They're making a movie out of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged (Pitt and Jolie?)

[Terran1212]

http://comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=14274

Jolie and Pitt Circling Atlas Shrugged?
Source: Variety April 27, 2006


Lionsgate has picked up worldwide distribution rights to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged from Howard and Karen Baldwin (Ray), who will produce with John Aglialoro, reports Variety.

Angelina Jolie, a longtime devotee of Rand's, and Brad Pitt, also a fan, are rumored to be circling the leading roles of Dagny Taggart and John Galt.

Atlas Shrugged, which runs more than 1,100 pages, has faced a lengthy and circuitous journey to a film adaptation.


>_>

[babylonsister]

1. Wasn't Galt an architect? I read it in my teens, long time ago.

Pitt has aspirations. Could be good; if this casting pans out, I may have to revisit that book.

[amerikat]

3. you're thinking of "the fountainhead" I think?

The lead character was an architect.

[babylonsister]

5. Yes, thanks. nt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. Howard Roark laughed.

He stood naked at the edge of a cliff. The lake lay far below him. A frozen explosion of granite burst in flight to the sky over....

[jpgray]

2. Angelina Jolie a devotee of Rand?

:rofl:

The immigrant against immigration is a hit with the girl who loves to save kids from third-world countries? Great.

[AX10]

4. Jolie and Pitt are one kooky couple. Maybe Jolie made Pitt that way...

:shrug:

I just ignore them.

[Drum]

6. over 1000 pages, and densely knit, too.

Anybody that would try to make this as a film (that fits into any theatrical timeframe) is kidding themselves, and wasting their/our time. The movie version of The Fountainhead (also a lengthy and rich book) just scratches the surface of Rand's work, disappointing.

Jolie and Pitt? Oh puleeze. Is somebody trying to polish up their karma?

[MikeNearMcChord]

13. It is a very hard book to make a movie

out of. the Sebastian D' Aconia "love of money" speech would be the perfect manifesto of the Corporate elite. If there is a Rand book that would be a good movie, it would be "We The Living" about life in Russia at the beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution

[Drum]

19. I agree w/that: We the Living nt

[BillZBubb]

8. Atlas Yawned.

I can't think of a more puerile work. The only people who like Ayn Rand are male college sophomore's without girlfriends, and a few others born without much brainpower.

If Jolie likes the insipid Ms. Rand, she's even more bizarre than she's made out to be. How does John Galt's fascist, elitist Eden fit in with saving the world's poor?

[oscar111]

9. fascist book.. am i right in hearing that it basically says the idle rich

are the atlas that supports the lazy millions? And that one day they get fed up, and shrug off the welfare bums ?

Is the book a long hymn of praise to those born with the best job skill brains, and the worst compassion F5 region of the brain?

I seem to recall from scanning one of Rand's books, the heroes were majoring in physics.

[BillZBubb]

12. The "hero" is an innovator in the steel industry.

But because of the lowly parasites and bureaucrats, his genius cannot provide for the betterment of mankind. They are the evil collectivists.

So, the hero becomes a fan of Galt who has set up a exclusive area for the elite producers and innovators. No peons need apply.

Instead of a master race, Rand has a master type. In place of the Jews, she's got the "collectivists".

[Drum]

20. Am I right in hearing

that you'll just take a micro synopsis as a substitute for reading a book? So easily pronounce it fascist?
No one can really live out AR's philosophical construct, but she is quite literate and her writings are thought-provoking. FYI, the capitalist "heroes" of Rand's books are far from idle. The thumbnail sketch you've been given of her writing is far too simplistic, and erroneous.
I read her books. I still work in the arts, nonprofit, low pay etc...I've not been corrupted by her ideas, but have been shown some interesting examples of archetypes present among us (against the stark backdrop o Rand's hard-edged, utopian, Objectivism.) Some of these lessons have proven useful to me in dealing with less-than-scrupulous people along the way and I thought they were interesting novels in themselves.

[roguevalley]

10. it probably doesn't. unless it came out of her mouth, I wouldn't

believe it.

[lostinacause]

17. While Rand is wrong in many of her conclusions there is

no mistaking here intelligence.

[Neil Lisst]

11. they've both made a lot of crappy movies, so why not this?

Pitt has some acting talent, but Jolie is average.

[mykpart]

14. Here's an idea:

How about getting Tom Cruise and John Travolta to be in it too? Scientology vs. Atheism.

[godhatesrepublicans]

15. Why not just do a Mein Kampf movie? What is WRONG with these people?

Where the hell are our movies? Will someone please raise the corpse of Frank Capra and make some movies for our side of the debate!

You know, movies like

Meet John Doe (The New Deal personified)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Why we need the filibuster)
You Can't Take It with You (a personal fave)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Good millionaire vs. greedy scum)
It's a Wonderful Life (An evil banker! When was the last time we saw one of those?)

But what do we get? A movie with huge backing based on a book that made one reviewer say that Rand's philosophy "makes well-poisoning seem like one of the kindlier arts."

*arrgh.*

[Terran1212]

21. We need Grapes of Wrath and Johnny Got His Gun

[WCGreen]

16. Yea, you have to catch the right age to read AR....

I mean, to be an individualist like her, you have to be like her.....

Sort of an EMO thing run from the 1920's and 30's....

The Fountainhead has to be one of the worst movies ever made which makes it really fun to watch....

[hatrack]

18. Not just yer average stinky floppy star vehicle . . .

A well below-average stinky floppy B-O-R-I-N-G star vehicle.

I could try for weeks to come up with a shittier concept for a movie and not even come close to the prospect of this particular pile of cat logs.