AHC/WI: "Atlas Shrugged" Major Studio Film

Atlas Shrugged as a movie adaptation was in development hell for decades upon decades. In recent memory, it was going to finally be made as a major film with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (I didn't think they had an interest in Objectivism, but I suppose they do). That didn't happen. What did happen is that the film was finally made as an independent film, and series of films, which have been critically lambasted.

The challenge and what if here is what if Atlas Shrugged was made as a studio film at some point during it's decades long development hell, and how to get it successfully made.
 
I don't think it was ever meant to be a movie. Just too much going on.

Maybe a TV show, like an HBO show or something like House of Cards.
 
Random 1 AM stupid thought. John Singleton makes a movie that takes the story of Atlas Shrugged and makes it into his own style of movie called Atlas Thugged.

It'd still be better than the actual Atlas Shrugged movies and anytihng Singleton has done post-Boyz n the Hood.
 
It'd probably end the same way as Battlefield Earth. The problem is that Atlas Shrugged is an ideological tract first and foremost. The characters are all cardboard cutouts aimed at telling a fable promoting Objectivism, not to be interesting or drive the story in their own right.
 
The problem, as other posters have pointed out, is the source material. From a purely literary, plot, and characterization standpoint Atlas Shrugged is a downright terrible book. If you produce a movie based on it and try to be faithful you're going to end up with the same results as Eragon and Battlefield Earth: a very pretty, expensive flop. If you go with a loose adaptation it could be savable but I doubt the people holding the rights to Atlas would allow anything less than a faithful recreation on the silver screen; IIRC Pitt and Jolie were turned down by the owners of the rights because of their left-leaning sympathies.
 
Could it be spun into some kind of AH thriller? I mean, it's set in a world where radio still dominates and railways are still the primary mode of commerce despite the advent of things like jet planes and automobiles.
 
Probably it's set up as a trilogy (I mean it would be like trying to insert the entirety of the Bible into a single film there's so much content!) with a big name cast, lots of elements tweaked (to make it more palatable) and probably have to be very loosely adapted from the source material. More time focusing on the baddies, making them actual threats, probably have a bigger role for Ragnar, play up more of the John Galt mystery, and then have an incredibly crazy part three.

Alternatively it might be turned into a TV series, which is honestly the only way I could see it actually being fairly interesting to watch.
 
Probably it's set up as a trilogy (I mean it would be like trying to insert the entirety of the Bible into a single film there's so much content!) with a big name cast, lots of elements tweaked (to make it more palatable) and probably have to be very loosely adapted from the source material. More time focusing on the baddies, making them actual threats, probably have a bigger role for Ragnar, play up more of the John Galt mystery, and then have an incredibly crazy part three.

Alternatively it might be turned into a TV series, which is honestly the only way I could see it actually being fairly interesting to watch.

Objectivism is against compromise. Wrong is wrong and right is right, and right compromising with wrong makes right wrong. That's the trouble with tweaking elements/ a loose adaptation.

There was a deal around 1999 for TNT to make a four hour miniseries. It fell through after the AOL Time Warner merger.
 
I don't think it was ever meant to be a movie. Just too much going on.

Maybe a TV show, like an HBO show or something like House of Cards.

ANNOUNCER: And now the special, feature length conclusion of John Galt's speech. :D
 
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