Atlas Shrugged Finds a Writer
Filed under: Drama, Casting, Deals, Lionsgate Films, Scripts, Newsstand, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt
Back in September, the rumors were confirmed that Angelina Jolie had officially signed on to star as Dagny Taggart in the adaptation of Ayn Rand's paperweight of a masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged. There had been hopes that the pic would mark a re-teaming of Brangelina, as gossip predicted that Brad Pitt would be in tow. Well, as it turned out, Angelina was flying solo (bad pun, I know).
Well, the next stage of production on the film has begun, as Variety announced that writer-director Randall Wallace has agreed to pen the screenplay for Lionsgate. The film has taken the scenic route to production, with different stars including Clint Eastwood and Faye Dunaway attached at some point along the way. But now, Jolie's manager is one of the producing partners along with Howard and Karen Baldwin (Ray) -- so I guess that means it has a better chance of becoming a reality? Wallace is best known as the writer of Braveheart and director of We Were Soldiers (we won't hold the Mel Gibson connection against him), and apparently will start work on the Atlas Shrugged script immediately. Wallace is known for tackling epic themes in his scripts, so this seems like a good choice for him. Jolie and Wallace will be working together again in the upcoming The Mercenary, which is a period piece set in Russia during the American Revolution.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-18-2006 @ 12:11PM
EO said...
Atlas Shrugged is on my list of books I couldn't make myself get through, alongside Gone With the Wind and The Brother Karamazov.
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10-18-2006 @ 1:31PM
Richard von Busack said...
It was already made into a movie by King Vidor that transcended the material; I don't know if that trick can be done twice. Plus you have to find someone who looks like they can physically overcome A. Jolie...good luck. Does anyone who knows the plot of this horse-choker of a book realize that the ending is, as they say, "so September 10th."
It pains me to see Atlas Shrugged likened to The Brothers Karamazov; just because they're books that are hard to finish, doesn't mean they're of equal merit. Not every telephone directory sized book is important just because a forest died for every volume.
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10-18-2006 @ 1:47PM
Martha Fischer said...
Richard, I know Vidor directed The Fountainhead -- did he do a screen version of Atlas Shrugged as well?
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10-18-2006 @ 1:55PM
EO said...
I wasn't aware that I had likened The Brothers Karamazov to Atlas Shrugged. All I said was that I never got through either one of them. I'm perfectly aware that Dostoevsky, as a writer, is in a completely different league than Ayn Rand. And as a matter of fact I did finish The Idiot and Crime and Punishment and loved both of them. And I'm not some turd who thinks a book is "important just because it's long." If I thought that way, I would have to believe every Tom Clancy novel was important, and I don't. So stuff it.
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