The feature-length documentary “Ayn Rand & the Prophecy of ‘Atlas Shrugged‘” is currently in its final week of a month-long limited national theater run, having to date played to enthusiastic audiences in upwards of 75 cities, including New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Toronto, Stamford, Boston and Annapolis, Md.

The documentary will be available on DVD and download beginning in April through Virgil Films (“Restrepo,”"Forks Over Knives”) complete with extra features.

Author/philosopher Rand began writing her last and most ambitious novel – “Atlas Shrugged” – in the years immediately following World War II. Her working title for the book was “The Strike.” It was about what would happen if all the productive people in America went on strike, leaving the entitlement recipients and governmental regulators she called “moochers” and “looters” without anyone to create value for them.

The result is chaos and ultimate disaster.

The post-war years and early ’50s are generally thought to be a relatively prosperous and benign period in twentieth century American history. Yet that’s the period through which Rand painstakingly crafted her novel. When it was published in 1957, “Atlas” was widely dismissed for its “preposterous” scenario. “Atlas” was science fiction. In no way, said the critics, did it depict the real America. Not yet, Rand said. In fact, she wrote the novel in the hope she might prevent it from coming true.

(more…)

Ayn Rand may have a voice in the upcoming presidential election if the folks behind the “Atlas Shrugged” series have their way.

“Atlas Shrugged Part 2,” based on Rand’s iconic 1957 novel, begins principal photography in April in Los Angeles, Colorado, and New York. The film’s release window is October 2012, roughly a month before the presidential election.

No word on cast additions or changes yet, but Duncan Scott, an 8-time Emmy winner who worked extensively with Rand in her editing of “We the Living,” has joined the “Atlas” production team.

“Rand has long been the focus of Duncan’s work. He brings invaluable experience to the table as well as an incredible depth of knowledge regarding Atlas. We’re thrilled to have him on the team,” producer John Aglialoro said in a statement.

Today’s announcement, timed for Rand’s birthday, comes with the promise that the filmmakers will try to build upon the first installment.

(more…)

When actor Vince Vaughn was introducing current Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul at the Liberty Political Action Conference last September, someone from the crowd interrupted and yelled, “brave actor!”

Vaughn, being the pro he is, finished undeterred, going on to describe his long standing relationship with Rep. Paul. Looking at the crop of actors and artists who have thrown out their support for Paul in recent months, one has to wonder if Vaughn started all this and whether he was a “brave actor” when he dared to stand for something opposing the liberal Occupy Wall Street mentality of Hollywood celebrities.

The “Swingers” star stood for capitalism and his own conservatism in front of that audience, and it seems to have sparked a sudden movement in Hollywood of celebrities supporting the capitalism loving, libertarian leaning Paul. But, does this mean a change in Hollywood from the liberal, Obama worshipping place we know it as?

Heck, if Oliver Stone can publicly state he’d vote for Paul over President Barack Obama, then Hollywood is truly in uncharted political waters.

(more…)

Let’s be honest. Movies, today, aren’t just one step away from being left wing propaganda, they just plain suck.

We’ve gone from Dirty Harry to Jason Bourne (or whatever his name ended up being; the camera was too shaky for me to ever tell what was going on). We’ve gone from Humphrey Bogart to George Clooney.  We’ve gone from John Wayne fighting Indians to Na’vi fighting Americans.

But, don’t fret. For there is an answer to our problems, fellow film buffs. I know you’re six feet from that ledge, but let me give you hope…they are called books. They are these contraptions with bindings and pages with words on the inside. Together this all creates a story one hundred times more fulfilling than today’s dim-witted liberal flavor-of-the-month films.

Hollywood has always been a liberal town. They give us anti-Iraq war movie after anti-Iraq war movie despite the fact that they all flop at the box office. But what of the literary world?  They must surely share Hollywood’s contempt for conservatives and enriching stories, right? Wrong. The publishing world seems to get it, for the most part. They like to publish what sells and what seems to sell today are right-leaning stories.

(more…)

Ayn Rand devotees finally got to hear the question they’ve been reading in print for the past 50-plus years:  “Who is John Galt?”

