Will Ayn Rand (finally) make it to the small screen?

July 22, 2009

Don't hold your breath. A movie version of Ayn Rand's 1957 classic "Atlas Shrugged" is under discussion – but it's a project that producers have been dreaming about for 37 years now, without anyone being able to bring it to fruition.

Today, however, according to the Hollywood Reporter, the project might be finding new life. Oscar winner Charlize Theron is reported to have been meeting with Lionsgate and producers Howard and Karen Baldwin to discuss the possibility that she would play main character Dagny Taggart.  Theron's involvement, however, remains "uncertain."

The new twist to the project this time around is the idea that it could be released as a TV mini-series – a vehicle perhaps better adapted to conveying the ideas in the massive 1,000-page novel than a standard-length Hollywood feature film.

The Hollywood Reporter goes on to detail the various efforts to film "Atlas Shrugged" that have been discussed on and off since 1972. Perhaps, though, as the Reporter suggests, "The book, which has sold tens of millions of copies since being published in 1957, has gained new traction in this era of Wall Street bailouts and corporate responsibility."

It could be that the time for "Atlas" is now.