Atlas Shrugged/Trivia

For the film

• Development Hell: The adaptation was in development hell for about 40 years before a group of filmmakers scraped together enough money to make a relatively faithful three-part adaptation.
  • ... to make a first part of a faithful three-part adaptation. With US$ 20 million budget and US$ 4.7 million revenue after 5 weeks in theaters, the trilogy's future is questionable.
  • Saved From Development Hell: There were two failed attempts in The Seventies to turn it into a Miniseries -- the first one fell through when Ayn Rand wasn't able to secure final script approval, while the second one had a finished script (with Rand's approval) and was gearing up for production at NBC, but that too was halted after Fred Silverman came to power at the network. Rand started work on her own script, but she died with only a third of it finished. The film rights switched hands multiple times in the ensuing decades, and at one point such stars as Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Charlize Theron, Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway and Russell Crowe were all attached. All of their deals, however, fell through, and the current rights-holders rushed through an independently-financed production in order to prevent the film rights from reverting to the Rand estate. The result, released in 2011 as Atlas Shrugged: Part I, was critically thrashed and went largely ignored even by the conservatives and libertarians that its marketing aggressively courted.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Paul Larkin is Jimmy Barret! Some scientist (Dr. Potter in the book) is Principal Snyder/Quark!