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Ayn Rand and the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged is a feature length documentary film that examines the resurging interest in Ayn Rand's epic and controversial 1957 novel and the validity of its dire prediction for America. Set in what Novelist and philosopher Rand called 'the day after tomorrow,' Atlas depicts an America in crisis, brought to her knees by a corrupt establishment of government regulators and businessmen with political pull. Despite critical scorn and continued derision from intellectuals on all sides of the ideological spectrum Atlas has remained a popular favorite and today sells more copies than it ever did....

An Android app developer has published what he says is conclusive proof that millions of smartphones are secretly monitoring the key presses, geographic locations, and received messages of its users. In a YouTube video posted on Monday, Trevor Eckhart showed how software from a Silicon Valley company known as Carrier IQ recorded in real time the keys he pressed into a stock EVO handset, which he had reset to factory settings just prior to the demonstration. Using a packet sniffer while his device was in airplane mode, he demonstrated how each numeric tap and every received text message is logged...

This is a prime example of what is outrageously wrong with government interference in the private economy. We now have the White House telling a private insurance company that it should not raise its rates. Pennsylvania-based Everence Insurance, a Mennonite insurer, says it needs to raise its rates by an average of 11.6% in the small-group market. We can assume that they arrived at this figure based on legitimate economic and financial research and number-crunching .. after all, what business really WANTS to raise its rates on its customers by any significant amount. So because this company wants to raise...

If you’ve ever wandered into a Lululemon store or perused the website of this purveyor of ultra-hip “yoga-inspired” athletic apparel, you may have noticed that the company is not trying to sell merely a pair of buttocks-compressing pants but a worldview. Even in this age of lifestyle peddlers, when Abercrombie & Fitch lures mall rats with visions of Ivy League insouciance and Apple promises to turn even your clueless dad into a tech-savvy aesthete, Lululemon stands out. Why buy a plain old gym bag when for $128 you can have a Destined for Greatness Duffel? If you’re shopping online, the...

(Santa Monica), November 11, 2011 - Atlas Productions LLC announced today its plan to replace more than 100,000 title sheets appearing on the Atlas Shrugged Part 1 DVD and Blu-ray versions sold through major retail outlets. These retail versions were packaged with an inaccurate synopsis of Atlas Shrugged. Not affected were the “Special Edition” versions sold online at AtlasShruggedMovie.com. The 1957 novel, Atlas Shrugged, is known in philosophical and political circles for presenting a cogent argument advocating a society driven by rational self-interest. On the back of the film's retail DVD and Blu-ray however, the movie’s synopsis contradictorily states “AYN...

Paul Moreno, writing in the Wall Street Journal, recently said that Obama will follow Franklin D. Roosevelt's reelection strategy of 1936, during the Great Depression. "Roosevelt and his advisers blamed the recession on a 'capital strike,' trying to deflect public alarm about the United Auto Workers' sit-down strikes—really illegal occupations of assembly plants—onto the shoulders of corporations. They even claimed that big business was deliberately refusing to invest and increase payrolls as part of a political gambit to destroy the New Deal." Obama, the most socialist President since FDR, is employing the same tactics. He's cozying up to the "Occupy...

BT&T Bank Chairman John Allison will be on Freedom Watch with Judge Andrew Napolitano at 11pm Eastern.

TONIGHT -- Graham Beckel, who plays Ellis Wyatt in ATLAS SHRUGGED, will be on FREEDOM WATCH on FBN at 11pm Eastern http://www.foxbusiness.com/watch/show-schedule/index.html

The first venue for Atlas Shrugged in Canada has just been confirmed: Atlas will be showing at the AMC at Younge and Dundas in Toronto for October 28th. Showtimes have not yet been announced but, of course we'll make sure to post links for advanced ticket purchasing as soon as they become available. If you're in Canada and you're hoping Atlas visits your city, be sure to head on over to the Official Atlas Shrugged Movie web site and "Demand Atlas!"

The Coming Collapse: “We Can Buy Time, But We Can’t Change the Outcome” By Aaron Task | Daily Ticker – Fri, Sep 16, 2011 1:23 PM EDT The Ayn Rand Institute held its annual "Atlas Shrugged Revolution" dinner Thursday night in New York City. In attendance were a number of financial luminaries and hedge fund managers, including Peter Schiff of EuroPacific Capital, John Tamny of RealClearMarkets, Dmitry Balyasny of Balyasny Asset Management and Scott Schweighauser of Aurora Investment Management. The setting was the tony St. Regis Hotel on Fifth Avenue but there was nothing pleasant about the primary message coming...