“Atlas Shrugged: Part I,” the long-awaited film adaptation of Rand’s celebrated tome, arrives on Blu-ray and DVD today after its spring theatrical release.

—–

The film follows a driven capitalist (Taylor Schilling) trying to save her family’s railroad company by using an experimental metal. Governmental regulations, and the disappearance of several noteworthy innovators, threaten to derail her ambitions.

“Atlas Shrugged: Part II” will begin production in 2012, but for now Rand fans can savor the original feature along with a quarter of home video extras:

(more…)

Fans of ‘Atlas Shrugged: Part 1’ will have a decision to make while shopping for the home version of Ayn Rand’s timeless saga.

They can opt for a standard Blu-ray or DVD copy sold at brick and mortar stores starting Nov. 8. Or, they can sample one of three special editions.

Those ponying up for the Reason Foundation version of ‘Shrugged’ get exclusive behind-the-scenes footage and interviews. The FreedomWorks edition includes video clips matching modern political sound bites with dialogue from the movie. The Atlas Society version comes with footage from the film’s April 14 premiere as well as video commentaries by David Kelley.

“It allows various groups to put their own content on the DVD,” says ‘Shrugged’ producer Harmon Kaslow of the film’s unique home video rollout.

‘Atlas Shrugged: Part 1,’ based on Rand’s influential political fiction, tells the story of a determined businesswoman (Taylor Schilling) fighting back against government overreach and the disappearance of the world’s premier industrialists.

So far, Rand devotees aren’t just scooping up the film. Kaslow says pre-orders are averaging about $40 per purchase, meaning customers are also investing in the film’s soundtrack, the metal bracelet worn by Schilling in the film and other ‘Shrugged’ merchandise.

“We’re not being distributed by a studio, so we don’t have the same fears [they might],” he says of their eclectic approach to sales and marketing. “We feel very confident about our brand. It has a lot of meaning behind it.”

The biggest question surrounding the first chapter in the proposed trilogy is whether audiences will ever see a Part 2 … let alone a Part 3.

(more…)

 In October 1957, author & philosopher Ayn Rand published her last and most ambitious novel.  Atlas Shrugged was destined be one of the most popular, influential and controversial books of the twentieth century. 

Set in what Rand called ‘the day after tomorrow,’ Atlas depicts an American society driven to the edge of collapse by over-zealous government regulators and their business cronies.  Besides having penned three previous novels, Rand had already written for the movies and had success on Broadway and knew how to capture an audience’s attention.  Atlas was an old-fashioned page-turner – a stylistic throwback to 19th Century classical romantics in the manner of Tolstoy, Jane Austen and Victor Hugo.  But 20th Century critics, accustomed to a regular diet of naturalistic prose (Kerouac’s On the Road was published that same year), failed to appreciate the novel’s archetypal characters, operatic themes and melodramatic sensibilities.  Atlas was panned and even ridiculed for what some critics called its ‘unlikely plot’ and ‘black & white’ characters.’

—–

But questions of literary value had little to do with the controversy that has followed author and novel ever since.  Atlas is at its heart a morality play illustrating Rand’s conviction that America had lost touch with her core values of individualism and freedom and was marching blindly toward the collectivism that had ravaged her native Russia.  The only hope, she said, was for American to turn away from the concept of altruism – living for the sake of others – that had represented ‘morality’ in this country since the late 19th Century.  Loving thy neighbor is killing us, she said.  The solution and salvation lay in selfishness.

This eyebrow-raising theme – along with the ‘cause and effect’ philosophy Rand introduced called Objectivism – was received with open hostility by philosophers, religious groups, politicians and intellectuals of every ideological stripe.  Rand, they said, was a nut, a loony, a fascist!  But even as author and novel were intellectually marginalized, Atlas Shrugged found a popular audience, made the bestseller lists and remained there for half a century. 

(more…)

A New York Post article title reads, “Box Office: ‘Atlas Shrugged’ collapses, even without a NY Times review.’ However, it is possible that the movie’s limited success and the lack of a Times review are linked. Cynthia Haven, an affiliate at Stanford University, points out that at least in the case of obscure books, negative reviews “can dramatically boost sales for obscure and up-and-coming writers.” This trend—of negative reviews boosting sales—can be observed again and again.

