Update of the Movie of Atlas Shrugged

As I discussed here in April, it is looking more and more likely that we will finally see a movie produced of Ayn Rand's classic novel Atlas Shrugged -- a favorite of mine. It even has a page at IMDB now.

The co-executive producers, Howard and Karen Baldwin (of Baldwin Entertainment group, which produced the Oscar-winning hit film "Ray", amongst other major movies), held a Q&A session on the project during a session of the summer seminar conference of The Atlas Society and its Objectivist Center. It was a very informative session, and Robert Bidinotto has summarized the details at his blog here. This is a great write-up, and Karen Baldwin has said his summary is "perfect". It is well worth reading, as are the numerous comments to his post. But here are a few highlights:

• The book will be created as a movie trilogy, not as a single movie. That is great news, because the novel is over 1,000 pages (with small font!).
• The first of the trilogy has an initial budget of about $40 million.
• The first draft of the script has been completed, by James V. Hart, whose major screenwriting credits include "Contact", "Hook", and "Tuck Everlasting".
• Philosopher David Kelley worked closely with Hart to ensure the screenplay's fidelity to the novel.
• The Baldwins have been deluged with major stars who want a part in the film. Atlas Shrugged is a very popular and influential novel (particularly in the USA), so this is no surprise to me. I've read countless articles over the years where major stars expressed such an interest, but the various attempts at doing the novel as a movie never materialized.
• In particular, Angelina Jolie has expressed a strong interest in playing the lead role of Dagny Taggart, something the Baldwins were clearly excited about.
• The next, and critical, step in the project is to hire a good director. Once that is done, then casting will occur, and production can really begin.

For fans of Rand's novel a popular pastime has long been to come up with a dream movie cast for all the major (and minor) characters. Obviously with a limited budget, such an all-star cast would be difficult to achieve. However, such a project could benefit from strong interest by big-name actors who want to be in the film because of their love of the book. If some were willing to lower their asking prices, then the cast could have greater star power than one would otherwise reasonably assume -- though far from the complete all-star listings that fans fantasize about of course.

For some good examples, see Robert Bidinotto's and Vodka Pundit Stephen Green's. Off the top of my head, I don't have any strong opinions for who should play the key roles of John Galt, Francisco D'Anconia, or Dagny Taggart (if Angelina doesn't already have that wrapped up, then maybe Jill Hennessy or Ashley Judd?). But drawing partially on Robert's and Stephen's discussions, I like the following ideas for other characters:

• Liam Neeson as Hank Rearden
• Sharon Stone, Carrie-Ann Moss, or Annette Benning as Lillian Reardon
• Val Kilmer or Viggo Mortenson as Ragnar Danneskjold
• John Cusack as Eddie Willers
• Kevin Spacey as James Taggart (or any number of other roles)
• Morgan Freeman, Patrick Stewart, Sean Connery, or Anthony Hopkins as Hugh Akston
• James Cromwell, John Malkovich, or Ian McKellan as Dr. Robert Stadler
• Fred Ward as Ken Danagger
• Gene Hackman, James Garner, or Brian Dennehy as Midas Mulligan
• Johny Depp or Nathan Fillion as Quentin Daniels
• James Gandolfini as Orren Boyle
• John Malkovich or Jeremy Irons as Dr. Floyd Ferris
• Alan Rickman as Dr. Simon Pritchett
• David Hyde Pierce as Phillip Rearden (or any number of other roles)
• William Atherton or William Macy as Wesley Mouch (or any number of other roles)
• Steven Seagal as Cuffy Meigs
• Jon Lovitz or Danny DeVito as Bertram Scudder
• Gene Hackman, Fred Thompson, Kevin Spacey, or William Hurt as Mr. Thompson

The ideas I like the most are Stone as Lillian, Ward as Danagger, and Kevin Spacey and David Hyde Pierce as any of a variety of roles.

Assuming the movie is true to the novel in important respects, I'll be happy with just a few stars and mostly unknown (but good) actors otherwise -- I just want to see the movie get made!