Rumors of "Atlas Shrugged" movie....

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[jim_trent]

Ann Rand’s heir, Leonard Peikoff, sold the movie rights to “Atlas Shrugged” many years ago. The estate does not have any direct control over who makes the movie or who is cast, so this is what I heard is being floated in Hollywood.

Expected Casting:

Dagny Taggart --- Susan Sarandon, Barbara Streisand, and Jessica Lange are all competing for this part. Susan is in the lead right now, but Barbara is eagerly having her husband drive her from casting couch to casting couch right now. Jessica is considered a long shot.

Hank Rearden --- Martin Sheen, Tim Robbins, and Mike Farrell are competing. Sheen has the lead so far, but things could easily change. Producers feel that he is a bit short when paired next to either Susan or Babs and it would be disconcerting to have him talking into their “aaahem” (lets just say navel) throughout the show. They have no chance to strap him on a stuffed horse in this picture. A stepladder was suggested, but Martin is afraid of heights. Tim Robbins’ chances will be greatly improved if Susan gets the lead. Mike is considered a long shot.

John Galt --- Surprisingly, this pivotal role is almost uncontested. Lou Grant is almost sure to get the spot, but Michael Moore is trying hard for it. Regardless of the choice, the wardrobe will not have to be altered.

Francisco d’Anconia --- Many talented actors are trying for this role. Richard Gere, Alec Baldwin, and George Clooney are the leaders. One clue might be the rumors that a part for Francisco’s pet gerbil is being written in. This one is too close to call.

Jim Taggert --- Peter Arnett is expected to make the transition from CNN actor to actor-at-large in this role. He will try his best to steer Dagney from her destructive ways, and gives an interview where he says her plan for the Rio Norte/John Galt rail line are in disarray. She is regrouping and desperately trying to find a new plan.

Robert Stadler --- This is being offered to Martin Sheen instead of the Rearden part, but he wants it punched up quite a bit before he would even consider it. It is expected that in the movie he will become the originator of “Rearden” metal, but had it stolen from him by a vile industrialist and he was just too much of gentleman to object.

Wesley Mouch --- It is almost certain that Sean Penn will get this part, but producers are trying to get Colin Farrell interested in it.

Lillian Rearden --- Janenne Garofalo is currently in the lead, but Jessica Lange and all three of the Dixie Chicks are also trying for the part. Whoppi Goldberg is trying to sell the producers on playing the part for laughs.

Eddie Willers --- This will probably go to Pee-Wee Herman. Near the end, he is shown as confused, but walking into a movie house.

Of course, there are some minor changes from the book. For example, when John Galt is captured, Dagney convinces him of the errors of his ways. His “strike” is selfish and hurts women, children, and minorities more than Republicans. In a three-hour-long speech to the world, he convinces most of the selfish and corrupt industrialists to return to their work, only with more compassion for the working man. Those who do not return (including an unrepentant Rearden) are bombed into oblivion in a 15 minute display of explosive special effects. In the end, Dagny and Galt fly towards New York, where the Republican caused blackout is ending. The lights come on one by one.

There will be cameo parts for Bill and Hill Clinton, Jacques Chirac, Jean Chretien, and the entire Belgian army (all three of them). To coincide with the opening of the movie, the book is expected to be reissued as a 30 page graphic novel.

[Mean Maryjean]

Wow! I was starting to get ticked off when I realized you were on a "sarcasm" roll. Whew! For a minute there, I was taking this too seriously! I'd be so disappointed to have Dagney Taggert's character utterly degraded by the likes of any one of those three you mentioned, but ESPECIALLY Susan Saranwrap. For one thing, she's too old! And secondly, she's just plain 'ol icky!

[TomServo]

I got to Hank before I realized you were pulling our chains.

[wizardoz]

Oh, that was cute, that was. Especially the Mouch part.... but I often entertain myself with REAL casting fantasies. I always come to the conclusion that it will all have to be computer-created because real life Hollywood holds almost no one who could play any of these parts.

[ido_now]

Non-funny suggestions.

