Objectivision

July 29, 2010 4:19 PM

Reason.tv heads to the set of Atlas Shrugged Part One to offer viewers a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of this most anticipated film. Previously. Previouslier.
posted by chavenet (83 comments total)

You've got some URL problems there. You, sir, are no John Galt.
posted by GuyZero at 4:21 PM on July 29, 2010 [6 favorites]

Here's the link.
posted by griphus at 4:21 PM on July 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

I AM SUPERIOR.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 4:22 PM on July 29, 2010

Dammit.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 4:22 PM on July 29, 2010

Bah. Sorry! Can a mod please fix?
posted by chavenet at 4:22 PM on July 29, 2010

That's right, rely on the nanny state to fix all your problems...
posted by Jimbob at 4:23 PM on July 29, 2010 [75 favorites]

Soooooo, how much metric tons of blow do you think are being done on that set?
posted by The Whelk at 4:24 PM on July 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Just saw The Passion of Ayn Rand. Much more entertaining to watch stories about Ayn Rand than by Ayn Rand. Bonus: Helen Mirren is hot!
posted by telstar at 4:27 PM on July 29, 2010 [7 favorites]

Soooooo, how much metric tons of blow do you think are being done on that set?

You mean 'how MANY metric tons'!!!!! You sir, are no linguistic persnickittiness elite.
posted by el_lupino at 4:27 PM on July 29, 2010

Everyone in this featurette loves the word "density."

"...or because these characters are so iconic, people are afraid. There's a real intimidation with this movie."

Your life priorities are really, really out of whack if you're scared of pissing off objectivists.


"This movie represents what's best in all people"

..and that is that only fictional characters can live up to Ayn Rand's ideals for mankind.
posted by griphus at 4:27 PM on July 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

Indeed. Most anticipated. [polishes monacle on cravat]

oh wait I do not have a cravat I am just a college sophmore who got a begrudging B in macroeconomics and likes to loiter in the dorm lounge and loudly "question the assumptions" of anybody who happens to wander past
posted by penduluum at 4:30 PM on July 29, 2010 [12 favorites]

From the page...

Many actors and producers have talked about adapting Ayn Rand's classic Atlas Shrugged for the big screen, but 53 years after its publication no one has dared tackle the ambitious project—until now.

Ambitious? Really? Maybe deadly boring novel full of multi-page monologues would be more accurate.
posted by GuyZero at 4:34 PM on July 29, 2010 [4 favorites]

This thread is going to be way more fun than the movie (grabs popcorn).
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 4:37 PM on July 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

Hot damn, a Rand thread! I'm making popcorn, anyone want some? Rest assured it was paid for by honest wages and not the rancid milk of the state.
posted by JHarris at 4:42 PM on July 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

From the Google search on reason.tv: "Home of the Drew Carey Project and other libertarian videos."

Has Drew Carey been up to things of which I was unaware?
posted by hippybear at 4:43 PM on July 29, 2010

Drew Carey Project trailer.
posted by griphus at 4:45 PM on July 29, 2010

how many metric tons of blow do you think are being done on that set?

You seek escape from pain. We seek the achievement of happiness. You exist for the sake of avoiding punishment. We exist for the sake of earning rewards. Threats will not make us function; fear is not our incentive. It is not death we wish to avoid, but life that we wish to live.

There were mountains of coke, and they were ours to conquer. The heroin flowed like sand through the hourglass of our lives, and it was ours to command.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:49 PM on July 29, 2010 [5 favorites]

This seems to be sort of a fake movie. The producer had to rush it into production to protect his rights to the property so he's spending a big $5 million and letting a TV actor direct it. I doubt that it'll get anything but a DVD release.
posted by octothorpe at 4:51 PM on July 29, 2010 [4 favorites]

Drew Carey Project trailer

"Smell that smell? That's the smell of freedom," Drew said as he rubbed his chest with both hands, excited for freedom. And some really good brownies.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:51 PM on July 29, 2010

Drew Carey Project trailer

So, he's trying to position himself as some kind of alt-universe Michael Moore, then. Interesting. I had no idea. I find myself wondering how exactly giving away Showcases fits in with libertarian philosophy, but I'm not going to waste too much energy contemplating that.
posted by hippybear at 4:52 PM on July 29, 2010

When I was sixteen, I loved The Drew Carey Show and Whose Line Is It Anyway and ended up purchasing Drew Carey's book at a half-price book store.