It's the twilight, he thought. I hate the twilight...He glanced back. The white rectangle stood above the roofs, saying in immovable finality: September 2. Oh: Atlas Shrugged on DVD Nov. 19. Liberals hate it. That's all you need know.

Point One: All workers, wage earners, and employees of any kind whatsoever shall henceforth be attached to their jobs and shall not leave nor be dismissed nor change employment... Point Two: All industrial, commercial, manufacturing, and business establishments of any nature whatsoever shall henceforth remain in operation, and the owners of such establishments shall not quit, nor leave, nor retire, nor close, sell or transfer their business... Point Three: All patents and copyrights, pertaining to any devices, inventions, formulas, processes, and works of any nature whatsoever, shall be turned over to the nation as a patriotic emergency gift... Point Four:...

A blogger named David McElroy recently wrote of a Birmingham (Alabama) businessman who, after listening to a room full of moochers and leeches piss whine and moan about the evils of business, publicly threw in the towel regarding his attempt to open a new coal mine. David compared what happened to a scene right out of “Atlas Shrugged” and then mused, “But I wonder how long it’s going to be before businesspeople really do start walking away and deciding it’s not worth doing business in America today. Or is it already happening and we just don’t know it?” Well, David,...

If it had been a scene in “Atlas Shrugged,” the guy would have disappeared into the secrecy of Colorado with a shadowy figure who we would later learn to be John Galt. In real life, the story will probably be more complex. But I wonder how long it’s going to be before businesspeople really do start walking away and deciding it’s not worth doing business in America today. Or it it already happening and we just don’t know it? The man you see in the picture at the right is named Ronnie Bryant. He operates coal mines in Alabama. I’d...

As federal criminal statutes have ballooned, it has become increasingly easy for Americans to end up on the wrong side of the law. Many of the new federal laws also set a lower bar for conviction than in the past: Prosecutors don't necessarily need to show that the defendant had criminal intent.

Love for Ayn Rand goes unrequited. Libertarians love her, but she rejected them as "emotional hippies of the right." Conservatives love her, but she opposed Ronald Reagan, saying, "His likeliest motive for entering the Presidential race is power lust." Right-leaning Christians love her, but she was an atheist, an abortion supporter and a champion of the anti-Christian ideal that selfishness is a virtue. She also called religion a "sign of a psychological weakness." Her fans -- including Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, talk radio's Rush Limbaugh and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas -- would be crushed to learn she...

Clubhouse confidential: The Tribe's Orlando Cabrera prepared for his second-ever start at third base Wednesday night by reading "Atlas Shrugged," by Ayn Rand. "This is my bible," Cabrera said. "It's over 1,000 pages long." Cabrera's copy of Rand's 1957 novel is worn. The spine of the book is taped over to help hold it together. Cabrera said he reads it every year. "The book is about objectivism. It's about many things," Cabrera said. "It's about how to be successful in life. It's about how to live life now while you're still alive." The novel tells the story of a strike...

"I Have Enough Money" In David Mamet’s recent book, “The Secret Knowledge”, he quotes President Obama as saying, “The individual at some point must be able to say: ‘I have enough money. [Therefore, I no longer need to work, toil, or sweat; after all, I have enough money. I no longer need to earn and pay taxes; after all, I have enough money. I no longer need to plant or harvest; after all, I have enough money. I no longer need to build or produce; after all, I have enough money. I no longer need to use my skills, my...

The U.S. economy is crumbling. Businesses are collapsing in record numbers. Jobs have disappeared. Tax revenues are down dramatically. Coincidence? Everything happening today under Obama resembles the storyline of Ayn Rand’s famous book, Atlas Shrugged, one of the most popular books of all time, selling over 7 million copies. Now, under President Obama, Atlas Shrugged has come to life. Rand prophesized a country dominated by socialists, Marxists and statists, where looters, free loaders and poverty promoters live off the productive class. To rationalize the fleecing of innovative business owners and job creators, the looter class demonized the wealthy, just as...

A Detroit entrepreneur surprised university engineers in Ohio recently, when he invented a heat-treatment that makes steel 7 percent stronger than any steel on record -- in less than 10 seconds. In fact, the steel, now trademarked as Flash Bainite, has tested stronger and more shock-absorbing than the most common titanium alloys used by industry. Now the entrepreneur is working with researchers at Ohio State University to better understand the science behind the new treatment, called flash processing. What they've discovered may hold the key to making cars and military vehicles lighter, stronger, and more fuel-efficient. In the current issue...