The NY Post article linked above asks the question: “Why didn’t The New York Times, which deploys a small army of critics to handle even the most obscure releases, bother to review this particularly newsworthy movie?” A worthy question. The Post goes on:

The Culture Desk, as its [sic] known over there, hasn’t even run a feature on the movie since 2007 (though a couple of Op Ed columnists mentioned it recently). The Times didn’t respond to my e-mailed query, but a commentor [sic] named Stu Freeman posted an intriguing theory at the movie’s page on the newspaper’s website:

“Has anyone else been wondering why The Times- which never lets a new movie go unreviewed (even when no critics’ screenings have been arranged)- has decided to break precedent with this one? My understanding is that the film’s producers actually did hold a press screening but decided not to issue an invite to this paper. If so, the failure to publish a review here is a matter of pure pique and comes across as a disservice to the paper’s readers. I have no personal connection to the film and nothing good to say on its behalf. My argument is that every film that opens commercially in NYC deserves to be critiqued by its paper of record. The decision not to do so is even more deplorable than that taken by the distributing company to withhold an invitation to its opening for reasons of editorial politics, operating policy or anything else. Who knows? The Times critics might have actually liked the thing…”

(more…)

Released April 15, 2011, Atlas Shrugged Part I has been predictably panned by reviewers and wildly embraced by audiences.

At the movie-review site Rotten Tomatoes, just 8 percent of critics give a thumbs up, compared to 85 percent of moviegoers. Such a sharply split reaction mirrors the reception of Ayn Rand’s original and controversial novel too. Appearing in 300 theaters, the movie’s weekend take on a per-screen basis was a strong $5,640, good enough for third overall behind major-studio releases Rio and Scream 4.

How do the folks behind Atlas Shrugged Part I feel about it all?

(more…)

—–

Whether you agree with Ayn Rand’s philosophy or not, her novel Atlas Shrugged has touched the lives of millions and influenced many of today’s center-right thinkers. The Wall Street Journal noted this morning:

Book sales for “Atlas” have always been brisk—and all the more so in the past few years, as actual events have mirrored Rand’s nightmare vision of economic collapse amid massive government expansion.

Rand’s belief in the primacy of the individual over the collective has garnered her vilification from some on the Right and many, especially, on the Left.

Yet, there is no denying that Atlas Shrugged’s portrayal on the devolution of society at the hands of the Left was prescient as it was one of the most cogent attacks on the excesses of liberalism. Today, it seems as though the lines of fiction and reality have blurred in our nation.

Tomorrow, the film Atlas Shrugged, Part One opens nationwide, which is a faithful adaptation of Part One of her 1957 novel.

Today, we offer you, Atlas is Shrugging, a new short film by Ben Howe.

(more…)

The New York Post’s Kyle Smith gave “Atlas Shrugged: Part 1″ a mixed review, but closes his must-read piece with a spot-on analysis of why the film still matters. Regardless of the reviews and even the box office, something remarkable happens tomorrow: The imperfect but important ideas of Ayn Rand, which heretofore have only been available in black and white on Turner Classic Movies and in written form, will now burst into a few hundred movie theatres and eventually make a mark on a lot more people through home video.

Because of the power of the motion picture and popular culture in general, there’s no downside at this point. And we have a few brave individuals with the kind of moxie it takes to risk their own money and buck Hollywood’s PC-infested political climate to thank for this. They did this all on their own. From the beginning, Hollywood talent agencies refused to let their clients consider a role, and tomorrow they’re self-distributing in as many theatres as they can.

However, just because it’s already a win for our side doesn’t mean we should sit back and bask in it. if you want another win in Part 2 and 3, this one has to succeed. And how great would it be to see Part 2 dropped right in the middle of a Obama’s re-election bid?

Kyle Smith:

(more…)

Ed. Note: Here’s how you can find ”Atlas Shrugged” at a theatre near you. Here’s how you can request it be shown in your town.

“Who is John Galt?”

On the week Atlas Shrugged Part 1 hits the theaters, Reason.tv goes behind the scenes to speak with the people both on and off the silver screen to explore the mysterious question that haunts the world of Ayn Rand’s epic, Atlas Shrugged.