Between the chapter full of nothing but "my dick is so big..." jokes and the disturbingly dark short stories it was padded with, I never really looked at the man the same again. Although the chapter of the Drew Carey Show writing team's tug-of-war with the ABC censors was hilarious.
posted by griphus at 5:00 PM on July 29, 2010

Now the question is, if/when this eventually comes out, will the kids who would otherwise have been insufferable and snotty about the fact that they've just read it have to find something different? Or will they jsut look down their noses at those who saw the movie instead of reading the book?

Will this be the Battlefield Earth of libertarianism?
posted by Navelgazer at 5:03 PM on July 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Will __________ be the Battlefield Earth of ___________?

This is my new way of opening conversations.
posted by maxwelton at 5:14 PM on July 29, 2010 [11 favorites]

Ergle. Although the real fan/book fan/actor fan thing should be entertaining enough for it to be worth it, all the Ayn Rand fans I know could talk LotR fans into the dirt and that takes some doing.
posted by shinybaum at 5:19 PM on July 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

I doubt that it'll get anything but a DVD release.

Hey, give them credit for even getting celluloid exposed. I never thought that would happen.

If it's a faithful adaptation, it'll have to be R-rated for all the cigarette smoking.
posted by Joe Beese at 5:20 PM on July 29, 2010

If it's a faithful adaptation, it'll have to be R-rated for all the cigarette smoking.

And, you know, the rape.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:26 PM on July 29, 2010 [7 favorites]

The rape was The Fountainhead, Pope. Way to reveal your relative mediocrity, you leech.
posted by Rory Marinich at 5:29 PM on July 29, 2010 [18 favorites]

[NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THE TONE OF MY PREVIOUS COMMENT AT FACE VALUE]
posted by Rory Marinich at 5:30 PM on July 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

Director Paul Johansson (One Tree Hill)

Heh. Somehow, that's the perfect resume to direct Atlas Shrugged.
posted by mek at 5:37 PM on July 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

At first I thought you were being super-sarcastic in your post about a Bioshock movie.
posted by hellojed at 5:38 PM on July 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Rory Marinich: "The rape was The Fountainhead"

Technically, that's correct. But Ms. Rand's predilection for the rough stuff appears in Atlas Shrugged as well.

Not long after teen Francisco shows teen Dagny how important she is to him by slapping her face hard enough to make her mouth bleed (she likes it), they get down to business - as it were:

She felt a moment's rebellion and a hint of fear. He held her... his hand moving over her breasts as if he were learning a proprietor's intimacy with her body, a shocking intimacy that needed no consent from her, no permission. ... She knew that fear was useless, that he would do what he wished, that the decision was his, that he left nothing possible to her except the thing she wanted most - to submit.
posted by Joe Beese at 5:41 PM on July 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh god. I've never actually read Rand, but I always thought my friend who said it read like "Danielle Steele with some political philosophy thrown in" was being flip.
posted by griphus at 5:44 PM on July 29, 2010 [8 favorites]

Where is the Objectivist Rainer Werner Fassbinder? Where is the Rand disciple who can snort a mound of coke, fuck the entire cast, and still capture the lengthy, soul-crushing vision?

Maybe you guys shouldn't answer that, on second thought.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 5:49 PM on July 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh Hank, give me the Reardon Metal.
posted by benzenedream at 5:51 PM on July 29, 2010 [4 favorites]

I have no love for the book -- read it twice; once out of curiosity, and again as if to say "What? Did I get that right?" I think it's got the deadly combination of amoral and boring.

