6/14/2010

Nick Cassavetes, Michael Lerner, A Guy From 'One Tree Hill' & A Lot Of Other People Are Making 'Atlas Shrugged'

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.

6 comments:

Marlowe said...

So is Edi Gathegi just the go-to guy for "minor role in adaptation of shitty book that's really popular among douchebags"? Shame. I liked him in "House" and "Gone Baby Gone".

Sammo said...

I'm really happy that this is probably going to suck. Ayn Rand blows.

Anonymous said...

The favorite book of both Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. I'll be thrilled when this fails.

Anonymous said...

Ha ha, this is a joke. Like when they did a "big budget" version of those awful Left Behind books and got Kirk Cameron to "star." And they were horrendous.

Anonymous said...

Good thing there's no after life. Nick's dad would be vomiting from on high (...or down low?).

Anonymous said...

Just a bunch of haters who want the government to give them everything. Unusual that this book has always been met with resistance by progressives. 1500+ pages a bit beyond your attention span?

Related Posts with Thumbnails