IT'S HAPPENING: Atlas Shrugged Television Series
At the start of the year, Atlas Shrugged Producer John Aglialoro hinted at the potential for an Atlas Shrugged mini-series ( http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts... ). Last week, John made a trip to Hollywood and met with... some very interested MAJOR players.
How does a full blown television series sound!?
Yep. It's really happening. We can't say too much just yet, but suffice it to say, John's meetings in Hollywood were VERY productive and the groups we're talking to are incredibly enthusiastic and ready to move mountains to make it happen. We should hopefully have something official to announce within the next few weeks so stay tuned.
As the project progresses, we're going to be reaching out to you for your opinion from time to time.
This would be one of those times.
Keep in mind, certain people who are not active in the Gulch, but very interested in your opinion, will be reading your comments on this post.
Got it? Good. Here we go...
Should the Atlas Shrugged television series be a period piece set in the 1950s or should it take place, as Ayn Rand alluded to, "the day after tomorrow?"
P.S. Because it worked so well for us with the trilogy, of course we have every intention of changing the entire cast every episode. No. No, we won't.
How does a full blown television series sound!?
Yep. It's really happening. We can't say too much just yet, but suffice it to say, John's meetings in Hollywood were VERY productive and the groups we're talking to are incredibly enthusiastic and ready to move mountains to make it happen. We should hopefully have something official to announce within the next few weeks so stay tuned.
As the project progresses, we're going to be reaching out to you for your opinion from time to time.
This would be one of those times.
Keep in mind, certain people who are not active in the Gulch, but very interested in your opinion, will be reading your comments on this post.
Got it? Good. Here we go...
Should the Atlas Shrugged television series be a period piece set in the 1950s or should it take place, as Ayn Rand alluded to, "the day after tomorrow?"
P.S. Because it worked so well for us with the trilogy, of course we have every intention of changing the entire cast every episode. No. No, we won't.
Previous comments...
There are a lot of story possibilities in that, a lot of opportunities for villains who aren't just bad guys who need to be blown away but complex villains who think they're doing good and are trying to control people because of their own hubris or insecurities.
It's also a "brand" most everyone has heard of. The book is a fictional universe that's begging for a series of stories set there.
"All great democracies have committed financial suicide somewhere between 200 and 250 years after being founded. The reason? The voters figured out they could vote themselves money from the treasury by electing people who promised to give them money from the treasury in exchange for electing them.
"The United States officially became a Republic in 1776, nearly 239 years ago. The number of people now getting free stuff outnumbers the people paying for the free stuff.
--- Can you see this, or are you just blind or stupid?"
As for the struggle of the train setting the future, I did think movie 1 did an amazing job of compensating for that, so I would just go with the same basic premise. After all, as society erodes (which is an integral part of the books anyway, so not something that will really require many hoops to be jumped through), technology does erode with it. Air traffic becoming unviable again isn't that far away, especially with the threat of terrorism in the air these days. People deciding to go by land is actually happening right now. Why take the risk of a depressed pilot deciding to crash into a mountain, killing all of his passengers because they were unlucky enough to tag along while he committed suicide? (Still can't believe that actually happened!) Why risk any of the other things going on up there, or the absurd and inept measures being taken by governments to prevent terrorism by removing every single ounce of personal freedom involved in travelling? It's just plain easier to drive or take the train. If trains were "just as fast", who would choose to fly?
Go steampunk if you must, by all means, but whatever you do, keep it relevant! Please, I'm begging here: do something to wake these zombies up!
After all, AS is no longer fiction it is all too frighteningly real.
flash backs to the 50's on important points
IMHO it should be done in the current time period in hopes that is can show people what is really happening. I'm not certain many people can translate a past time period to today. They have to think for that to happen and so many do not.
1) The book is neatly divided into three parts, each containing ten chapters; each chapter is further subdivided into asterisk-separated "sub-chapters", making it easy to tailor each episode into a one- or two-hour time slot;
2) Television is the medium Ayn Rand enjoyed the most---and it is the medium able to reach the greatest number of viewers;
3) Each of the book's three parts can easily be tailored to fit into a three-season format, the first two of which can be season-ending cliff-hangers;
4) By stretching out the story over a period of three years, important sections of the book---such as the childhood scenes of Dagny, Francisco, and James growing up together and becoming adults and forming their values (or becoming a social metaphysician in James' case), the reasons (and full dialogue) behind Cherryl's suicide, etc.; and
5) A narrative thread could be employed explaining, in her own words, the meanings behind the actions on-screen---how, e.g., Cherryl's suicide was not her abandonment of her life and values, not her giving up, but the only act of integrity and honoring of her values that she had left.
Television is THE medium for presenting Atlas Shrugged!
One thing I liked least about the recent trilogy was that it cut so much material. Not just the philosophy and its arguments, but also some really good juicy story lines were completely cut. I could easily see 30 one-hour (or 45-minute, or whatever) episodes being made, one for each chapter of the book. That would allow time to present even small details and develop them throughout the series. Maybe it could even include Galt's entire speech.
I think we need a good series set in the period, but I also like the idea of making new modern versions every now and then. If it is really going to be taken seriously and done well, perhaps this is the best way to have a "definitive" version set in the 50s. I look forward to hearing more about this.
Fortunately (for the story tellers) the political climate of today is approaching Ayn's prediction asymptotically; giving the producers of the series ample material to capture from live TV almost unedited.
I'd start from a base line of the world as it is now and then project it just as she did - i.e. what is the current course we are on leading to?
Its damned hard to get people interested in history or anything that APPEARS to be historical.
+1 for you Eudaimonia
Load more comments...