But I'm surprised to find that I hope they do a good job. I hope the sets are the way I pictured them. Huge art deco. Or I guess I could just watch Brazil again.
posted by fontor at 5:53 PM on July 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

"Smell that smell? That's the smell of freedom," Drew said as he rubbed his chest with both hands, excited for freedom.

If Drew Carey rubbing his titties is the new Objectivist pornography, who am I to judge?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:54 PM on July 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

That actor, whassisname, says in the video of his character, Gault:
"He's almost that Randian perfect man. Probably the only thing that holds him back from her idea of his full evolution is... guilt. He has a sense of responsibility to those around him, or at least... he deigns to carry them. So there is a conflict there, he's not complete. He can't just drive forward in his passion and be at one with that."

Because we don't want to be held back from the full glory of our nobleness by having to worry about our lessers, do we? Pass me the Grey Poupon, & cetera...


PS that Drew Carey is really solidifying the stereotype of libertarians being pot-smoking republicans, isn't he?
posted by Red Loop at 6:00 PM on July 29, 2010

Director Paul Johansson (One Tree Hill)

Heh. Somehow, that's the perfect resume to direct Atlas Shrugged.

Fool. M. Night Shyamalan is clearly the correct choice.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 6:01 PM on July 29, 2010 [4 favorites]

I've tried reading Atlas Shrugged. Really I have. The last attempt was at a Barnes and Noble with the aid of a Sherpa guide and a brace of vitamin B12 injections. I didn't make it. My guide hurled himself into the espresso machine at the adjoining Starbucks around page 457, and I suffered a bout of hysterical alexia by the time John Galt's multi-page monologue started.

Poor Tenzing. I'm told he made an outstanding caramel macchiato.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 6:04 PM on July 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

Fool. M. Night Shyamalan is clearly the correct choice.

The twist ending is that it sucks.
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:05 PM on July 29, 2010 [13 favorites]

The twist ending is that it sucks.

I think people can see that coming in a Shyamalan movie.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:07 PM on July 29, 2010 [13 favorites]

I would just like to say for the record that Drew Carey is from Parma. Parma is not Cleveland. People from Parma often claim and even believe that they are from Cleveland, but it's not so. I have nothing against Parma, and I realize the issue has not yet been raised. But even so, Cleveland's been through enough lately, and I will move preemptively to see to it that the distinction is clear, here if nowhere else.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:11 PM on July 29, 2010 [5 favorites]

I would just like to say for the record that Drew Carey is from Parma.

If Drew Carey was raised on a diet of acorns that would explain a lot.
posted by GuyZero at 6:12 PM on July 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

In all seriousness, though. Who is the libertarian? Other people raise him. Government provides the legislation and projects that made sure he got vaccinations, education, protection from crime and disasters. They make an environment, with roads, communication systems, patent and copyright protections, etc that allow him to prosper in work and at home.

But try asking him to pay his share of taxes in return and OH NO YOU DI'INT, I EARNED THIS WITH MY OWN TWO HANDS!!!
posted by DU at 6:16 PM on July 29, 2010 [25 favorites]

PS that Drew Carey is really solidifying the stereotype of libertarians being pot-smoking republicans, isn't he?

abortions too.
posted by slapshot57 at 6:23 PM on July 29, 2010

I hope they finish it in time for time-traveling Ayn Rand to see it.
posted by homunculus at 6:30 PM on July 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

I AM LAUGHING.
posted by TwelveTwo at 6:35 PM on July 29, 2010

OK, I learn that Grant Bowler is Henry Rearden. . .


