime. But here as well is a less familiar story, of democratizing from below. The genteel world of tennis into which Billie Jean entered at age 12, a chubby five feet four with glasses, was as white as it was male and moneyed, a country club of people born at center court. She never forgot scrounging for lessons, being sent home for not knowing better than to wear shorts when a skirt was required, having to make do without a scholarship despite the fact that she was Cal Stateâ??s best player, nor the coach who told her, at age 17, â??youâ??ll be good because youâ??re ugly, Billie Jean.â? So she attacked every net. And grew up from her first Wimbledon win, in doubles in 1961, to her feminist coming-of-age in the tumultuous sixties, to her organizing of the Virginia Slims tour, her unionizing of women players, her developmental work for the Womenâ??s Sports Foundation and World Team Tennis, and, of course, her thrashing of Bobby Riggs in three straight sets, after which she would show up on The Odd Couple and Sonny & Cher and even talk at a press conference about bisexuality as if it werenâ??t a war crime.
Somehow ‘astrology and Ayn Rand’ doesn’t come off as a compliment, but King seems like someone in whom we shouldn’t be surprised to find an individualist streak.
Apparently Atlas Shrugged turned her around, when she was going through a bad period in tennis, and considered quitting.
Firefly Season 2 Project
More than a few fans of Ayn Rand’s novels are also fans of Joss Whedon’s ill-fated Firefly television series. For background, see Monica White’s review of Firefly and Jeff Perren’s review of Serenity, and our earlier blog posts on related topics.
Now it looks like an independent production company is seeking the rights to continue producing Firefly:
Captain Mal and the crew of Serenity need your help to stay flying.
We are looking to push the envelope of episodic television by offering Season Two of Firefly in a groundbreaking new format. Each episode (or the entire season) would be made available for purchase in Standard or Hi-Definition.
It’s possible that subscribers may choose one of three playback options; monthly DVD deliveries, TV On-Demand using your cable or satellite provider, or computer viewing via Streaming Download.
It’s also possible that a box set of DVD’s would be available at the end of the season.
In order for our plan to be successful, we need to take stock of the browncoat recruits that support our cause. It will only take a minute, is strictly confidential, and each profile will take us one step closer to victory!
For more information, visit the web site and fill out their support survey for the project.
Protest Against Al-Jazeera's Planned English Language Station in the United States
Al-Jazeera, the television network that serves as the propaganda wing of the radical Islamist movement, is scheduled to launch their network in English aimed at Americans with their new studios being in Washington DC.
The United American Committee is organizing a protest against Al-Jazeera Network’s planned American station. “It’s as if Joseph Goebbels, the Propaganda Minster for Hitler, were to have set up a station in America during WWII,” says UAC member Lee Kaplan.
What: Protest against Al-Jazeera’s planned English language U.S. station. Rally in front of Al-Jazeera’s DC Headquarters.
When: Sunday, April 30th at 12:00 Noon
Location: 11627 K St. NW, Washington, DC 20006
More information is available on the United American Committee’s web site.
Brochure and Registration for TOC Summer Seminar
The following announcement is from The Objectivist Center:
The Objectivist Center and The Atlas Society’s 17th Annual Summer Seminar will be held from July 1 through July 7 at Chapman University in beautiful, sunny Orange, California!
This will be an uplifting, challenging and exciting exchange of ideas about philosophy, politics and culture, aesthetics and applications to one’s own life of Objectivism, the philosophy developed by Ayn Rand.
Speakers will include David Kelley, Edward Hudgins, Robert Bidinotto, Will Thomas, Joe Rowlands, Nathaniel Branden, Barbara Branden, Tibor Machan, Marsha Enright, Robert Campbell and many others. You’ll find PDF files of the schedule-at-a-glance and the full, downloadable conference brochure on our website.
Take a five-part course on “Atlas Shrugged as a Philosophical Novel” or a mini-course on “Empiricism Without Skepticism: Locke, Hume and Rand.”
Hear a two-part “Introduction to Cognitive Science” with complementary talks on “The Content of Perception” and “Neuroscience and the Nature of Man.”
Learn about “Children and the Embodiment of Objectivism,” “Eliminating the Altruist Baggage,” “Heroes and Role Models,” “The Joys of Entrepreneurship” and “The Habits of Excellence.”
Delve into “Individualism and Community,” “The Anatomy of Cooperation,” “American Exceptionalism,” “Overcoming Ethical Relativism in the College Classroom” and “Eminent Domain Abuse.”
Enjoy poetry readings, classical music and jazz in our Evening Arts Series.
Outside of the formal program, which offers 50 presentations from over 30 expert faculty, you’ll have plenty of time to share your own ideas in “participant-sponsored sessions,” to join in impromptu sports with fellow participants, to take advantage of campus fitness facilities or, of course, to enjoy the California beaches!
The event site is conveniently located near Orange County/John Wayne Airport, Disneyland, Huntington Beach and is just down the road from all the other Los Angeles area attractions.
The Summer Seminar always offers intellectual stimulation and spiritual renewal in an open, tolerant and benevolent atmosphere with like-minded, friendly individuals.
You can register for the full event or for part of the conference as fits your schedule. Complete conference details, costs and online registration are found on our website at www.objectivistcenter.org. You can also email us at toc@objectivistcenter.org or call at 202-AYN-RAND (296-7263). Sign up by May 8th and receive an early registration discount!