Dagney: Renee Zellweger

John: Mel Gibson

[TheSpottedOwl]

For a minute there, I thought Hollywood was spitting on Ayn Rand's grave. Lol, had me going for a minute!

[CanisMajor2002]

Hrm I didn't get the joke until the bald Ed Asner was in the running for the blonde John Galt...must be a slow day :)

[Eala]

The warning signs went up on Barbra Strident...

[NotQuiteCricket]

"Dagny Taggart --- Susan Sarandon,"

Right there I knew it was a joke. Who would cast her?

[MEGoody]

LOL Seems that the parts are all being pursued by the leftist losers of Hollyweird.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

"Susan Sarandon,"

Right there I knew it was a joke. Who would cast her?

Tim Robbins.

[tophat9000]

to be filmed on location in California

[DoctorMichael]

Careful now! There are some here that might actually sympathize with your little joke.

[Norman Conquest]

John: Joe Pantoliano
Hank: Brian Dennehy

[RightWhale]

Who can doubt that the movie would be just like this. Morality is evolving, you know.

[Eala]

I know Susan Sarandon is a leftie actress, but that's about all. Strident, though, I recognize...

[TomServo]

Barbra Strident...

lol. OK - I'm slow...

[Centurion2000]

Wesley Mouch : Should be Alec Baldwin

Good sarcasm ....

[Dialup Llama]

>Ann Rand?s heir, Leonard Peikoff, sold the movie rights to ?Atlas Shrugged? many years ago.

That is why it was never made into a movie. Bad move Leonard. So I guess it was basically s***canned, gathering dust in some movie company's inventory.

[RobFromGa]

Excellent.

[Bluegrass Federalist]

You had me until Mike Farrell, but I kept reading until Lou Grant just to make sure. I was getting steamed!

[justshe]

Non-funny suggestions. Dagney: Renee Zellweger John: Mel Gibson

---

I'll add Francisco: Antonio Banderas

I'm not sure about Renee. But after watching Chicago....and seeing the intensity she brought to the role, I could see Dagney being played by Catherine Zeta Jones.

[InterceptPoint]

Dagney: Renee Zellweger

Sorry you are too late. I have awarded this role to the one and only Ashely Judd.

Renee only plays the poor girl who get the guy at the end of the movie. I think it is in her contract with her agent. The Dagney role would be a little too far out of bounds.

[justshe]

Not so......if the following found HERE is true.

---

'Atlas Shrugged,' Take Five
by Scott Holleran
May 18, 2003

HOLLYWOOD (Box Office Mojo) - Fans of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged have heard this one before: the movie rights have been sold and the enduring bestseller is coming to the silver screen.

Admirers of the epic 1957 novel may be skeptical of the news that Beverly Hills-based Crusader Entertainment bought the rights to Rand's story of the mind on strike.

Past attempts to make Atlas Shrugged into a movie have failed, though Crusader president and CEO Howard Baldwin is arguably better prepared than his predecessors. He has read Rand's gigantic novel, he has hired a top screenwriter and -- consistent with Rand's literary philosophy -- he's already thinking larger than life.

"Our goal is to adapt the book without any restrictions," Baldwin said during an exclusive interview with Box Office Mojo from his office in Beverly Hills. Baldwin said it's too early to peg the project as a three-hour movie, a miniseries or even a trilogy. "It may be two movies, it may be three," he teased. "We want to tell Atlas Shrugged properly."

That's no easy task. The novel, over 1,000 pages long, presents the essential principles of Rand's radical philosophy of self-interest, reason and capitalism.

While Atlas Shrugged is routinely vilified by left-wing intellectuals, who oppose Rand's view that capitalism is the only moral economic system, and repudiated by those on the right, who shudder at Rand's rejection of religion, it remains deeply loved by readers, who named it the second most influential book of their lives in a 1991 Library of Congress/Book-of-the-Month club survey -- behind only the Bible.