ATLAS SHRUGGED PART II in theaters fall 2012

To be clear, Atlas Shrugged may not win any Academy Awards. But that is not the point. The tale behind bringing Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel to the big screen is almost as long as the book itself. Loathed or loved, public sentiment is anything but neutral for Atlas Shrugged. In this first of possibly three installments, the year is 2016 and the national economy continues to spiral downward. As a result, commercial aviation is a recent memory and all traffic, freight and passenger, must move by rail. (It is ironic that in this alternate reality all rail traffic is still...

It is a movie that Hollywood refused to produce and distribute. It is a movie that many pundits within the media have been advising people not to bother with. This movie is the film portrayal of Ayn Rand’s bestselling novel Atlas Shrugged. This film is the first of a three part story that revolves around three main characters representing three main bodies of ideas. Henry Rearden, who owns a major steel company, Dagny Taggart, a railroad executive who believes in Rearden’s product so much, that she decides to use it to build her mainline railroad, and Paul Wyatt, an innovative...

I had the opportunity to see Atlas Shrugged, Part I on Saturday in the only theater in which it is being shown in Tampa, FL. It is running at Cinebistro, a specialty theater where you can enjoy a high-end meal and fine wine served at your seat, which is very similar to a first class airline seat. Admittedly, it is just the kind of venue that progressives might associate with an elitist gathering of selfish capitalists. However, the movie itself tells quite a different story than they might expect if their understanding of Rand is limited to her interviews with...

Abstract: Those who commit real crimes should be prosecuted and appropriately punished. But the question of what kind of conduct is deserving of criminal punishment has become increasingly muddled in federal law. Although numerous ridiculous crimes that punish relatively trivial wrongs have crept into federal law, the greater danger comes from serious laws that are vague and overbroad. Further, Congress has authorized federal agencies to create tens of thousands of additional crimes that trap Americans by punishing obscure conduct. Federal agencies and prosecutors with inadequate oversight make overly aggressive application of these laws to target Americans who are often unaware...

In the beginning it was a dream. I would own a restaurant in East Hampton. It would be a warm, beautiful place with great food and wonderful service. advertisement It would become one of the most popular restaurants in the Hamptons. It would be a place my entire family— my kids, their spouses, my grandkids and our friends—would enjoy scrumptious feasts where we would all sit and just revel in our love for good food and each other. Like I said, it was a dream. But then, it happened. In 1993 I was part of a group that bought a...

The relative box-office success of the independent film "Atlas Shrugged," based on the bestselling Ayn Rand novel that features the character John Galt, has reportedly surprised Hollywood insiders who took a pass on the script. It shouldn't have. The box-office results show that cinematic clashes between self-made industrialists and government bureaucrats fit this moment in American history snugly, addressing both tea party sentiments and polls that show growing pessimism about the direction of the country. QUIZ: How much do you know about the tea party? "Atlas Shrugged: Part I" (Parts II and III are reportedly in the planning stages) cost...

Lately, there have been duelling stories in the entertainment press about the future of ”Atlas Shrugged.” With disappointing box office returns, the producers have been asked if they will go ahead and complete the franchise and in one interview we’re being told there will be no trilogy and in another we’re being told that there will. To clear the air, I reached out via email and “Atlas” producers John Aglialoro and Harmon Kaslow were both good enough to respond with exclusive quotes that should help to calm fears of “Atlas” fans everywhere. Most surprising, though, was the revelation CNN, CNBC,...

The critics are "revitalizing me with their outrageousness," John Aglialoro, who spent $10 million of his own money on the film, tells THR. The man who says he spent $10 million of his own money to bring Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 to the big screen vowed Wednesday to go through with his plans to make the next two installments, even though critics hate the movie and business at movie theaters has fallen off a cliff. In fact, said John Aglialoro, the co-producer and financier, it's the monolithic view from critics that say the movie stinks that is motivating him to...

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.

If you happen to be some congressional bureaucrat on the staff of the Speaker of the House and you are reading this, please kidnap your boss and take him to the nearest theatre playing Atlas Shrugged Part 1. Why, you ask? Because in the same week that unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats cost Shell Oil four billion dollars and ran them out of drilling off Alaska -- and more bureaucrats began their attempt to cost Boeing over a billion dollars and South Carolina a thousand jobs -- our feckless Speaker of the House sided again with the wrong team. So grab...