(more…)

Last week, while passing through Sin City (aka Washington, DC), I had the opportunity to attend a screening of Atlas Shrugged, Part One at the Heritage Foundation.

As one whose life took a remarkable turn nearly two decades ago, in part due to Atlas Shrugged, waiting for a movie version of Ayn Rand’s novel to hit the big screen has been an effort at exercising endless patience. However, that patience has paid off with this movie.

Despite the novel being published in 1957, in an era of looters seeking to devour producers—from the White House in Washington to the streets of L.A.—Atlas Shrugged is a movie that speaks to the issues of today. And, just as importantly, it is a faithful adaptation of the novel that Americans surveyed describe as the second most influential novel in their lives (after the Bible).

Following the screening, and in light of all that is going on in Madison and elsewhere, Harmon Kaslow (one of the producers) stated that he would release one of the scenes in which the heroine, Dagny Taggart, confronts the union boss.

Below, courtesy of “The Strike” Productions, Inc., is a first-look at the scene Dagny confronts the union*.

(more…)

On March 23rd we went to the Atlas Shrugged movie premiere at the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC. Afterward we were able to catch up with producer Harmon Kaslow and several people who attended the premiere. Here is what they had to say about the movie.

(more…)

Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged is one of the most influential books of all time, and has seen new life in the wake of our economic downturn. The birth of the Tea Party movement a couple years ago brought Rand’s work back into the public dialogue, and her philosophies continue to inspire debate regarding the role of government.

This movie could not have come at a more critical time, and it’s an important one for many reasons. It isn’t a matter of hoping your favorite book translates to film without the producer screwing it up. Atlas Shrugged shaped the way many of us view the world, and bringing those ideas to the big screen provides an opportunity to reach a new, uniquely receptive audience.

Anyone who has read Atlas understands that it’s a slog to get through. The dialogue is awkward. How do you stay true to such an iconic book and still keep it relevant and interesting? How do you make the movie that people have been looking forward to for decades and capitalize on the opportunity to reach millions with Rand’s philosophy at the same time?

Producers Harmon Kaslow and John Aglialoro were up to the challenge.

The movie is set in the near future – 2016. The opening sequence is terrifying in its realism – news footage that Americans could well be watching on our own televisions in 5 years. Middle Eastern conflict has cut off the US oil supply and the only affordable mode of transportation left is rail.

(more…)

It has been said that there is nothing new under the sun. From fashion to societal morality, history keeps on repeating itself. Who ever thought skinny jeans would come back in style? What’s next, stirrup pants and scrunchies? 

Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 is an excellent reminder of the dangers of socialism in our current age of entitlement. The parallels between the story and our current political and cultural state are uncanny and more than a little bit unsettling. As a witness to the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, author Ayn Rand was well aware of the tragedies of statism, and her most famous work of literature depicts what happens when the wealth is spread around in the name of fairness. 

—–

The movie adaptation of Atlas Shrugged remains faithful to Rand’s themes of capitalism and the evils of collectivism. One major change from the pages to the screen was the decision to change the setting from a future fictional country to America in 2016. It was a good decision, in this writer’s opinion, as it illustrates the slippery slope of socialism our nation is teetering on. 

It opens with America in decline. Fuel prices are through the roof, making air travel impossibly unaffordable and bringing back trains as the major mode of transportation for people and goods. Airplanes and buildings are in disrepair, businesses shut down, and successful citizens disappear after being sought out by a shadowy character calling himself John Galt. 

Taylor Schilling does a beautiful job portraying heroine Dagny Taggart, who fights tooth and nail against her annoying brother James (Mathew Marsden) and his political cronies in Washington to make Taggart Transcontinental a success. Poised, polished, and with an iron will, Dagny partners with Hank Rearden (Grant Bowler), an entrepreneur who has invented a new metal that is lighter, cheaper, and stronger than steel. Together, they battle oppressive government restrictions and sanctions to rebuild the Rio Norte line in Colorado. The Centennial state is one of the last prosperous states in the nation, thanks in large part to oil tycoon Ellis Wyatt (Graham Beckel). Once the newly christened John Galt line is completed, Wyatt will have a safe way to transport his product to consumers. That is real job creation. 