. . . but who is John Galt?
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 6:36 PM on July 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

This movie will be a hell of a lot more watchable if Bowler plays Rearden in much the same way as his True Blood role.
posted by cerulgalactus at 6:47 PM on July 29, 2010

True story:

I was riding through Belizoni, MS the CATFISH CAPITAL OF THE WORLD as they proclaim themselves although they have only one barely hanging on by threads catfish processing plant remaining other than the Catfish Museum. So we are looking for the restaurant (believe me, if you are between Greenwood and Jackson Belizoni is the place to look for food) and there is a yellow pickup truck in front of us with a sticker (I hope it was a sticker and not paint) in six inch letters reading WHO IS JOHN GALT?

And as I said to my coworker who was driving, John Galt is a guy who is not driving through downtown Belizoni, MS in a yellow pickup truck.
posted by localroger at 6:50 PM on July 29, 2010 [9 favorites]

I cannot wait for this movie to come out. I love ideologically driven movies so much because they always turn out so bad. And not just bad in the way that most bad movies are bad. Most bad movies are bad because of a lackluster script, shoddy directing, wooden acting, someone phones it in for the money, etc. So you end up with good people doing dire work. Michael Caine in Jaws: The Revenge. Jim Sheridan directing Get Rich or Die Tryin'. That sort of thing. Competent people making incompetent work. They're like regular movies, except they just suck a lot more.

But with ideologically driven movies you have people who believe in the work. And these people are always incompetent. Yet they make a movie that is successful in their eyes. You end up with Kirk Cameron being literally the best actor they could have gotten for Left Behind. Or you end up with Battlefield Earth. The people that made Battlefield Earth thought they made a great movie. They probably still do.

You can't judge these movies as regular movies, because the people that make them aren't trying to make regular movies. They don't want to just make money. It's a labor of love. They want to win people over. These movies are grand statements to finally show all those people who didn't believe in them. And so in their eyes, they've succeeded. But to me, these movies are always so goddamn shitty in such a bizarre way, that I'm dumbfounded. I just don't get it. It's like smelling one of those farts that is so revolting, but doesn't just smell like normal shit. So you sit there perplexed, trying to decipher what it is you're smelling and how how that combination could smell so bad. It's disgusting, but it's also a discovery. You get the extremes of sensation - the wonder of discovering a new smell and the worst smell ever - all rolled into one moment. It's beautiful. And these movies are like that.

Like On Deadly Ground. Steven Seagal has made a lot of bad movies. In fact, he only stars in shit. But he's only directed ONE film. On Deadly Ground. Because he believes in it. I'm sure its hard to find a Seagal movie where he doesn't kick the crap out of some dudes in a bar. But none of those movies has this scene. It simply defies explanation. And the whole movie is filled with moments like that. (Plus Michael Caine, come to think of it. WTF?)

So I hope these people just pour their hearts into making the best damn Atlas Shrugged movie they can. Because I will pay money to sit there and watch it, if only to wonder what the fuck they thought they were doing.
posted by fryman at 7:08 PM on July 29, 2010 [17 favorites]

I hope they don't cut the big shrug scene.
posted by dhartung at 7:19 PM on July 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

Does anyone know who is playing Atlas?
posted by Daddy-O at 7:27 PM on July 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

Oh, sorry. Rearden. Not Gault, or Galt even. The characters are so iconic, I get afraid and confused.

But seriously, does anyone care?
posted by Red Loop at 7:27 PM on July 29, 2010

Does anyone know who is playing Atlas?

*shrug*
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:42 PM on July 29, 2010 [12 favorites]

And to think, they just canceled the next James Bond. I think they should combine the two projects instead. Galt's a perfect bond villain: mysterious, wealthy, and megalomaniacal, with a high tech lair and a plot to destroy the world. And Dagny is a wealthy, indepenent woman who secretly wants to be tamed, but is in the thrall of the bad guy. Plus, Bond's a government man with a taste for the sweet life on the Queen's dime, so he's the perfect nemesis. Throw in an eccentric thug like Francisco Coppertop, and maybe a missile launching locomotive, and an opening theme by Rush. Box office gold. Biggest downside is when he finally explains his plot to a captive Bond and it takes 3 1/2 hours of air time.
posted by condour75 at 8:00 PM on July 29, 2010 [41 favorites]

Having watched that clip fryman linked to, is it too late to involve Seagal in this project? He has the chops for it.

