New Atlas Shrugged Film Hits Turbulence

Could Jolie have been the star?

By Jason Apuzzo. Yesterday we posted on the new Atlas Shrugged adaptation that just went into production this past weekend.  Word comes now today from Deadline Hollywood that the film’s original director and co-producer, Stephen Polk, is threatening to sue over being dumped from the project two weeks before its start.

What’s more, Polk opens up to Deadline about the fact that the film has gone into production with such an apparently low budget, and without major stars headlining it.  Polk seems to believe that the trigger was pulled on the project too soon, with major talent (Angelina Jolie and Charlize Theron, for example, had been mentioned as possible Dagney Taggarts) potentially available to come on board.

Only time will tell how much of this is true.  One important point: according to the initial Variety article about all this, producer John Aglialoro was going to lose the feature rights if the project wasn’t in production by this past weekend.  I don’t know how this squares with Polk’s version of events.  People spend entire lifetimes in Hollywood waiting for major talent to come aboard their projects.  Would Jolie of Theron ever really have signed on to this?  Maybe.  But the question becomes: how long is a producer with rights-issues likely to wait?

In any case, none of this looks good.  It’s obviously bad to kick-off a production with a lawsuit, and this one has the potential to be devastating given the already limited resources of the production.  Needless to say, having the original director now bad-mouthing the project isn’t helping either.

My instincts tell me that given the way this Atlas Shrugged project was structured – as a 4-part film series – there was no way a major A-list actress like Jolie or Theron was going to commit to it without: 1) guaranteed studio distribution; 2) a gigantic paycheck.  That’s the reality of the situation, so it’s possible that Mr. Polk is being a little unrealistic here.

Either way, we’re still going to wish the makers of this film the best as they forge ahead under challenging circumstances.

Posted on June 15th, 2010 at 11:50am.

Watch HBO’s For Neda Now

By Jason Apuzzo. In June of 2009, at the height of last summer’s anti-government protests in Iran, an innocent bystander named Neda Agha-Soltan was shot by a Basij (government-backed) militiaman thug named Abbas Kargar Javid.  Soltan died shortly thereafter, her death captured on video by several protesters armed with cell phones.  The videos soon went viral, and aided by Twitter and other social media immediately became the source of a worldwide scandal that threatened to bring down the Iranian regime.

This evening HBO is presenting a documentary by Antony Thomas telling Neda’s story, which is perforce the story of the aborted revolution of last summer.  The documentary is called For Neda, and HBO has wisely made it available on YouTube so that anyone can see it.  We’ve embedded the English-language version of the documentary above, but it’s also available in Farsi and in Arabic.

Neda Agha-Soltan.

Many of you reading this site are probably already familiar with the circumstances of this story, which received massive worldwide attention last year.  Suffice it to say that due to both her beauty – and what we now know to be her inner character, and force of conviction – Neda has become an extremely potent symbol for those who wish to bring down the awful regime that currently rules Iran.  For Neda finally brings out the woman behind the symbol – feisty, independent and complex.  It’s important that her full story be told.  As an aside, it is certainly no consolation to her friends and family, but I hope it brings them some inner satisfaction that Neda continues to haunt the current regime – a regime bent on effacing the role of women in society and all that women represent: love, compassion, beauty, life itself.

It’s worth mentioning that Neda was a fledgling member of Iran’s burgeoning underground music scene – a world captured with poignancy and vitality in director Bahman Ghobadi’s recent film No One Knows About Persian Cats (see the LFM review here).  For Neda makes clear, as Persian Cats did in its different way, that women like Neda Agha-Soltan are part of a younger generation that has mentally and emotionally checked-out of contemporary Iran, even while they’re still living there – a development that is both encouraging … and tragic.

The most compelling review that I’ve read of For Neda comes (not surprisingly) from The Wall Street Journal’s Dorothy Rabinowitz, who writes:

“The power of Antony Thomas’s documentary has all to do with its focus: the rage of a modern people—educated, ambitious, accomplished and now consigned to life under a regime whose enforcement of Islamic law governs every aspect of life. Surrounding Neda’s story is that larger one, related with unforgettable eloquence …”

We hope you find the documentary rewarding, and we congratulate HBO for airing it.  Let’s all hope for a better future for Iran, so that such tragic stories as Neda’s need never be repeated again.

Posted on June 14th, 2010 at 11:28pm.

Hollywood Round-up, 6/14

A sequel in the works?

By Jason Apuzzo. • Karate Kid was tops at the box office over the weekend, trouncing The A-Team by over $30 million in the battle of the 80’s remakes. Somewhere in the great beyond Pat Morita is smiling … and George Peppard just chomped down on his cigar a little harder.

• Is the legendary agency CAA coming to an end? Deadline Hollywood reports that CAA’s partners may be cashing out and selling the powerhouse agency. Somewhere in the great beyond Lew Wasserman is making some phone calls … (to former client Ronald Reagan?)

• Liam Neeson indicates there may be a sequel coming to Taken, his quasi-right wing smash thriller. In this one they should kidnap Helen Thomas.

