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Atlas Shrugged Dream Cast, Revisited

Posted by Temlakos 8 years, 12 months ago to Entertainment
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Here I return to an earlier theme: what actors, among the greatest anyone could name, would make the best Atlas Shrugged cast? And by the way: price no object.

So here are my suggestions:

Dagny Taggart: Tilda Swinton. (She'd need a lot of make-up to look as young as she did in "The Chronicles of Narnia," but she could manage it.)

Henry Rearden: Daniel Craig (Or if we had done it a lot earlier, Laurence Harvey)

John Galt: Pierce Brosnan

Francisco d'Anconia: Antonio Banderas

Ragnar Danneskjöld: Dolph Lundgren (or perhaps Arnold Schwarzenegger)

Lillian Rearden: Christina Ricci

Mother Rearden: Angela Lansbury

Hugh Akston: Patrick Stewart

Midas Mulligan: Bruce Greenwood

Robert Stadler: Kurtwood Smith

Floyd Ferris: Peter Weller

Jim Taggart: Danny DeVito

Any other ideas?

All Comments

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  • Posted by Temlakos 8 years, 12 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I'd almost pick him as Cuffy Meigs. Remember the formal dinner scene, in which Meigs said, "Ditch Minnesota, but hold on to your transcontinental dragnet"? Remember his talking about troop transportation, and calling for an invasion of Canada and Mexico?

    Of course, I'll grant you he was more gangster than wannabe military dictator.

    Part of the problem was that, except maybe for Floyd Ferris, John Galt never had any worthy adversaries. So I can't really name a villain whom Kiefer Sutherland would be suitable to play.

    I'd almost cast him as Ragnar, except I'd be afraid he'd overplay him.
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  • Posted by slfisher 8 years, 12 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I actually liked the way the film portrayed Eddie as being black. There was a paucity of minority characters in the book.
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  • Posted by richrobinson 8 years, 12 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I was sincere in my suggestion as Kira for Dagney. She would be perfect and I hope she gets an audition.
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  • Posted by $ jdg 8 years, 12 months ago in reply to this comment.
    No, just Donald. Why? Are they related?

    Kiefer has become typecast as hawkish beyond all reason. I would never pick him for AS unless he's some kind of alarmist TV newsman.
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  • Posted by Temlakos 8 years, 12 months ago in reply to this comment.
    If you don't mind my asking: Eddie Willers as acted in the films? Or as Rand originally sketched him out?
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  • Posted by Jer 8 years, 12 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I share your problem and agree with the expressed sentiments, although I am afraid I see myself more as an Eddie Willers than as a Hank Rearden.
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  • Posted by Temlakos 8 years, 12 months ago in reply to this comment.
    True enough. We could speculate endlessly.

    My problem is: I don't watch many movies any more. So frankly I couldn't tell you who the best actors or actresses would be--today. All I know is, only a few of the actors who portrayed these characters (and never the same actor twice!) in the Atlas Productions trilogy, would really make the grade. I could as easily say that I could give a better impression of Hank Rearden. But what can that possibly mean to anybody? We'd have to Skype with working webcams to speculate in that direction.
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  • Posted by $ jdg 8 years, 12 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "Always with the negative waves, Moriarty!" Unfortunately, Sutherland is dead.
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  • Posted by Jer 8 years, 12 months ago
    "what actors, among the greatest anyone could name, would make the best Atlas Shrugged cast?"

    Well by phrasing the words suggest actors from any period are fair game. The issue is that putting a Humphrey Bogart,Harrison Ford and
    Spencer Tracy as three different characters combines three wonderful actors who could of course never be pictured together. Nevertheless, I find myself speculating wildly...
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  • Posted by Temlakos 8 years, 12 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I see what you mean. But Christina Ricci plays the perfect shortsighted woman out, not to love a man, but to destroy him. Lizzie Borden (at least in the Ricci version of her life) did it with an axe and a knife. Lillian Rearden does it with government contacts. Other than that...!
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  • Posted by $ Radio_Randy 8 years, 12 months ago
    I agree that Antonio Banderas is too old for the part, otherwise, I would have recommended him as well.
    As for Lillian...Christina Ricci would be difficult because I can't imagine a man EVER turning her down, for anything...
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  • Posted by Temlakos 8 years, 12 months ago in reply to this comment.
    John Fiedler. ("Vinnie" in "The Odd Couple," and "Hengist" in the ST:TOS episode "Wolf in the Fold")
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  • Posted by Ibecame 8 years, 12 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Exactly from what would have been our "out of time" picks. Jonathan Harris played a number of other charters and was a very versatile actor. All perfect picks.
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  • Posted by Rex_Little 8 years, 12 months ago
    Armin Shimmerman, who had a brief appearance in part I of the movie, has got to be in there somewhere as one of the bad guys. The man was born to play a Rand villain.
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  • Posted by Temlakos 8 years, 12 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I was thinking of him as Lt. Jonathan James "Apostle Jon" Kendrick USMC, in "A Few Good Men." He didn't whine in that film. He brazenly said, "The victim died because he had no code, because he had no honor, and God was watching."

    But if you remember him from a different project...!
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