Atlas Shrugged trailer released.
Wow, Atlas, the movie has long been the myth of the Holy Grail to the average libertarian or Ayn Rand reader. Now it is imminent enough for the producers to release the trailer for it and it is apparently in the can ready to go.
By the look of the trailer itself and a couple of ‘behind the scenes’ clips I have seen I am reasonably optimistic that it is an honest effort and makes a serious attempt to capture the essence of the book. The idea of making a movie to be frequented by objectivists is a scary thought, they are rather prickly, but John Aglialoro, the man responsible is one himself, so he knows the risks.
From what I have seen the actors seem to be credible in their roles, and Taylor Schilling and Grant Bowler are pretty much the image I had of Dagney Taggart, and Hank Reardon. This is the realization of a lifelong ambition for Aglialoro who says:
From what I have seen the actors seem to be credible in their roles, and Taylor Schilling and Grant Bowler are pretty much the image I had of Dagney Taggart, and Hank Reardon. This is the realization of a lifelong ambition for Aglialoro who says:
Over the years there were some great names in the industry who were interested in the project. But year after year passed, and it got to the point where I had to make a decision to finance it myself — and to arrange for the casting and get it done — or lose the movie rights altogether.
One thing that kept me going was that many years back I had made a kind of commitment to Ayn Rand herself. I didn’t make it to her one-on-one personally, although I had actually seen her once, when she gave her last talk at the Ford Hall Forum in 1981. But making the movie was something that I felt as an Objectivist I could carry out one way or another. I wanted to be able to visit Ayn Rand’s grave in New York and say, “We got it done.”
In April of this year I had to make a decision about whether to pursue the project and get filming going by the middle of June or to let my lease on the movie expire.
My wife pointed out that if I didn’t do it, it would haunt me for the rest of my life.
I have my fingers crossed that they don't screw this up. My faith in Hollyweird to get it right, however, is mighty low.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to check out John Aglialoro. I supose it's too much to hope for that he's the next John Milius or Mel Gibson.
Bawb, if I read things right this isn't a studio backed production. Self-financed and distributed, I believe. I think that's a good sign that it's likely to be as faithful to the source as its possible when changing to the medium of film.
ReplyDeleteThat's the good news. The bad is that I worry that it just won't put enough bums/asses (delete according to your preferred flavour of English) on seats. The ideas of the story aren't going to go down well with everyone sucking on government tit, much less the tits in government. On the other hand they can't tone it down much without infuriating fans of the source material. I want it to be made and I want it to be a good movie, but I want to see parts 2 and 3 as well and I worry that if it doesn't do well enough we might never see them. I hope my pessimism is unfounded, and with luck it'll get every Tea Partier along and that might be enough.
Bawb, I am cautiously optimistic on this one. I think Aglialoro is of a mind to do it faithfully and feel he has made a decent effort.What worries me is what comes next if the big studios get involved.
ReplyDeleteI pretty much agree with Angry on this, but overall I feel that more exposure of the public to Atlas can only be a good thing as long as they are able to keep it on message.
Angry makes a helluva good point that provided much food for thought. If the big studios aren't involved and it's privately financed, this could be very good.
ReplyDeleteI see the first releases of the film will be on April 15...the day all our income taxes are due. That's already kind of a tweak at the establishment right there.
I'll be seeing it no matter what. If the regular movie critics detest it, I will consider that a rousing endorsement.
Thats why I am cautiously optimistic. There were some doubts when the budget was reported to be $5 mil but that seems to be more in the range of $25 mil which is more like a reasonable figure.
ReplyDeleteI understand that the actors who are not big names signed on at a fairly low rate to get the exposure. I hope it is brilliant and they make a bloody fortune out of it.
It may interest you both to know that over at Dick Puddlecote's blog there's news that someone has gone on a very Atlas Shrugged style strike. A lawyer and his wife, a teacher, both fed up with "a world where a significant minority leech off of the rest of us and where the government spends over 50% of what we earn and takes that money on pain of imprisonment" are chucking in their well paid careers in favour of part time work. They no longer feel the reward for the effort is worthwhile and have written a long letter to their Member of Parliament and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs to explain why they feel that "the only solution is to opt out."
ReplyDeleteIt'll get binned and I'm sure they know it, but the letter shows what productive people are being pushed to. The unnamed lawyer's plan now is simple: "We will buy a house with a garden and I will grow vegetables and hit things with axes, and she will manage our properties. The rest of you can go f**k yourselves."
I think John Galt would understand perfectly.
Old John would understand indeed.
ReplyDeleteI had a look at and will do a post recommending it tomorrow.