(more…)

They got it right.

Sure I would have loved to see the $40 million dollar version of the same movie, but the bottom line is that it works and works well. With the executive summary out of the way, let’s go into a bit more detail about the film itself. (If you want to read about my night out at the premiere, that’s here.) …

The story is really the star here. It’s a film on gleaming blue rails that carefully follow the curves of the landscape Ayn Rand created over 50 years ago. There won’t be any unpleasant surprises for devotees of the novel. No Jar-Jar moments to make you cringe. In fact, the producers have put together a top notch cast of character actors, many of whom will be familiar to audiences even if their names aren’t quite household words.

—–

The major characters in this section of the book are Dagny Taggart and her brother James, Hank Rearden and Ellis Wyatt. All four offer performances that match their characters in the book. First off, Graham Beckel does a great job with Ellis Wyatt. He gets the least screen time of the four, but really livens up the proceedings every time he enters the frame. The scene where he has Dagny and Rearden to his house for dinner seemed to come right out of the book. He embodies a kind of everyman elitism that sounds contradictory but really works in the novel. Graham Beckel simply becomes Ellis Wyatt.

Matthew Marsden is younger than I imagined James Taggart being but he has the scheming, slightly petulant character down. You won’t like James Taggart and if you’ve read the book you know that’s exactly how you should feel about him. Taylor Schilling’s Dagny Taggart is sexy but a bit cold. Again, this makes it hard to warm up to her at first, but it’s also exactly how Dagny comes off in the book. As the film goes on she warms up (especially to Hank) and begins to carry the emotion of the film from the high of the John Galt line to the low of Wyatt’s torch.

(more…)

After decades of perennial best seller status, Ayn Rand’s epic novel “Atlas Shrugged” has finally made its way to the silver screen. “Atlas Shrugged, Part 1″ is due to arrive on April 15, 2011 and its stunning trailer has already garnered over 700,000 views on YouTube in just a few weeks.

—–

The perennial best seller is undergoing a new-found popularity in the Obama Era and the themes (and in some cases the exact plot points) of Rand’s scathing critique of state-run economies with “fairness” and “the social good” as its stated goals resonate in 2011 in an eerie and prescient way.

The film’s producer, Harmon Kaslow, took thirty minutes from his hectic promotion schedule to talk with me about what it took to make this project happen and the unique ways in which he is building a grass-roots following for the film…

(more…)

Reason.tv presents exclusive, behind-the-scenes footage of the movie adaption of part I of Ayn Rand’s epic and hugely influential novel, Atlas Shrugged, which tells the story of a United States crumbling under the weight of government intervention and the “men of the mind” who fight against their collectivist exploiters.

This sneak peek offers a glimpse into the post-production process as well as portions of a never-before-viewed scene from the movie.

***SPOILER ALERT*** This video contains portions of a scene and actors discussing the actions of their characters.

(more…)

By now you’ve probably seen one of those TV ads where 84-year-old small-screen legend Andy Griffith blatantly shills for ObamaCare. If not, take a look below at the first spot, entitled “1965.” Put your feet up on the antebellum veranda and listen to the guitar sweetly plucking and Andy gently extolling the benefits of the U.S. government’s incipient hostile takeover of one-sixth of the economy. You can practically smell the magnolias blossoming just outside the overcrowded, understaffed clinic you’ll be stuck in for days once the new law really takes hold.

—–

There’s something disturbingly Being John Malkovich about Griffith’s Being Andy Taylor routine in these ads. That said, you have to credit the ObamaCare marketing team for this stroke of advertising genius. How do you best sell a wildly unrealistic, Utopian health-care fantasy to a resistant American public? You hire the beloved star of a beloved show set in a beloved, unrealistic, Utopian fantasy town, naturally.

Or do you?

Because, paradoxically, that’s exactly what’s wrong with hiring Sheriff Taylor to pitch ObamaCare. Mayberry was an alien, antiseptic fantasy-land of normalcy run amok. Even by the pristine naive standards of rural 1960, that America never existed. (more…)