The Atlas Shrugged movie is reportedly still in the works:



"With 'Atlas Shrugged,' Hollywood may have its first anti-bailout movie"

By Steven Zeitchik

April 01, 2009




Hollywood could soon be going Objectivist.

After decades in development hell, Ayn Rand's capitalism-minded "Atlas Shrugged"
is taking new steps toward the big screen — with one of the film world's most
prominent money men potentially at its center.

Ryan Kavanaugh's Relativity Media is circling the Baldwin Entertainment project
and could come aboard to finance with Lionsgate, which got involved several
years ago.

Rand's popular but polarizing book — it's derided by many literary critics but
has a huge public following — tells the story of Dagny Taggart, a railroad
executive trying to keep her corporation competitive in the face of what she
perceives as a lack of innovation and individual responsibility.

A number of stars have expressed serious interest in playing the lead role of
Taggart. Angelina Jolie previously had been reported as a candidate to play the
strong female character, but the list is growing and now includes Charlize
Theron, Julia Roberts and Anne Hathaway.

Although it was written a half-century ago, producers say that the book's themes
of individualism resonate in the era of Obama, government bailouts and stimulus
packages -- making this the perfect moment to bring the 1,100-page novel to the
big screen.

"This couldn't be more timely," said Karen Baldwin, who along with husband
Howard is producing, with film industry consultant John Logigian advising on the
project. "It's uncanny what Rand was able to predict — about the only things she
didn't anticipate are cell phones and the Internet." Baldwin may be on to
something -- love it or hate it, "Shrugged" is seeing a resurgence, with book
sales spiking as debates rage in Washington and around the country about the
government's role in a faltering free-market economy.

The author's final novel offers an embattled railroad company as a metaphor for
a society that Taggart (and Rand) sees as succumbing to socialism at the expense
of individual creativity. Its backbone is a 50-page speech by the mysterious but
major character John Galt in which he lays out the Rand principles of
Objectivism, which argues for an aggressive free market and against government
activism. Let's just say it's probably not on the president's nightstand.

With all the long speeches and with plot points often a Trojan Horse for Rand's
ideas, it's not an easy writing or directing gig, but producers believe they've
got the man who could do it. Randall Wallace, the writer on other crisis-era,
politically themed works such as "Braveheart" and "Pearl Harbor," has written
the latest draft of the screenplay and is also interested in coming on to
direct.(He would follow in the steps of "House of Sand and Fog" director Vadim
Perelman, who had been attached to direct and fell off; we like Perelman, but
would have been quite the transition for him.)

The project would likely land in the $50 million-budget range but could go
higher depending on talent.

Producers are looking to shoot next year, driven in part by the timeliness, as
well as by a clause in the option. A high net-worth individual with whom the
Baldwins have partnered controls the option, but that option would revert to the
Rand estate if production doesn't begin by the end of 2010.

An "Atlas Shrugged" movie has gone through endless development fits and starts.
Faye Dunaway and Clint Eastwood had been attached to earlier versions -- if that
doesn't give you an idea of how far back it goes, we don't know what will -- but
with both Rand and the Rand estate very particular about how the story was
handled, those iterations didn't get traction.

This decade, Howard Baldwin and Philip Anschutz were on board to produce at
their Crusader Entertainment banner, but that effort didn't take flight. The
Baldwins took the project with them when the "Ray" producers split from Anschutz
several years ago and pacted with the high net-worth figure, who is said to
especially like the timeliness of the book's message.

Producers also say that while Relativity and Lionsgate are in the pole position
to finance and distribute, other studio and financier suitors could yet
materialize.

Still, Karen Baldwin praised Lionsgate and Michael Burns, who has championed the
project at the studio, and also said Kavanaugh would be an appropriate partner.
"The subject of the book would seem to fit with the kind of people who are
willing to step up and take big chances," she said.

The Rand involvement on earlier versions -- along with the verbiage-heavy
sections -- is probably why there hasn't been a Rand project on the big screen
in 60 years, not since Gary Cooper played Howard Roark in Warner Bros.' "The
Fountainhead." With some big-time entrepeneurs potentially coming board, there
now may be a lot less shrugging and a lot more shooting.


http://www.riskybusinessblog.com/2009/03/with-atlas-shrugged-hollywood-may-have-\
its-first-antibailout-movie.html