• With all roads in Hollywood currently passing through Sam Worthington’s appointment calendar, the producers of Clash of the Titans 2 may start shooting their film as early as January, likely in order to give Worthington space to work on the Avatar sequel later next year.

The Clash sequel will not only have new screenwriters, but also a new director – and a plotline involving Hades smuggling weapons to Hamas.

• … and in related news, The New York Times’ A.O. Scott laments Hollywood’s endless remakes and sequelizing.  We feel his pain.  Latest bizarre phenomenon: the ‘reboot’ (i.e., when studios fake amnesia about pre-existing franchises – as with The Hulk, Batman Returns, or the forthcoming Fantastic Four reboot).  Latest reboot news has Sony floating casting choices for the new Spider-Man. Philosophical question: how do you promote a ‘new’ franchise while pretending the previous, highly lucrative one doesn’t exist?  (Have DiCaprio steal the audience’s memory?)

Nolan talks 3D.

• Christopher Nolan talks 3D. In a nutshell: he doesn’t like it, or at least he doesn’t like the current incarnations of it.  Nonetheless, he expects to use it in the future due to studio demands.  Nolan prefers that 3D develop into a more robust post-production option, rather than having to shoot natively in 3D.  He’s also concerned about losing light levels once 3D glasses are put on.  These are all reasonable concerns, but I think Cameron put most of them to bed with Avatar.  Inception apparently was tested for 3D, but they decided not to do it due to time demands in post-production.  No word from Nolan on his miracle-cure for the Superman franchise.

• LA Times’ Patrick Goldstein asks whether Samuel Jackson’s straight-to-DVD terror-thriller Unthinkable is the hottest movie you’ve never heard of.  We covered this issue here at LFM a few weeks ago.  It is striking to me that this film didn’t get a theatrical release, and since people seem to be downloading it so much right now my thinking is that the distributors really blew it on this one.  Wouldn’t be the first time.

• Jennifer Garner may be joining Nick Nolte in a remake of Arthur. I’m sure Nolte can handle the drinking part of the role, but the humor?

Gemma Ward, Disney's new mermaid.

• Megan Fox has a big interview forthcoming in the magazine Interview, in which she’s asked mostly about herself, and is photographed in provocative situations with a mannequin designed to look like … herself.  And you know what?  If you’re Megan Fox you can get away with it.  [Kudos on the Louise Brooks hair, by the way.]

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … supermodel Gemma Ward has been cast to play a mermaid in Disney’s forthcoming Pirates of the Caribbean 4, provided she can keep BP’s oil off her scales.

And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood …

Posted on June 14, 2010 at 3:36pm.

The New Atlas Shrugged Movie: Parable of the Obama/Tea Party Era?

By Jason Apuzzo. It took 53 years and Obama to get Atlas Shrugged into production.

That’s at least my impression of today’s news from Variety that the long-gestating adaptation of Ayn Rand’s landmark novel Atlas Shrugged (published in 1957) has finally gone into production as a $5 million indie feature, produced by John Aglialoro and Harmon Kaslow.

Variety reports: “Cameras began rolling over the weekend on a five-week shoot for Atlas Shrugged Part One with Paul Johansson directing from Brian Patrick O’Toole’s script. Aglialoro would have lost the feature rights if the film wasn’t in production by Saturday.”

There will apparently also be at least one more ‘installment’ of Atlas Shrugged filmed, as the producers have expressed the desire to break-up Rand’s massive novel into several parts.

Director Paul Johansson (“One Tree Hill”) will also be portraying lead character John Galt, while the plum role of Dagny Taggart will be going to TV’s Taylor Schilling (“Mercy”).  Check out the Variety article for more details – among which are the casting of Michael Lerner and director Nick Cassavetes.

The last time I wrote about this story was on the old version of Libertas back in 2007, when the project had Angelina Jolie attached as Dagny Taggart, in what was supposed to be a Lionsgate production produced by Howard & Karen Baldwin and Geyer Kosinski, featuring a Randall Wallace script.  All of that’s gone now, and the new project is apparently being funded by John Aglialoro, who is the CEO of Cybex – the producer of exercise equipment.  I’m thinking everyone in the cast will be in good shape.

Actor/Director Paul Johansson.

I’m sure that everyone involved in the project would call it a coincidence, but it’s fascinating to me that this project – which has been developed in fits and starts at least since the 1970’s – would finally come to life in an era when … America’s most productive citizens are feeling the squeeze of government taxation and regulation more than ever, and more industries are being nationalized.  Because that’s essentially what Atlas Shrugged is about: how America’s most productive citizens essentially decide to ‘drop out’ of productive life, after feeling the bite of excessive exploitation by the government.

What also fascinates me is that the project is not coming to life as some studio-backed, behemoth production starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz (ahem).  It’s being made essentially as a scrappy indie production by people who are obviously passionate about the film’s message.  [I know some of you are saying: a $5 million budget is ‘scrappy’?  It certainly is if you’re trying to shoot Atlas Shrugged!] Isn’t this perfectly reflective of the current Tea Party phenomenon?  A phenomenon whereby regular citizens working outside the usual channels harness their passion to hit the streets and make things happen.

