'Atlas Shrugged'...And Rolled Over In His Grave

Let's see if you or I would do it this way: Let's say you own the rights to what might be an unfilmable novel, and let's say that novel is Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. And let's say you spent $1 million for those rights back in the mid-1990s but despite your best efforts, the movie project just hasn't come together like you'd hoped. What would you do next month? If you were John Aglialoro, you'd go ahead and throw Atlas Shrugged into production in June, self-financing it, despite the fact that he doesn't have a star attached to play Dagny Taggart, one of fiction's great characters. I'll say it: This guy's going to waste a lot of money on a movie nobody will like. Actually, he's going to waste a lot of money on four movies. According to Deadline, Aglialoro is splitting Atlas Shrugged into four movies, and he's got offers out to Charlize Theron and Maggie Gyllenhaal to play Taggart, although both are already busy next month. So...good luck. But wait, there's more: Aglialoro, not a writer but CEO of exercise equipment manufacturer Cybex International, contributed to the script and will use "unproven director" Stephen Polk, who rather predictably thinks everything going to be just fine.

“For more than 15 years, this has been at studios and there has been a whole dance around who’ll play the iconic roles. Making it an independent film was the game-changer. Everybody is saying, how can you shoot this movie without a star? We’re shooting it because it’s a good movie with great characters. We've been in pre-production for months, but kept it a mystery. Part of the reason is because there’s so much crap about how you need a great big budget and stars. We aren’t looking for big names to trigger press or financing.”

You don't need a great big budget or stars; that's true. Doesn't explain why the producer offered the role to Charlize Theron, though, if it can be made without a big name attached. But what you do need for a movie like this is the right preparation and the time and money to make it. And I'm sorry, but the director's just giving lip service. You don't cast Dagny Taggart a month before you start shooting. That, after you get the script figured out - a script that probably doesn't need the assistance of a CEO at a fitness company - is the first order of business. The character is iconic for a reason. Cast accordingly. If this were some original production and a guy with a lot of money just wanted to make a movie, it might be fun to watch the implosion. Hell, movies that have all the right pieces don't always work. Ask Robin Hood. But this is an entirely different matter. And now we might not get a good version of Atlas Shrugged for years and years to come.

Comments

[Andrew]

"You don't cast Dagny Taggart a month before you start shooting."
Completely agree. I personally cannot envision Charlize Theron or Maggie Gyllenhaal as Dagny Taggart