"the day after tomorrow"
Keep em guessing.....

the achievement of objectivism as a philosophy is it restores to man the power of reason as the means of knowing the world and how to fix what is wrong. A TV series can only show the successful application of reason in the future. Show me how great it would be to have the men women and kids of reason proudly achieving the future and it cant be n the past.

If you're going to include more FNC people in hopes of attracting that audience FORGET IT!!! The movies were such a disappointment in so many ways. If that's the best you can do, don't bother. You'll do far more harm than good to Rand and her ideas.

my wife and I can't wait----BRAVO!

Dear Sweet Mother of Elvis YES!!! I really would like to see Kris Polaha, Laura Regan & Patrick Fabian reprise John, Dagny and Jim. Make those three the wheels in the cog and go from there! The possibilities are endless and tantalizing!

Day after tomorrow would probably be better in securing a younger audience.

But the further away the story gets from Ayn Rand's original, the more of it will be written by someone else. That is a major potential problem. She rarely let anyone speak for her or write for her when she was alive, because they always got it worng. So, the writing would have to be top notch, or it could be more bad than good.

I think it could really catch on,

The day after tomorrow

Definitely keep the 50's and lets show these kids what this country used to and can be again.

I am love the epic proportions of the book, the direct nature of the story. I agree with @jerryconn. Build context. Start with the 50's and move to the day after.

Hopefully this becomes a reality and the real education will start!

If someone like J. Michael Straczynski can be employed to do it...

Why not set it in the present day? Aren't we interested in informing people about what is happening all around them as we speak?

I would have loved a movie/TV mini-series set in the time of the book -- but then I would also have loved to have Lauren Bacall star as Dagny Taggart. Given that major deficit -- just who could fill Dagny Taggart's stiletto pumps? -- I must agree with the vast flood of comments here and vote for a day-after-tomorrow setting. My favorite of the three AS movies was the first, where we saw casual demonstrations of cutting-edge technology taken for granted [has anyone seen the YouTube short on a world made of glass?] The John Galt line would be a high-speed, or even a maglev train. Hey, Taggart Transcontinental could be a railroad/airline conglomerate.

Could we please, please have actors who can play the right age? This is a revolution fomented by people barely in their thirties! Having actors a decade or two older in key roles [Eric Allen Kramer, Joaquin de Almeida? Really.] is just wrong, wrong, wrong in so many ways. It would be so very important to demonstrate that this -- Objectivism -- is not an old-fogey shtick, but a truly revolutionary, never really been tried before, way out there way of organizing a society and an economic system, something that today's youth and young adults, mired in Federal Reserve joblessness and Obamacare submission to the system, could look at and say, yes, that would be leagues better than what's being force fed to me today.

And would somebody please get Dagny out of those peplum-jacketed suits and into some good Armani? Or just hire the costumer who put Jodie Foster in those great suits in Elysium. Chief Operating Officers don't wear the cutesy suits they kept putting Dagny into in those AS movies.

All in all, I can't wait.

While a mass-appeal TV show might START to spread the word, I'm afraid it would be numbed by ratings and network requirements quickly. But I'm for 'day after tomorrow' setting. (The basis is timeless).

If it is done according to the book ACCURATELY

All the drama from the books was drained from the movies. Essential concepts to the plot were not developed leaving the motivations of the characters incomprehensible. Atlas Shrugged as a novel has the feel of legend and myth - scenes such as Valhalla and the legend of Atlantis were omitted - will they be included? Who will do the screenplays?

Who will direct? The drama was drained form the movies so that key dramatic scenes were set off like wet squibs. Someone needs to acquire the one quarter of the Atlas screenplay written by Ayn Rand before she died, to see how she visualized AS as a MOVIE.

Who will hire the actors? Many characters in the movies were inappropriate, such as the Dagny of movie two, Hoyt Axton in movie one. Francisco in movie three.

Who will act in it?