As a movie, its potential to move audiences is profound. Today's times seem taken straight from the pages of Atlas Shrugged: New York City at the core of a disastrous climax, businessmen under government persecution, chronic train wrecks and the slow, grinding halt of society's basic functions. The Ayn Rand Institute describes it as "Ayn Rand's complete philosophy, dramatized in the form of a mystery story 'not about the murder of a man's body, but about the murder — and rebirth — of man’s spirit."

Baldwin said Crusader became interested last year after billionaire businessman and Crusader Entertainment Chairman Philip Anschutz -- himself the recent target of government regulators -- noticed a front page USA Today article about the tremendous influence of Atlas Shrugged among business leaders.

"Phil gave me a call and said, 'Can we get this?'" It didn't hurt that one of Baldwin's friends, businessman Ed Snider, was cited in the article. Snider had previously owned the movie rights to Atlas Shrugged, and put Baldwin on track to buy them.

Baldwin projected a long development -- funded by Crusader -- though he said he expects a script treatment by the end of this summer. Screenwriter James V. Hart (Contact, Tuck Everlasting, Bram Stoker's Dracula), who penned Crusader's Sahara starring Matthew McConaughey, is writing the script.

Crusader is the latest entertainment company to take a crack at Atlas. Rand, who died in 1982 at age 77, sold the rights to producer Albert S. Ruddy (The Godfather) in 1972 -- but a movie was never made. Later, writer and producer Stirling Silliphant (In the Heat of the Night, The Towering Inferno) wrote a script for an NBC television miniseries -- which was killed by NBC executive Fred Silverman.

In 2000, Turner Network Television sought to make an original miniseries, with Albert Ruddy as producer -- but the deal fell apart in the wake of AOL's merger with TimeWarner and the devastating Sept. 11 attack by Islamic terrorists. Ruddy later tried to make a feature-length movie but his contract expired before he could secure financing.

Baldwin said Crusader is prepared to tackle the obstacles associated with such an ambitious undertaking. In keeping with Rand's view that making money is virtuous, Baldwin said he fully expects to make a profit from Atlas Shrugged.

"Atlas Shrugged is not going to be a low budget movie," Baldwin said. "But I think the box office potential is huge, because of the enormous interest. It is one of the best-selling books of all time."

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[justshe]

Try that link again. HERE

[Dialup Llama]

Atlas Shugged would be a more effective movie than the Fountainhead. It shows what happens to an entire society when you stall the engine of innovation and creation.

In a way I wish they would adapt it rather than tell the story literally. Take it out of the 1940's and move it up to the 2040's. Rearden Steel could be nanotubes, the Galt Engine would be some cold fusion deal. Galt's Gulch could be populated by people who get downsized. And then there's the NYC blackout which ends the story.

All the intellectual fashions lampooned in AS could then be taken straight from today's political and media scene.

Occasionally you do get fairly right-wing movies on the screen- Truman Show, Braveheart (an extremely political, right-wing anthem, The Patriot (they softened the politics on that one when they didnt have to). I don't see what the second most influential book can't make it to the screen.

[Hessian]

Check out objectivistcenter.org - they've posted a press release that says the fellow who adapted CONTACT for the big screen - James V. Hart - has been attached to the project.

[justshe]

I would love to see AS broken into 3 movies.....ala LOTR treatment. THAT would be awesome!

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Man, I'm slow today. i was loading the gun and planning my drive to h'wood before I got it.

[justshe]

Yes....Hart was mentioned in the text of the article I posted above.

[justshe]

Neglected to tell you how clever I thought your piece was. Good job.

[Perfesser]

One major impact that the book still has is that she had the current state of affairs nailed when she first wrote it.

[justshe]

$

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Whoa!
Haven't seen that in a long time.

$

[BradyLS]

Yeah, but who's going to play Thorin Oakenshield? How are they gonna do Smaug?

[BradyLS]

Actually, I'd rather see Robert Heinlein's The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress be made into a film. More action, tighter story, smaller cast, essentially the same principles. AND the stakes are bigger.

[Nikita11]

Renee Zelleweger doesn't have the balls to play Dagny.

Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman do.

[justshe]

Welcome to FR!

[Nikita11]

Thanks!
Looks like this site kind of died, doesn't it?