It's starting to look as if Atlas Shrugged may finally be made into a movie.
Ayn Rand is one of the most controversial writers in modern American literature, known for her tireless advocacy of the right to selfishness and her hatred of big government. She has been derided and loved in equal measure and her books have sold millions of copies, attracting followers as diverse as banker Alan Greenspan, President Ronald Reagan and architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
She's also one of the most misunderstood and misquoted philosophers ever.
Her most famous book, Atlas Shrugged, has long been a target of Hollywood producers and attracted such big names as Faye Dunaway, Raquel Welch and Sharon Stone. But each project collapsed in the face of turning a 1,200-page philosophical novel into a watchable movie.
Now that is to change. The latest attempt to film Atlas Shrugged is set to star Angelina Jolie in the role of Rand's railroad heiress heroine Dagny Taggart. Unlike past efforts, this one seems likely to succeed. A two-hour screenplay is almost complete and filming is to start this year with release in 2008. It is being written by Randall Wallace, who wrote the Mel Gibson epic Braveheart, and is backed by Lion's Gate Entertainment.
Atlas Shrugged is one of the most controversial books in modern literature. It is a passionate defence of Rand's belief that the world is best served when individuals act entirely in their own rational self-interest. Or, to put it more bluntly, they act selfishly. Rand, who died in 1982, founded the objectivist school of philosophy and still has millions of followers. Atlas Shrugged and another novel The Fountainhead promote her views. In financial circles Atlas Shrugged has been dubbed 'the bible of selfishness'.
But its popularity is undeniable. It has sold six million copies since it was published in 1957 with its grim prediction of an apocalyptic future in which America's elite thinkers, industrialists and artists go on strike and disappear. 'When people see this movie, her ideas will reach even more people than all of her books,' said Lester Hunt, a philosophy professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and member of the Ayn Rand Society.
I hope it happens and I hope it's good. It will be a tremendously difficult project to convey Rand's theme accurately and I'm suspicious of Hollywood's ability to do that. If you haven't read Atlas Shrugged since high school or if you've never read it at all, I encourage you to rectify that situation now.
Angelina as Dagny...
Hmmm. Who will play Francisco and John Galt?
Hmmmmm.
Posted by: Jennifer | February 11, 2007 at 09:15 PM
Who is Bruce Willis?
Heh.
Posted by: chris | February 11, 2007 at 09:49 PM
Angelina as Dagny boggles the mind. I am quite afraid to see what they do with the novel in a two hour movie.
Posted by: Bill | February 11, 2007 at 10:46 PM