Hollywood Shrugged

or, Another Movie Made from a Book Written by a Dead Author to Save a Bunch in Royalties

The releasing of part 1 of Atlas Shrugged was coupled by lukewarm advertisement accompanied by an ambivalent trailer hinting of the suggestion of a plot. As far as I could tell, there was no pre-production or even post production hype that would normally surround a project of this potential. This movie quietly crept on to the screens of “selected” theatres. Perhaps this is based on all the controversy surrounding the novel itself.

Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand has found its way into American pop culture much the same way as most of the other pop culture icons such as Stars Wars, Andy Warhol and, of course, Channel 37. So, during the snowzilla events of 2010, I decided to see what all the fuss was about. This was, in fact, my first e-book.

I found the world that Ms. Rand created to be a virtual Wagnerian opus, dark and grim in nature. The plot twists in her novel contrived to make this world darker and grimmer. Unfortunately, with the spring thaw and the newness of the new spring, the book was placed in digital hiatus.

Atlas Shrugged had that same controversial effect in the political world that Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code had on the religious world. But the bottom line is: this is a work of fiction. The book has been called dystopian fiction, speculative fiction, or even science fiction –- which is why it fell on our desks here at Channel 37.

The trailer to Part 1 was overwhelmingly underwhelming. I almost recognized one of the actors. To place this movie in modern times is a serious dis-service. Apparently, the budget for Atlas Shrugged did not rate having proper sets or big name actors such as Tom Hanks:

In order to hear what our viewers think, Channel 37 will be conducting interviews at our location at Balticon this May. The first ten movie goers that stop by and talk to us will get a special “RTH” travel sticker (a $2.00 value!) and instant world-wide fame. To qualify, the viewer must see the whole movie without falling asleep and taking no more than one bathroom break.