<![CDATA[Gawker: defamer, atlas shrugged]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: defamer, atlas shrugged]]> http://gawker.com/tag/defamer/atlasshrugged http://gawker.com/tag/defamer/atlasshrugged <![CDATA[Angelina Jolie No Closer to 'Atlas Shrugged' Marathon as Director Officially Drops Out]]> We're not sure how many impatient fans it takes to make something "long-awaited," but we'll give Lionsgate's Angelina Jolie-starring adaptation of Atlas Shrugged the benefit of the doubt — especially now that the attached director Vadim Perelman has officially left Objectivist headquarters:

It may or may not still be moving forward, but I have it from the most reliable source possible — Perelman himself — that it will not be going forward with him at the helm. ... Perelman was attached, and I can say with as much certainty as one can possibly have about a situation like this that the decision to step down was on Perelman's side.

Some fans of Ayn Rand's book are already bemoaning the Atlas Curse, fearing their beloved 12-pound brick of American letters will never receive the marathon film version it deserves. We're a little more optimistic, however, envisioning its star's symbolic embrace of the directing, screenwriting and acting reins in tribute to the source novelist's self-made spirit. Between Brad Pitt as John Galt and crewing up with first assistant director Maddox and the rest of the brood, this idea may really be about as right-place-right-time as it gets.

]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=396613&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Movie Rights to Godless Ayn Rand Novel Acquired From Catholics]]> jolierand Vice chairman of Lionsgate Michael Burns' mission to grab the screen rights of me-first philosopher Ayn Rand's libertarian soap opera of a novel Atlas Shrugged ended at a strange place: his Catholic Church. As Burns tells it in an interview this week, he was leaving mass one Sunday when he ran into Ray producers Howard and Karen Baldwin, telling them, "I heard you have the rights to Atlas Shrugged and I'd like to talk to you about that because that is truly one of my favorite books." As all good Rand acolytes know, the stern founder of the philosophy of Objectivism wasn't a huge fan of God or the Catholic Church, once informing the late devout editor of National Review William F. Buckley, "But you are too smart to believe in God!" Burns, who says he attended Rand's funeral in 1982, is all too aware of his heresy, adding, "Ayn Rand's probably rolling over in her grave to think that happened in a Catholic church." Forget about rolling over, Michael. She might be assembling an army of the undead to take care of yo' ass.

House of Sand and Fog director Vadim Perelman will helm the project, and Wanted star Angelina Jolie is still confirmed as unassailable railroad magnate Dagny Taggart. Burns claims that four studios have already contacted him about international distribution rights, and suggests that if he acquires the rights to Rand's other smash The Fountainhead (they're currently held by Paramount), Jolie's life partner Brad Pitt would be interested in playing architectural gunslinger Howard Roark. [Box Office Mojo]

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