Based on the differences between the books and how the movies were done, I think that it could work either way. However, since what Ayn Rand wrote about has taken place already, I believe it might be best as a series spread out over multiple generations. Since its planned to be a mini series of indeterminate length, how about the start be as the books start in the time of the 1950s as America was at its height of world power with the initial mentions of "Who is John Galt?" And the elders of each prominent family of each main character. Then moving at a pace over the duration of the series, we get to see how the government and like minded people begin to influence the laws as well as how each very successful innovative business moguls family is at constant odds as more and more "average people" begin to want more because they cannot or will not try to succeed and reply on the hard work of those who create and produce and because of that become justifiably wealthy. This causes upheavals by those in politics who require the majority to be on their side to achieve their own power become those over generations of politicians end up with the reveal of John Galt and his message of "stopping the motor of the world" and perhaps move a bit further to show all of the truly great people he has accumulated come out and back into the open again, but now they have all the power of creation, reparation, and crisis management on their side. And the series could end better than the movie did by showing the whole world in revolt and starting a new government as stated by those who wrote our declaration of independence and constitution...that when the current system of government is broken or corrupt, tear it down and build a new one. And it's the elders as well as their children who were living in secret in a Utopian society who set forth the new Declaration and Constituion based on the single rule set down by John Galt.

I believe in this way, more of the book could be used and the length of the series could hopefully be determined by how long it takes to fully tell the whole story through at least five decades and not solely based on budgetary constraints to get the whole story crammed into two or three two hour movies. This is my suggestion and I hope I typed as I am thinking it. If others have presented similar ideas, I'm glad and please don't think I'm copying anyone else as I've not read any other suggestions yet. Thanks for your time, Neal V.

PS - I've seen a few comments about the use of trains as it was the best way to travel at the time Ayn Rand wrote her novel. But I do think that using the Trains and railway system in this country which now literally look like arteries and veins in a human body...Rail transport should be the only affordable means of transportation as in the movie showing gas prices over $40.00/gallon which is VERY relevant to the world today. It cost far more to move far less on a plane than in a train, plus the symbol of the train able to use coal, wood, petroleum, and then even the atmospheric engine John Galt designed. It would quite difficult to use planes as the hub. And if all things were equal to the book and movies...the setting back to rail transport for nearly everything would make even more sense on showing how the work for the sake of others and the disappearance of the best minds of the worlds population to the Gulch would be further reinforced. In comparison to flammable liquids created by man, going back to just being able to create fire with wood as all those who know or knew how to make fuels have disappeared and those left only can make a simple wooden fire.

great idea, i think it should start where the film finnished,a battle between the town and the world

TV series sounds great. As individuals understand the message, a website or blog they can contact would help connect like minded individuals together.
It could also offer a means for same individuals to express their views.

What a great series it would be. It may help wake up some people.

I don't think it should be a period piece. When I read the book it was incredible how it felt like I was reading about current events.

Why not a Changing series presenting the Rand concepts through different potential "gulchers" each week, ( or as "micro-series" two episodes per show, selling the CONCEPTS, not the toothpaste or burgers) It satisfies the short ADD folks, and yet if you hate this weeks "mimi" come back next week, you may love it! Different strokes for Different folks.

Great news! I do l Iike Eud's period blending idea. It should provide countless opportunities for creative moments. More seriously, though, this only works if the miniseries is true to Ayn Rand's vision and pulls no punches. Pandering to the religious or to conservative Traditional values' would ruin it for me.

Oh happy day! What great news!! I think Atlas Shrugged lends itself much more to a mini-series anyway. The story and the characters would be allowed to develop rather than the "Ayn Rand Highlight Film" the trilogy turned out to be. My vote is that the series should be set "the day after tomorrow". Oh and do be sure to change the entire cast with each and every episode ;)

definitely need a new Dagny. the actresses were too bland. dagny was icy on the outside and firey on the inside. she would never wear sexy clothes during the day as she wanted to be thought of as an equal, but at night.............. these characters changed the world - they must have fire in their belly's. i also think it should continue on from the end of the book. anyone who will watch it has already read the book.