I want to wish the makers of Atlas Shrugged the best in their production.  My sense is that they’ve got a challenging road ahead, due to the complexity of their project.  But I’m glad producers John Aglialoro and Harmon Kaslow decided not to ‘drop out’ themselves, but to instead pull together what resources they have and bring this extraordinary novel to life.

ADDITIONAL ASIDE: LFM Contributor David Ross adds: “Resurgent collectivism has made Ayn Rand more relevant than ever. According to the Ayn Rand Institute , Atlas Shrugged is selling as never before, with some 500,000 copies flying off the shelves in 2009, and annual sales of Rand’s four novels topping one million for the first time ever.

“Here’s Rand, in all her rebarbative glory, toying with the slickly shallow Mike Wallace: Rand-Wallace YouTube interview Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.”

Posted on June 14th, 2010 at 10:50am.

Classic Movie Update, 6/13

Raquel.

By Jason Apuzzo. • The biggest classic movie news by far this week was the discovery in New Zealand of a treasure trove of silent films thought previously lost, including a print of John Ford’s film, Upstream.  LFM contributor Jennifer Baldwin covered this story yesterday, including the fundraising efforts of the movie-blogging community toward film preservation.  Check Jennifer’s post for full details on these efforts, as well as links if you wish to contribute.  You can also read more about the New Zealand discovery and ongoing preservation efforts in The New York Times or in The LA Times.

• The New York Times also did a joint review of the new autobiographies out by Raquel Welch and Pam Grier – Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage and Pam’s Foxy: My Life in Three Acts.  These two extraordinary ladies were the top cult movie heroines of their era, although Raquel’s career also crossed over into big mainstream faire.  Raquel recently had some electrifying appearances on Fox News (especially her hilarious interview with Neil Cavuto), and also guest hosted on Turner Classic Movies a few months ago.  Both of these ladies are still going strong, looking fabulous, and are dispensing a lot of good advice to the young women of today.  And can we all agree that Beyond the Cleavage is easily the greatest title ever?  (Surpassing even Russ Meyer’s 3-volume autobiography, A Clean Breast.)  You can buy both Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage and Foxy: My Life in Three Acts in the LFM Store below, along with some of Raquel and Pam’s best films.

• A new Charlie Chan box set is out from Turner Classic Movies.  Pick up a copy in the LFM Store below.

• Can it be 35 years since Jaws came out?  Apparently it is.  Next week marks the 35th anniversary of Jaws’ release!  I still remember seeing the film with my grandmother when it came out … and I still think it’s the best non-Indiana Jones film Spielberg’s ever made, with really nothing surpassing it as a thriller except maybe Hitchcock’s Psycho.  Jaws and Star Wars together are probably the greatest summer movies of all time, films that really defined the moviegoing era of the 1970’s.  There’s a documentary that’s been making the rounds the last few years called The Shark is Still Working about the making of Jaws and the film’s impact on our culture, and the doc just had a screening yesterday at the Portland Underground Film Festival.  Best wishes to the filmmakers on that, and Happy 35th to Jaws.  You can buy a copy of Jaws in the LFM Store above.

• AND FINALLY … Andy Warhol’s classic print of Elizabeth Taylor has gone up for sale. I have a bid in but it’s probably on the low side …

Posted on June 13th, 2010 at 3:51pm.

Forbidden Planet, Iron Man 2 and Soviet Cosmonauts in 3D!

By Jason Apuzzo. Just for fun on the weekend, we thought we’d post some 3D video.  You will need an old-fashioned pair of anaglyphic (i.e., red-blue) 3D glasses in order to enjoy these videos to their fullest effect.  If you don’t happen to have such glasses, you can get a free pair here, or you can even make your own.  [Another thing you can do is buy a DVD for an anaglyphic 3D film like Robert Rodriguez’s Shark Boy and Lava Girl.  Such DVDs always come with a few pairs of anaglyphic 3D glasses.]

• Up above, Andrew Murchie and the team at Enhanced Dimensions have retrofit the trailer for the classic 50’s sci-fi epic Forbidden Planet into anaglyphic 3D.  Take a look at it … preferably at a distance of about 3-5 feet.  It’s really fun.

• Ever imagine what Iron Man 2 might look like in 3D?

A company called 3DGuy converted one of the flashier scenes from Iron Man 2 into anaglyphic 3D, and you can check that out here.

Make sure to watch the Iron Man 2 video in the highest resolution possible for the best possible 3D effect.

• You can also check out a campy, eccentric little short film called “Glory to the Conquerors of Space in 3D,” from Atomic Cheesecake Productions.  “Glory” is about a retro-style female Soviet cosmonaut who has a strange series of pseudo-erotic encounters on a planet full of blue people.  [There’s no graphic imagery.]  James Cameron might want to take a look at this one.  The film played in Slamdance’s online competition in December.

[Editor’s note: “Glory to the Conquerors of Space in 3D” features some mature situations.  Viewer discretion advised.]

3D can be a lot of fun, and we’ll be keeping a close eye on 3D projects large and small here at LFM …

Posted on June 13th, 2010 at 1:36pm.