Also, call Caine. He's got to need another house by now, eh?
posted by maxwelton at 8:13 PM on July 29, 2010

Maybe this is as good of a place to ask, the other day i saw a car with a Ron Paul sticker and a "no toll roads" sticker, am I wrong in thinking that this makes no sense and that a true libertarian would not only be in favor of toll roads, but want every road to be a toll road?
posted by djduckie at 8:15 PM on July 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

The twist ending is that it sucks.

I think people can see that coming in a Shyamalan movie.

You haven't been paying attention. The man has a pattern. Think back to the beginning where he set things up with a couple really good movies. He's just lulling you to sleep with a bunch of really lame ones until he's decided that BAM! Time for the denouement! Then all of a sudden all that crap he's made in the last ten years will suddenly make sense and you'll spend the next week sitting in the theater with your mouth hanging open.

Oooh, think of the Pollomacho Ferris Bueller treatment of Atlas Shrugged. John Gault is really Dagny's imaginary friend. It makes at least as much sense as a straight reading.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 8:20 PM on July 29, 2010 [4 favorites]

She knew that fear was useless, that he would do what he wished, that the decision was his, that he left nothing possible to her except the thing she wanted most - to submit.

Alan Greenspan's favorite author!
posted by JHarris at 8:22 PM on July 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

> a true libertarian would not only be in favor of toll roads, but want every road to be a toll road?

Only if private citizens own the road and charge the tolls. A is A.
posted by wobh at 8:23 PM on July 29, 2010

Only if private citizens own the road and charge the tolls

And the toll booths only accept gold coins.
posted by octothorpe at 8:28 PM on July 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

Confession: I am an English major that never read Atlas Shrugged. Or Lolita.

But that doesn't make me a bad person!
posted by yhbc at 8:34 PM on July 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Confession: I am an English major that never read Atlas Shrugged. Or Lolita. But that doesn't make me a bad person!

Not reading Lolita makes you a bad English major.

Not reading Atlas Shrugged has nothing to do with anything.
posted by dnash at 8:39 PM on July 29, 2010 [11 favorites]

"Many actors and producers have talked about adapting Ayn Rand's classic Atlas Shrugged for the big screen, but 53 years after its publication no one has dared tackle the ambitious project—until now. "

That is because we are 53 years older. Who are these people who don't grow up?
posted by Mr. Yuck at 9:22 PM on July 29, 2010

octothorpe: "This seems to be sort of a fake movie. The producer had to rush it into production to protect his rights to the property so he's spending a big $5 million and letting a TV actor direct it. I doubt that it'll get anything but a DVD release."

If they were afraid of losing the rights and wanted to make a fake one, they should've gotten Roger Corman to direct it and waited another ten years to make a new one with Jessica Alba and Michael Chiklis.
posted by griphus at 9:46 PM on July 29, 2010

I wonder if this will be better or worse than the 1949 adaptation of The Fountainhead.
posted by twirlip at 10:48 PM on July 29, 2010

http://galtse.cx/

(work safe)
posted by hamida2242 at 11:59 PM on July 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

You know, the central plot of Atlas Shrugged is that the "great thinkers" who run the world all go on strike and disappear without a trace.

I am in favor of this development. The way things have gone it can only be an improvement. Can we get them to do it?
posted by graymouser at 3:40 AM on July 30, 2010 [4 favorites]

all the Ayn Rand fans I know could talk LotR fans into the dirt and that takes some doing.

They are just vexed that LotR is considered the most important fantasy work and Atlas Shrugged has to make do with the second place.
posted by ersatz at 5:12 AM on July 30, 2010 [5 favorites]

but 53 years after its publication no one has dared tackle the ambitious project

No-one has dared to successfully mate a human with a water buffalo, but that doesn't mean it's a cutting-edge ingenious idea.
posted by grubi at 6:27 AM on July 30, 2010 [4 favorites]

Maybe this is as good of a place to ask, the other day i saw a car with a Ron Paul sticker and a "no toll roads" sticker...

