Atlas PUKED!!!
Posted on 09/09/2007 9:59:29 AM PDT by grundle
New York, NY (CNS) - Lionsgate has signed "House of Sand and Fog" director Vadim Perelman to direct the film adaptation of Ayn Rand's iconic novel "Atlas Shrugged." According to trade magazine Variety, Perelman will also rewrite a draft of the script penned by "Braveheart" writer Randall Wallace. The latter will remain involved with the project.
The film follows, Dagny Taggart, a railroad executive to be played by Angelina Jolie, who strives to keep her family-owned trans-continental railroad company alive amidst worldwide strike involving industrialists and thinkers.
Howard and Karen Baldwin ("Ray"), who hold the rights to Rand's most ambitious novel, are producing the film with Media Talent Group's Geyer Kosinski, Jolie's manager.
I look forward to the film
bump
> ... to be played by Angelina Jolie ...
Another epic in the tradition of Ishtar and Heaven’s Gate.
It should be interesting to see how badly Hollyweird wrecks an excellent book. Angelina Jolie? Kee-rist...
Whatever happened to Jolie’s Daniel Pearl film? It was released to great fanfare but seems to have just disappeared.
bookmark
No other place for her!
You are absolutely right. With that bad typecasting for Dagny Taggart, I can imagine how the story will be.
Had the rights remained with Phil Anschutz ( a modern day Hank Reardon), I would have looked forward to it. Now that Lionsgate has taken over (Farenheit 9/11, The Day After Tomorrow) I’m afraid it’s going to be a major disappointment.
I am currently reading the book and in my minds eye I see Joan Allen playing the part of Dagny...it needs a thin lipped kind of gal.......(shrug) just MO
Anymore, with Hollywood, it’s “style over substance”. However, I don’t even think Jolie looks that good anymore - she’s gotten so skinny. What is she down to now - like a size negative three?
Since it’s Hollywood, they are probably still trying to hire Arnold to play the part of Atlas . . .
Should have been a miniseries on HBO or a 1-season series on FX.
Brad Pitt is slated to play John Galt
We’ll see.
Hey, Lord of the Rings was full of liberal actors too.
I forsee a complete bastardization of the book’s message. The same way Verhoeven turned the society of “Starship Troopers” into a neofascist dystopia.
The bad news is that John Galt is replaced with Larry Craig.
Too bad they didn’t film this in Lauren Bacall’s heyday. She’s exactly what I pictured Dagney being like.
Remember how Tom Clancy's The Sum of all Fears was butchererd? With Angelina Jolie playing Dagny Taggart, I suspect it's going to be turned into an anti-capitalist screed, the precise opposite of what it really is.
Atlas PUKED!!!
“...I’m afraid it’s going to be a major disappointment.”
How in the world can the people behind “Day After” and “Fahrenheit” possible get Ayn Rand right? At the very least, they’re gonna try to “clean her up” and make her “more acceptable” etc.
Been waiting for decades - it's been 50 years! But if it's not a mini series, there's no way it can be done right. And I'd like to see someone else other than AJ to play the female lead.
Actually, I'd like to see an unknown - I'm sure there are many accomplished actresses who could pull it off. With an new face, the character of the story would stand out and the viewer would not be constantly aware - "this is Jolie."
Hoping the same for whoever is chosen for Galt, Reardon, Ragnar, etc.
Most readers of Atlas - and Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophy that sums up 'somewhat' in the line : ""I swear that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another to live for mine." - interpret this as the ultimate in selfishness.
I see it differently - remembering Roarks soliloquy from "The Fountainhead" where he states that no one has a right to the work of his mind except with his permission.
I am an artist. I do not, will not, paint what and how someone else thinks I should. Let them paint what they want themselves. I will not ask anyone else to paint my way. End result: If I put out paintings, according to my own vision, and they are good - then other people can enjoy and benefit from my work. Therefore, by following my 'drummer' my talent, my vision, others DO benefit.
If I try to please others by painting the way they think it should be done, the vision that makes it worth a fig, is gone - and no one benefits.
It's not selfishness.
The other side of the coin, the one the libRats preach, is 'servitude' to the masses - which is what the libRAts would like you to think they are all about. That's called Socialism/Communism. Surely, Ann Rand was an expert on the evils of Communism and the steps that take a society there. (She taught Ronald Reagan - and we know how that benefited the world.)
