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!
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.