'Atlas Shrugged' producer: 'Critics, you won.' He's going 'on strike.

Los Angeles Times ^ | April 26, 2011 | Rebecca Keegan

[EveningStar]

Twelve days after opening "Atlas Shrugged: Part 1," the producer of the Ayn Rand adaptation said Tuesday that he is reconsidering his plans to make Parts 2 and 3 because of scathing reviews and flagging box office returns for the film.

[Melas]

Well, Bay is single handedly keeping more than a dozen FX companies in business, so he can’t be all bad. On the other hand, he doesn’t seem to employ very many writers.

[Oztrich Boy]

There was, I believe, an American Pie 2...

$11 million to make, $18.7M opening weekend, eventual $102M domestic, 235 world wide, might have something to do with that.

[Outlaw Woman]

Well fellow FReeper...now you have shamed me; for believing BS. I will go as planned

Thanks for the slap

[Axenolith]

I couldn’t imagine it not being made as a mini-series for TV. A coworker saw it and said the same thing, putting the first 1/3 of that book in an hour and 40 some odd minute movie was stupidity squared...

[popdonnelly]

The critics are ideologically leftist. The only reason they would go to this movie is to pan it.

[discostu]

He had writers once, but they couldn’t agree on how to spell the sounds brakes make when squealing into a fiery crash. Now he just “story boards” with tonka toys and fireworks, much faster.

[Lx]

I would have to agree. Great ideas, turgid writing. I mean, a literally 100 page speech by Galt??? Did Ayn think people were so stupid they needed to be beaten over the head?

I’ve read it more than once though. It would be interesting if someone with integrity edited it to make a better read.

The Fountainhead is written much better and I think it was written over 10 years earlier than Atlas Shrugged. She cut Roark’s speech to only 10 pages.

I’ll see the movie though when the DVD comes out just to see what they made of it. The movie of The Fountainhead was just horrible. I think Ayn wrote the script.

[So Cal Rocket]

His crappy distribution plan is the problem.

Not to mention a crappy marketing plan... the extent of the marketing was to create a Facebook page and release a trailer on YouTube. I guess that's all you can do with a $0 marketing budget.

[boop]

I'm confused. Didn't Lord of the Rings get fully filmed, then edited so that it came out in a trilogy? I would think that the Atlas Shrugged director had done the same thing, film the whole story and release it in pieces. I mean, things happen, actors get sick/die/move on to bigger things, etc.

BTW, LOTR was merely "OK". I haven't read the book, so maybe that affects my judgement.

[Lx]

I had high hopes for Dune and saw it the day it was released. The beginning is visually stunning and the music was good. David Lynch supposedly impressed Herbert enough with the script but it was just too freaky looking just for the purpose of being weird. Speaking of weird, where the hell did the ‘weirding modules’ come from??

Jessica knew the weirding way but there’s nothing like them in the book.

I’ve read all six books and the prequels. I think Herbert should have read his books in order. Some of the characters don’t add up in the later books like Scytale.

[DWC]

You’re welcome.

[RainMan]

My wife and I went out to see it last night ... one of the few movies I have ever gone to where the audience applauded. For the budget they had, they did an excellent job. The movie follows the book remarably well ... and that is probably the biggest problem that it has ... if you have not read the book, you may not “catch” some of the subtle clues shown in the movie, such as the cigarettes.

We live in the Seattle area, and for a Tuesday 7PM show, it still had about 40 people in the theatre. Not earth shattering, but I have been in “bigger” films on bigger days of the week with fewer people.

[DWC]

I read the book thirty years ago, and will read it again. Try “we the living”, it’s a tough book to read but well worth it.

[tanknetter]

I saw the film and thought it would have been better as a mini series on TV. I think it tried to cover too much ground. I loved the book. I’ve enjoyed other Ayn Rand books. But the film was disappointing.

Gods and Generals was the same way. Gettysburg was a critical and box office success, but it had actually been filmed for TV (TBS). Turner and Maxwell got really ambitious for Gods and Generals and set it up as a theatrical movie.

When it bombed, it killed any chance of seeing Last Full Measure hit either the big or the small screen. Shame ...

[Goldsborough]

A bad movie on an excellent book, is still a B-A-D movie.

What an on screen disaster that this producer must have wrought when he didn't even have an excellent book to work with. . . .

[TBP]

Let’s all get out and support this movie — and let it be known that we need to have parts 2 and 3 to complete the story.

[DollyCali]

Cinema

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[DollyCali]

The movie is good & worth the time & $$.

I have seen it twice & will go AT LEAST one more time to theater to support it as well as buy the DVD or BluRay.

[Melas]

Yes that’s LOTR was filmed, but it’s not the typical way of doing things. It was only possible for Jackson because he had the budget to end all budgets. Almost $300m to work with. This movie had 1/30 of that to work with, which meant that not wasn’t there enough money to film all parts simultaneously, but what was filmed, had to filmed in a hurry. $10m doesn’t last long.

[Joe 6-pack]

IMHO, Gods and Generals was the better of the two films. Duvall was a hands-down better R.E. Lee, and and I think Jeff Daniels did a great job with Chamberlain. In Gettysburg he just had to play him as the hero at one battle. In G&G, he had to show his transition from family man to officer to battlefield commander, which, IMHO he did very, very effectively.