I hope the rumors about Atlas Shrugged becoming a movie are not true. I hope this guy
is right:
http://belowthebeltway.com/2009/04/02/atlas-shrugged-movie-update-2/
I don't want there to ever be a movie. It's not possible to translate
the details from that book to a movie. One cannot possibly get the
depth of meaning out of it from watching a movie (or 3) or reading the
cliff notes.
Volumes can be written about each of the speeches in that book – how
are they going to take the whole and condense it down? It's not
possible.
And I, for one, don't want to hear and see a bunch of ignorant people
running around misquoting and misrepresenting the ideas that Rand
developed, because they think they understand them without having ever
actually earned that understanding with their minds by studying the full depth of the
work.
I laugh every time someone meets me and says "Who is John Galt?" as though
they are now part of some special smart club because they know that one
phrase. Um, geniuses, read the damn book, THAT'S WHAT THE LOOTERS
ALWAYS SAID! Perhaps it's apropos…
The heroes of the story HATED that phrase, that's why Dagny and Hank
Rearden's railroad was called the John Galt Line, in opposition to the
thinking that made people say that phrase.
It was a phrase of apathy
and ignorance, a figurative "I don't know". (Everyone that knows me
knows how much I hate the phrase "I don't know." If you DID know, what
would the answer be? Find a damn solution!)
Anyway, I hope there's no movie. Jolie / Pitt would be great to see in
the roles, but it would take a dozen movies to capture the full depth
of Atlas Shrugged.
There's already a book. Maybe people should undertake the horrible struggle of actually reading.