For a project that has knocked around Hollywood for years earning the interest of folks like Angelina Jolie and Charlize Theron, the final cast and talent gathered for two-part “Atlas Shrugged” is almost absurdly low-key.
As we reported last month, producer John Aglialoro got tired of waiting around for the film to come together and decided to finance the project himself, starting pre-production secretly for months before setting a start date of June 11th. Well, he’s going to have to work with the talent he has and we presume he has faith in them, because really, we haven’t heard of any of these people.
The film has found a director in Paul “no relation to Scarlett” Johansson. He is probably best known for his role as Dan Scott on “One Tree Hill.” Behind the camera, he’s directed a handful of episodes of the television show as well as the made-for-TV movie “The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie.”
Johansson will also do double duty with a role in front of the camera, playing John Galt. Taylor Schilling (“Mercy”) will play protagonist Dagny Taggart; Henry Reardon will be played by Grant Bowler (“Ugly Betty”); Michael Lerner (“A Serious Man”) will be lobbyist Wesley Mouch, director Nick Cassavetes is on board for the Richard McNamara role with Matthew Marsdan (“Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen”) as James Taggart and lastly Graham Beckel (“L.A. Confidential”) as Ellis Wyatt.
As for the rest, don’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of Edi Gathegi (“Twilight”), Jsu Garcia (“Che”), Rebecca Wisocky (“Pollock”), Ethan Cohn (“Alice In Wonderland”), Patrick Fischer, Neill Barry (“Friends & Lovers”), Christina Pickles (“Romeo + Juliet”) and Nikki Klecha.
If you haven’t read Ayn Rand’s landmark book, it “takes place in a dystopian version of the U.S. in which society has collapsed as the government gains increasing control over industry. The decline occurs while the most productive citizens, led by John Galt, begin vanishing.” Despite being originally conceived as a four-part series, the film adaptation is now looking to be a two-film deal.
