After nearly four decades of development hell, a movie adaptation of Ayn Rand’s doorstop novel Atlas Shrugged finally went into production this past weekend. If you’re a Rand fan who had been patiently waiting for years for a quality film based on the book, prepare to be disappointed: The picture, which will tell only half of the epic story, is being helmed by One Tree Hill actor Paul Johansson, who will direct and star as the mysterious industrialist John Galt. Johansson took the gig at the last minute, since producer John Aglialoro would have lost the rights to the novel if the film hadn’t entered production by last Saturday. Nobody’s completely ruling out the possibility that the guy who is not Chad Michael Murray on Hill will turn out a quality adaptation of the famously dense Objectivist classic with almost no prep time, a rushed production schedule, a relatively tiny $5 million budget, and a cast of unknowns, but it seems unlikely. Good luck, man!
Cameras roll on Shrugged [Variety via /Film]