House Speaker John Boehner says he’s open to calls from the White House to curb some of the $4 billion in oil and gas subsidies and tax incentives, as Washington continues to feel the heat over high gas prices. Oil and gas producers are “gonna pay their fair share in taxes and they should,” Boehner told ABC News. Continue Reading Text Size -+reset Listen VIDEO: Boehner on oil subsidies POLITICO 44 Latest on POLITICO Blago trial may be moved for Oprah VIDEO: POLITICO Playback Clyburn urges 'compassion' Playbook: 'An insurgent campaign' Brewer: Birther fight is destructive Poll: Gas prices costing...

My esteemed colleague Kyle Smith may not qualify as a box-office Nostradamus ("I smell a hit,'' he once wrote of "An American Carol'') but he was certainly on the mark in predicting that "Atlas Shrugged -- Part One'' would flop in his Sunday column a couple of weeks ago. After a middling performance during its opening weekend that was hyped in some quarters (i.e., The Hollywood Reporter), the per-screen average for this amateurish Ayn Rand adaptation (even Kyle could only muster 2.5 stars' worth of enthusiam for the movie, though he liked its message) plunged to an alarming $1,890 from...

A cool trailer made by FreedomWorks, connecting it to today with Obama and the usual suspects.The movie opened with 299 theaters; now it's at 465. Go see it, take your family!ATLAS SHRUGGED TRAILER

Ayn Rand is recapturing the hearts of American conservatives. The Cold War writer’s individualist philosophy is back in fashion among the Republican faithful. Her 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged has just been released as a movie and while critics call it slow and two-dimensional, Tea Partiers are queuing around the block to see it. Something about Rand’s take-no-prisoners prose strikes a chord with people exasperated by Obama’s tax-and-spend liberalism and desperate for a road-map to liberty. But Ayn Rand is not a natural pin-up for American conservatives. Her individualism went beyond libertarianism. It was an exciting, revolutionary mix of greed, atheism,...

The power of Ayn Rand devotees has impressed some Hollywood distribution executives, who took note of the hefty $5,640 per-theater average scored by “Atlas Shrugged: Part 1” during its opening weekend. “Shocking,” one executive said about the healthy business the low-budget film has been doing, considering its “awful” marketing plan. Awful or not, business has been brisk enough for producers Harmon Kaslow and John Aglialoro to expand from 299 theaters to 425 this weekend and to 1,000 by the end of the month. They don’t have enough film prints to fill all the orders. “Things have turned for us,” Kaslow...

U.S. President Barack Obama is considering an executive order to mandate that all companies seeking government contracts first disclose any and all political donations. The rules would cover any donations made within two years of the contract application. The White House has advanced the argument that taxpayers have the right to know when contractors seeking government money are influencing the political process. Republicans aren't in agreement with the idea. "Let me be clear: No White House should be able to review your political party affiliation before deciding if you're worthy of a government contract," said Mitch McConnell, Republican Senate Minority...

“To the Colorado renaissance.” That’s the oilman’s toast to the steelmaker and the railroad mogul in the new film version of “Atlas Shrugged.” As Ayn Rand’s epic novel of capitalism finally comes to the screen, more timely now than when she wrote it in 1957, my home state has a starring role. You never saw the aspens so golden, the individualism so heroic, the bureaucrats so villainous. Audiences applaud as the movie ends – with Ellis Wyatt having set his own oilfield on fire and gone off with the rebel messiah John Galt. His signboard of defiance to big government,...

I’ve heard plenty of people dismiss Atlas Shrugged (the book as well as the movie) as overwrought, contrived paranoia about the regulatory state. The government can’t run companies through its regulatory system, critics scoff, no matter what a Russian ex-patriate thought more than 50 years ago. No one is marching into manufacturers in the US and telling the Hank Reardons of the world what they can build and where. Of course not: In 2009 Boeing announced plans to build a new plant to meet demand for its new 787 Dreamliner. Though its union contract didn’t require it, Boeing executives negotiated...

