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Vadim Perelman To Rewrite And Direct "Atlas Shrugged"
allheadlinenews.com ^ | September 6, 2007 | Shaveta Bansal

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.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: annrand; atlasshrugged; aynrand; cinema; film; hollywood; objectivism; philosophy
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To: grundle

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!


41 posted on 09/09/2007 11:05:43 AM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: Philistone

Ditto that, m’friend, sad to say.


42 posted on 09/09/2007 11:07:02 AM PDT by SAJ
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To: Philistone

“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.


43 posted on 09/09/2007 11:09:42 AM PDT by TWohlford
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To: SAJ
Ann Coulter as Dagny, smart, self reliant and pretty but not overly drop dead gorgeous.
That is my idea of Dagny.
44 posted on 09/09/2007 11:11:31 AM PDT by HuntsvilleTxVeteran (Remember the Alamo, Goliad and WACO, It is Time for a new San Jacinto)
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To: ozzymandus
I suspect you have to start with the screenplay by figuring out what chunks of the book are not essential to the tale being told...else the film would likely run 36 hours.

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.

45 posted on 09/09/2007 11:16:06 AM PDT by SAJ
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To: HuntsvilleTxVeteran
Yah, that sounds right.

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.

46 posted on 09/09/2007 11:18:27 AM PDT by SAJ
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To: maine-iac7

Remenber the film “Mr Blandings builds his dreamhouse”?

“If it aint Wham, It aint ham!” L0L


47 posted on 09/09/2007 11:18:31 AM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: SAJ

One bad problem is some people will see the movie and think it is the same as the book.


48 posted on 09/09/2007 11:23:28 AM PDT by HuntsvilleTxVeteran (Remember the Alamo, Goliad and WACO, It is Time for a new San Jacinto)
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To: HuntsvilleTxVeteran
Spot on. Too bad, too.

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.

49 posted on 09/09/2007 11:27:14 AM PDT by SAJ
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To: jalisco555
Whatever happened to Jolie’s Daniel Pearl film? It was released to great fanfare but seems to have just disappeared.

She couldn't keep her mouth shut, with the usual Lefty Hollywood crap issuing forth. And I for one lost interest in seeing it at that point.
50 posted on 09/09/2007 11:28:16 AM PDT by Kozak
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To: jalisco555
Whatever happened to Jolie’s Daniel Pearl film? It was released to great fanfare but seems to have just disappeared.

Did you see it? Simply awful.

51 posted on 09/09/2007 11:29:57 AM PDT by montag813
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To: mylife
Brad Pitt is slated to play John Galt

Hideously bad choice.

52 posted on 09/09/2007 11:31:05 AM PDT by montag813
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To: maine-iac7

The following is not a criticism, just an observation of how we all have different likes and dislikes when it comes to actors: My wife and I cannot stand Lauren Becall as an actress. I think she has no emotional range whatsoever and is one of the most highly over-reated actresses ever.I felt she ruined Key Largo and virtually ever other early movie she was in.
It is funny how we all see the same thing differently.


53 posted on 09/09/2007 11:35:42 AM PDT by go-dubya-04
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To: montag813

So it seems L0L


54 posted on 09/09/2007 11:35:44 AM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: Abcdefg

“Charles Atlas Shrugged?”

< }B^)


55 posted on 09/09/2007 11:36:31 AM PDT by Erasmus (My simplifying explanation had the disconcerting side effect of making the subject incomprehensible.)
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To: jalisco555

Check the “10 dvds for a buck” bin at the dollar store?


56 posted on 09/09/2007 11:38:47 AM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: Boundless

If Angelina is in shorts with a couple of guns at her side, never mind.......


57 posted on 09/09/2007 11:43:36 AM PDT by Brett66 (Where government advances ? and it advances relentlessly ? freedom is imperiled -Janice Rogers Brown)
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To: SAJ
I did the IMDB thing. 1975.

She's about the age, but I can't see her in the role, either.

Gillian Anderson, maybe. She's another airhead, but it doesn't come across in her acting.

Perhaps Beckinsale or Blanchett?

58 posted on 09/09/2007 11:59:52 AM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: grundle

I fear it will be “Atlas Shrugged” in name only. I don’t think this hollywood group is capable of comprehending Rands theme in the novel.


59 posted on 09/09/2007 12:06:17 PM PDT by SeaWolf (Orwell must have foreseen the 21st Century US Congress when he wrote 1984)
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To: grundle

They should cast Hillary Clinton as Ivy Starnes.


60 posted on 09/09/2007 12:15:59 PM PDT by Maceman ("If your enemy is angry, irritate him." -- Sun Tzu)
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