re: #113 CyanSnowHawk

I heard the announcement just as I started to read it. It would be a tough translation to film. I saw that Angelina Jolie was attached to the project and the speculation was her as Dagny at the time. I’d have to see it just to see how they try to pull it off.

There are a number of filmmakers who could, and would, make the story accurately, Jolie being one such (she’s a moderate-conservative, much like her father, Jon Voight). Others in the same category would include John Milius, Bruce Willis, and Tom Selleck.

The problem with the story is how easily it could be turned into a screed against capitalism, and a paean to “enlightened social brotherhood”, with just a few changes. It would be a classic example of how whoever wins gets to write the history books, as it were.

It would require some serious revision of the story’s ending (i.e., James Taggart being the only one left standing, while his “corrupt, self-serving” sister Dagny dies with her ex-lover Hank Rearden, in an attempt to rescue the evil John Galt from the mental hospital where they were on the verge of curing him of, well, being so evil), but if you’ve seen the present crop of “remakes” (notably the appalling The Day The Earth Stood Still), it’s clear that Hollywood has no intention of letting fealty to a narrative get in the way of Getting A Necessary Message Across. (With themselves defining what Message is Necessary.)

This is why you should always make note of who is doing what when a movie is being based on other source material. It often tells you whether or not the source material will still be recognizable when they’re done with it.

cheers

eon