We need more screens in VA....no SWVA locations have the movie, yet..... Virginia Alexandria AMC Hoffman Center 206 Swamp Fox Road, Alexandria, VA 22314 Arlington Regal Ballston Common 12 671 N Glebe Road, Arlington, VA 22203 Fairfax Rave Motion Pictures Fairfax Corner 14 11900 Palace Way, Fairfax, VA 22030 Midlothian Regal Commonwealth Center 20 & IMAX 5001 Commonwealth Center Parkway, Midlothian, VA 23112 Richmond Bow Tie Movieland at Boulevard Square-Richmond 1301 North Boulevard, Richmond, VA 23230 Cinebistro at Stony Point Fashion Park 9200 Stony Point Pkwy, Richmond, VA, 23235

The power of Ayn Rand devotees has impressed some Hollywood distribution executives, who took note of the hefty $5,640 per-theater average scored by “Atlas Shrugged: Part 1” during its opening weekend. “Shocking,” one executive said about the healthy business the low-budget film has been doing, considering its “awful” marketing plan. Awful or not, business has been brisk enough for producers Harmon Kaslow and John Aglialoro to expand from 299 theaters to 425 this weekend and to 1,000 by the end of the month. They don’t have enough film prints to fill all the orders. “Things have turned for us,” Kaslow...

CHICAGO, April 29, 2011 — By current Hollywood standards, it is a movie that should never have been made. Imagine this story pitch to progressive movie execs: "we have a female heroine, genius entrepreneurs disappearing, and a government conspiring to control its people and their creations. In short, a powerfully persuasive anti-government message." Not exactly “Iron Man 3” is it? Yet, despite (or because of) Hollywood’s best efforts to keep the movie down, “Atlas” is racking up dollar signs at the box office. With a hearty $5640 per theater in its opening weekend, “Atlas Shrugged,” based on the influential Ayn...

The power of Ayn Rand devotees has impressed some Hollywood distribution executives, who took note of the hefty $5,640 per-theater average scored by “Atlas Shrugged: Part 1” during its opening weekend. “Shocking,” one executive said about the healthy business the low-budget film has been doing, considering its “awful” marketing plan.

Despite its "awful" marketing plan, as one distribution exec calls it, the movie earned a $5,640 per-theater average opening: "Things have turned for us," producer Harmon Kaslow tells THR. "Shocking," one executive said about the healthy business the low-budget film has been doing considering its "awful" marketing plan. Awful or not, business has been brisk enough for producers Harmon Kaslow and John Aglialoro to expand from 299 theaters to 425 this weekend and to 1,000 by the end of the month, they told The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday. The two said they fielded 500 inquiries from theater bookers Monday but...

The movie does a serviceable job of laying out Ayn Rand's essential message. It took half a century but Atlas Shrugged: The Movie (Part 1) finally clawed its way into limited release this past weekend on several hundred screens across the country. Given the press blackout, if you weren't on the mailing list you probably missed it. If you did sign up for the mailing list you've undoubtedly been forced to install a spam filter to protect your inbox from carpet bombing. Rest easy, true believers, the movie does a serviceable job of laying out a CliffsNotes version of Ayn...

On Saturday, my parents called to report they had driven an hour into Reno, Nevada, to see Paul Johansson's adaptation of Atlas Shrugged. Despite the film's strongly negative reviews, the theater was full. Curiously, this scene was true across the nation this weekend, as the film brought in more than 1.6 million despite only opening in 300 theaters: an average of $5,600 per theater, leaving it behind only the heavily advertised films Rio and Scream 4. Unfortunately, the quality of this adaptation is representative of its low budget and brief production time. The film meticulously retains the original plot of...

<p>Wandering round this great republic predicting the apocalypse, I’m often asked by audience members why it is I’m being quite so overwrought if not an hysterical old queen about the whole business. After all, President Obama’s now-forgotten “Deficit Commission” produced a report melodramatically emblazoned “The Moment of Truth” and proposing such convulsive course corrections as raising the age of Social Security eligibility to 69.</p>

I'm sure it won't be reported by the mainstream media, but does anyone have an idea on how Atlas Shrugged did at the box office this weekend?

Atlas Shrugged: Part I was the top-grossing limited release of the weekend, generating an estimated $1.7 million at 300 single-screen locations. For a pure independent release, Atlas Shrugged: Part I's opening was fine. But for the first-ever adaptation of Ayn Rand's influential mega-selling 1957 novel that had far more media hype than any other independent movie could dream of, it was disappointing. There aren't many direct comparisons, because it's rare that an adaptation of such a famous book gets such a modest release. Atlas Shrugged: Part I opened higher than recent limited Christian movies The Grace Card and To Save...

THANK YOU. After an incredible opening weekend, it would appear it's time to expand. In only 300 theaters, Atlas Shrugged made 1.67 million dollars averaging $5,590 - 3rd only to Rio and Scream 4 in averages. Atlas Shrugged Movie = Free Market Working. Spread the word. This is our moment. Here we come.