There's *more than one* Ron Paul Car that shows up regularly at my library. My public, taxpayer-funded library. I just hope it isn't the librarians themselves...
posted by DU at 7:47 AM on July 30, 2010 [4 favorites]

I was a contrarian libertarian after I read Atlas Shrugged in my early college days. Which is to say, I didn't really think about it, but had bought the South Park bullshit that there's no difference between the left and the right, so I decided to latch onto libertarianism and a muddled concept of objectivism. I was an insufferable asshole for about six months (I continued to be an insufferable asshole afterwards, but at least it wasn't motivated by objectivism).

I'd like to think that my love affair with objectivism was sort of like a vaccine against accepting ideologies because they're fashionable and contrarian. I also think that reading Atlas Shrugged is a bit like chicken pox, in the way that the later you do it in life, the worse it is for you.

Children should be forced to read Atlas Shrugged at age 10, pass it out of their system, and then laugh about it as a common, shared experience later in life.

Personally, I got to the Galt speech before giving up.
posted by codacorolla at 8:33 AM on July 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

Fool. M. Night Shyamalan is clearly the correct choice.

The twist ending is that it sucks.

The twist ending is that A, in fact, does not equal A.
posted by joe lisboa at 8:37 AM on July 30, 2010 [5 favorites]

They are just vexed that LotR is considered the most important fantasy work and Atlas Shrugged has to make do with the second place.

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:27 AM on July 30, 2010 [6 favorites]

I'm sure its hard to find a Seagal movie where he doesn't kick the crap out of some dudes in a bar. But none of those movies has this scene . It simply defies explanation.

Wait, did he suckerpunch that guy after a game of slaps, and then start philosophizing about Planescape: Torment? I... I think he did. That is beautiful. I want to find a way to submit that entire scene for a rendition of Erial's soul portraits.
posted by FatherDagon at 12:05 PM on July 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

I am in favor of this development. The way things have gone it can only be an improvement. Can we get them to do it?

Nah... it only lasts a few hours, then they realize they don't have anyone to caddy.
posted by condour75 at 12:42 PM on July 30, 2010

Nah... it only lasts a few hours, then they realize they don't have anyone to caddy.

I can't resist a shout out to Bob The Angry Flower.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 1:32 PM on July 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

Oh, sorry. Rearden. Not Gault, or Galt even.

Grant Bowler played Gault on Lost. Maybe the smoke monster taught them how to build a motor that runs on static electricity.
posted by Gary at 1:54 PM on July 30, 2010

They are just vexed that LotR is considered the most important fantasy work and Atlas Shrugged has to make do with the second place.

Which is totally unfair because they put so much more work than anybody else into flooding all the polls.
posted by scalefree at 7:18 PM on July 30, 2010

Oh god, the director guy was on Highlander: The Raven. And sucked there too.

(Note to geeks: the commentaries on this show are some of the funniest shit you've ever seen. Worth viewing even if you loathed the show.)
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:32 PM on July 30, 2010

"There's *more than one* Ron Paul Car that shows up regularly at my library. My public, taxpayer-funded library. I just hope it isn't the librarians themselves..."

I saw Ron Paul stickers on a minivan parked in motherfucking Yosemite. Sorry, national parks are only for socialists, dude.
posted by klangklangston at 12:41 AM on July 31, 2010 [2 favorites]

people that made Battlefield Earth thought they made a great movie. They probably still do.

Barry Pepper was on an episode of Dinner for Five and someone turned to him and asked about B E. He just shrugged his shoulders and said something about "out of the $40 million dollar budget, John (Travolta) took his twenty." He didn't seem to think it was a great movie, and I doubt Forrest Whitaker actually thinks it was either.
posted by P.o.B. at 1:01 PM on July 31, 2010