Well, you gotta hand it to the producers of “Atlas Shrugged,” they’re going to make this movie with or without your help Hollywood.
Deadline reports that producer and screenwriter John Aglialoro has gotten tired of waiting nearly two decades for this film to come together and that he’s going finance and begin production on the 4-part movie adaptation of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” on June 11th. There’s just one tiny problem: there is no cast in place. The project, which has attracted various talent over the years including Angelina Jolie and Charlize Theron, has never really gotten off the ground but it appears that Aglialoro’s move is some kind of reverse psychology thing where he hopes that stars will get panicked and suddenly jump on board the project. Either that, or a bunch of people in Hollywood are finally going to get their big break.
The project has apparently been secretly in pre-production for months and has a script ready by Cybex International and UM Holdings magnate Aglialoro and Brian O’Toole (yeah, we don’t know who that guy is either). The film is set to be directed by Stephen Polk who is pretending he never directed the little seen drama “Baggage” and says this will be his feature debut. Apparently, offers have been made to both Theron and Maggie Gyllenhaal for the lead role of Dagny Taggart but neither are planning to come on board.
Polk desperately tries to explain how he’ll direct a movie without a star saying, “For more than 15 years, this has been at studios and there has been a whole dance around who’ll play the iconic roles. Making it an independent film was the game-changer. Everybody is saying, how can you shoot this movie without a star? We’re shooting it because it’s a good movie with great characters. We’ve been in pre-production for months, but kept it a mystery. Part of the reason is because there’s so much crap about how you need a great big budget and stars. We aren’t looking for big names to trigger press or financing.” Newsflash for Polk: unless they really knock this out of the park, no one is going to endure a four-part adaptation of an Ayn Rand book with a third-rate cast (even with a first-rate cast, that would be a tough sell).
When Theron was attached last year, it was reported that the project was going to be mini-series created for the then fledgling cable channel Epix, but we think it’s probably safe to say that’s no longer in the works.
If Aglialoro and Polk do succeed in the doing the impossible — making a movie without actors and actresses — then they may have solved a problem that has been plaguing studio executives since the dawn of the cinema. We wish them luck, but don’t be surprised if this project is delayed. Again.