Atlas Shrugged getting several movies

What's to be said? Sometimes good source material is turned into bad adaptations, but there's nary a case I can think of where bad source material was turned into a good adaptation. And, regardless of your philosophical views, Atlas Shrugged, like every Author Tract, was worthless as a novel.

Edit: Or maybe it's Fridge Brilliance. Every line in that trailer is spoken with insufferable self-satisfaction, so maybe it's actually a particularly incisive portrayal of the Randian worldview.

edited 12th Feb '11 6:25:55 PM by jewelleddragon

I was thinking that Battlefield Earth might not be a good comparison. This is more like the films of the Left Behind series and similar things. What I mean is, is it's not necessarily meant to appeal to a wide audience, but I'm sure it's intended audience will love it/allow for the creation of sequels.

^^That's the problems I have with Ayn Rand's novels: she might as well just write political essays. Put in hypothetical future world as rhetoric or whatever, but keep it in essay form. Writing a bunch of fiction, I think is dampening to her argument. One person who just likes stories will be disappointed for the great deal of basic weaknesses they offer (bad dialogue, cardboard characters, plots that get stretched out). Another person who just wants the political/philosophical theories has to sit through an overstretched story to get what she's talking about.

Ahck, but I'm getting off-topic.

^^^ The Godfather? American Psycho? Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Nopt that this has any chance of actually being good, but it can happen.

Wasn't the Fountainhead made into a movie a while ago (like in the 1940s)? Has anyone seen it? I remember that it had a famous director and cast so I'd figure it was probably good.

edited 12th Feb '11 7:31:43 PM by Jordan

it is probably my least favourite book of all time, i don't see the point in adapting it because of the massive monologues even ardent fans of the novel can probably admit that there two scene that could work cinematic ally one of the parties and the first trip on railway that's it as for the trailer... the time period feels wrong

edited 12th Feb '11 8:29:04 PM by faradayangel

I've seen The Fountainhead (and have it in a Gary Cooper box set). It wasn't that bad.

You know, if you mute the trailer, it looks decent. Kind of plotless, but decent.

It's listening to the dialogue that kills every iota of dramatic tension, to the point it sounds like meaningless gibberish.

Hey, sit in the back of the theater with a bottle of Jack and it might be halfway entertaining.

The guy who played Andrew Ryan is in it. Huh.

I, for one, can't wait for the sequel: Atlas Shrugged 2: This Is John Galt Speaking, a 3-hour-long blockbuster consisting entirely of Galt's speech.

[1]

The movie's budget is supposed to be $15 million. Not enough for a period piece.

edited 13th Feb '11 9:00:54 AM by Redhead

Damn it, Redhead, I came here just to say that!

Now, my life is meaningless.

It's funny, I recently read that the Ironman movie is more or less Atlas Shrugged with Superheroes .

Anyway, mmost likely won't see it. And it most likely won't be that much of a hit, and definitely won't have any real impact on the world. Though, I think that's what Randroids really wish secretly to themselves; that they never actually get any ppower, but can alweays just feel like they're the only ones in the world that have it right, nd if they got to decide things would be better.

edited 13th Feb '11 9:12:09 AM by JethroQWalrustitty

How is Iron Man even remotely like Atlas Shrugged?

Yeah, I don't remember any trains in that one.

I know, I know, Cracked isn't reputrable around here these days, but there are some similarities.

Something else, is the fact that the movie is that it is very bad at hiding its budget. I've watched it a couple of times (it's incredibly entertaining to me :P) and two things stick out like a sore thumb. One is however they shot it. I'm not well versed in the various types of video that people use to film, but it has that look that many very cheap movies have. Two is the crappy special effects and sets being used. That fire scene looks incredibly fake and the restaurant with the horrible yellow walls looks very cheap.

I find it ironic that a cinematic paean to capitalism is so poorly funded.

I love this comment on the video:

I hope they do it as a psychological thriller.

"Who is John Galt!?"

"You are, Dagny! You're John Galt!"

No, Dagny, YOU are the self-righteous jerk!

@Jethro: But it's lacking in the whole "the poor and working classes are evil parasites upon the rich, and must be purged" schtick.

I'm not even halfway through Atlas Shrugged yet, but I'm sure as hell I haven't seen anything of that sort in there, in the parts that I've read. Rand doesn't say anything about poor people at all, except that it sucks to be them. It's the government she's got a thing against.

edited 13th Feb '11 10:51:09 AM by melloncollie

Wait until the part where there are a bunch of normal people in a train along with a moocher politician that die from asphyxiation because said politician wants to get to a campaign rally through an unventilated tunnel aboard a coal-fire train.

Rand goes car by car and tells the reader exactly why every single one of the people on that train deserve to die.

Oh that part. My initial reaction was sheer revulsion, but now the overdone What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous? factor makes it almost Narm Charm.

edited 13th Feb '11 3:39:57 PM by Cliche

@ Idler: And then Dagny was a self centered asshole

edited 13th Feb '11 4:05:04 PM by IndigoDingo

What do you mean "and then"? Wasn't she always?  ^*

edited 13th Feb '11 4:09:05 PM by Idler20

That was... Really boring.

Just like Atlas Shrugged, the book.

Iron Man was a capitalist who wasn't much of a fan of government, sure, but he spends all his time helping people and trying to make up for the damage his weapons have caused. Any real Randian would label him an enormous pussy.