About a year ago, there was much blogging about the alleged Atlas Shrugged movie that was in pre-production at the time. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were rumored to be interested in starring. Everyone was excited.
The time has come to face it. There will never be a movie, miniseries, or DVD. Atlas Shrugged is a novel of ideas, and novels about ideas do not translate well to the big, or small, screen. To the extent that there is value in the message of Atlas Shrugged, I fear it would be diminished by any effort to bring the novel itself to life.
Now, it seems I may be right:
Production Notes/Status:
Status: Announced
Comments:
This project is indefintely delayed
Status Updated: 18 June 2007
Angelina Jolie confirms this in an interview
[Jolie] had a little more to say about the adaptation of Atlas Shrugged, which is moving forward very slowly, despite having the Plan B powerhouse of Pitt and Jolie behind it. Angelina told me that the project is still on the table, but “the thing with Atlas is just, we all feel that it’s one of those projects where if you can’t do it right, you really can’t touch it. So we have not had all the pieces come together. There’s not been a director that’s right to come on, or all of those elements. So until it does, you know, I certainly don’t want to be a part of something that’s just put together to hit ‘this date.’”
Which is the Hollywood equivalent of saying it’s likely to never come together.
H/T: My buddy Raymond
Can’t they seek a government subsidy to allay investor’s fear of losses?
brilliant sir
Just as well, Angelina Jolie would have ruined the whole thing anyhow.
Atlas Shrugged is not a novel of ideas. It is a novel. It is a story and it would make a good movie. To attribute anything more philosophical to it is to read into it a hundred times more than the average consumer of movies. I think they should come out with the movie and it would be profitable if it weren’t for bloggers ranting about the objectivism dialogue and subtextual meanings. Just shut up and let it succeed.
That would mean that the movie industry actually listens to bloggers. We certainly did not wield such influence when Farscape was canceled.
[...] Back in June, it seemed as though the efforts to bring Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged to the big screen were on the shelf. [...]