When individuals follow their talents - whether in art, literature, medical field, industrial, etc,. if they strive for the best they can be/accomplish in their field - then society reaps the benefits. Everyone gains, without servitude, submission or rule from the top aka Socialism/Communism
I fully expect a pro-big government, socialist, collectivist re-imagining of Ayn Rand.
LOL
you forgot the sarq/, right? You do know there's no Atlas role...
I know what you mean. A good actor/actress comes across as the character and not as themselves.
DeNiro as Harry Tuttle in the film "brazil" comes to mind
I’ve read somewhere that both Jolie and Brad Pitt (scheduled to play John Galt or Hank Reardon) “loved the book.” Judging by their actions, though, I don’t think they actually understood it. Makes me VERY skeptical about any film that comes out.
you are exactly right!
Being a youngin’ Lauren Bacall will always be the voice of “Fancy Feast” cat food.
Aaaaaaauuugggghhhhh....
LOL
Oh dear. You need to deprogram - rent the movies "Starstruck", "To Have and Have Not", and one of my favorites: "Key Largo" etc -
What's **REALLY** wrong with casting her as Dagny is that the book specifically states that Dagny is 35. The Jolie twit can't be more than 27, I shouldn't think.
Lena Headey from “300”
Love Key Largo, particularly as it stars one of my personal favorites, Edward G. Robinson. He stole that movie just as he did “The Cincinatti Kid.”
Pitt would be good as Gene Lawson, the incompetent ''banker with a heart''.
Very nice
Meh...
They gotta sex it up a bit I suppose
Gee, what’s the hurry? It’s only been 50 years or so. Besides, it written with a futuristic setting; 1965 or something like that. You know, diesel trains, phone booths that can access long distance operators, etc. Slow down!
(Just kidding. Still, I wonder how they’ll handle the “futuristic” aspects of the novel?)
Eh? There’s quite a bit of sex in that book...oh, I see, you meant by **today’s** standards.
Which is why I did not become a commercial artist L0L. The thought of being told to do the "VanCamps Beans" ad when its not in my heart was enough to make me not got there.
Whats your main medium?
Oddly, I just finished reading this book recently. Will the movie be 36 hours long?
Actually, I expect Galt’s Utopia to become a hippie commune and the evil politicians to become conservative Republicans.
If they had made this movie 50 years ago with Barbara Stanwick as Dagny, Gary Cooper as Hank, and Raymond Massey as Galt, it would be a classic today. Now it will be a joke, like the crapper I saw last night with Leo DiCrappio as Howard Hughes. The TV movie with Tommy Lee Jones as Howard was light years better. Note to Hollywood: Howard Hughes was not 5 feet tall!
Ditto that, m’friend, sad to say.
“I’ve read somewhere that both Jolie and Brad Pitt (scheduled to play John Galt or Hank Reardon) ‘loved the book.’”
I’m skeptical that they read all 1100 pages in any meaningful way. After all, we’re not talking about a sports page or “People Magazine” here.
Lose the flashbacks to Dagny's childhood/adolescence, except perhaps one. Lose Quentin Reynolds; his part reads like an afterthought on Rand's part. Lose Wyatt -- only good for the symbology of Wyatt's Torch. I'd say to lose Floyd Ferris, too, except for that invaluable speech/warning he gives Reardon on p 411 (paperback). Conceivably could lose Cheryl Taggart -- Rand just uses her as a device to show (for the nth time) the flaws in Jim Taggart's character. And, you HAVE TO shorten, drastically, Galt's radio speech -- it's 50,000 words by itself.
These elisions ought to shorten the effective length of the book to 800 or so pages. Just a start, I know, but, as they say, one has to start somewhere.
I'm firmly convinced that Rand had Gary Cooper in mind for Reardon. He had already played Roark some years earlier, and the Cooper mythos is nearly identical to Rearden's philosophy: hard work, straight dealing, self-reliance, never say quit, etc.
Remenber the film “Mr Blandings builds his dreamhouse”?
“If it aint Wham, It aint ham!” L0L
One bad problem is some people will see the movie and think it is the same as the book.
Although, it might work the other way, too. A decently made film (we should live so long) would certainly promote sales of the book and, who knows?, some few people might actually read the whole thing.
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