I think this is a pretty good idea:
6. Have you decided how you’ll tackle John Galt’s epic speech in part three?
Well, I’m looking at a number of different things. Having John Galt give that speech, it might be in a casino environment. It might be that he is at a mountain retreat, rather than being where he is captured, not…that violent scene at the end. But we’re going to take a look. It doesn’t have to copy just that.
No, it absolutely will be a concentrate of entertaining words with a total, philosophic…But, you know, part three could be a musical…like a Les Miserables kind of a musical. That’s part of the impact and I guess I haven’t said this publicly yet, but I’m looking at it completely different if part three is a musical with quality music that’s done in a certain way that people will like. I mean, if you saw the play Les Miserable without the music, and then with the music, you may go in there saying, ‘oh hell, I would never want to see that great book in a musical.’ That’s going to shock a lot of people to see part three be a musical, and part two may be very different from part three and very different from part one. It has to be new, you know…We get a freshness, a vitality about it, and yet it has the same, rock-solid principles and philosophies that we all know and love.
Chris
He’s using Les Miserables as a reference for John Galt? Wow, that’s really sick.
Alex S.
Good catch, if he wants to end Atlas Shrugged in a Les Miserables-way he probably also thinks that A Christmas Carol has a sad ending.
debit
I don’t want to pay taxes, I just want to sing!
H.E. Pennypacker, Wealthy Industrialist
They should do one album-length Rush song just for the speech.
Amy
And here’s another species of Astroturf — paying actors to call into Rush, etc. to sound very, very angry. An actor came for an audition and looked into the company.
http://www.tabletmag.com/life-and-religion/58759/radio-daze/
Omnes Omnibus
Good lord.
christian mistermix
This is shaping up to be the next Rocky Horror Picture Show.
piratedan
@debit: maybe they’ll use the Holy Grail as their artistic foundation…..
pablo
Ain’t gonna be no part 3, or part 2 after part 1 tanks.
Svensker
@Chris:
Ayn Rand was a huge Victor Hugo fan.
The idea of John Galt, the Musical, is making me laugh. Thanks, Doug “Joe” Hill.
AdamK
Imagine taking on a huge, expensive years-long project knowing that no matter what you do, no matter how hard you work, no matter the passion of your denial, in the end the outcome is definitely going to absolutely suck.
gbear
The Sgt. Pepper movie and ‘At Long Last Love’ are in danger of losing their Worst Musical status.
Chyron HR
@pablo:
No way! Next you’re going to try and tell us that a Delgo sequel isn’t in the offing.
Brian S (formerly Incertus)
In order to live the Galtian dream of focusing on my self-interest above all else, I hereby promise to pirate the fuck out of that movie, and all its sequels, and to distribute them as far and wide as I can.
The Republic of Stupidness
@christian mistermix:
Does that mean ‘going Galt’ will now become code for being a cross dresser?
Villago Delenda Est
UncertaintyVicePrinciple over at Tbogg’s place has already got the lyrics ready to roll for this:
“I am just a simple architect
no romance do I seek
I just wanted forty million dollars
for my plans I drew last week
Oh what’s an architect to dooooooo”
and
“I can draw, I can draw, I can sinnnngggg!”
Kryptik
@Alex S.:
Hey, remember, folks like Douchehat believe that George Bailey was the real villain of It’s A Wonderful Life’.
DonkeyKong
I’m thinking ice capade road show as in Ayn Rand on ice!
allium
I hate every moocher I can see…
From Wesley Mouch to Dave Kelley…
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
I was just reading that. Perhaps John Galt does hip hop? Too soon?
Fortunately I could scroll down to see the bassets again, so it was good.
bkny
a musical built to ayn rand and for an audience whose primary entertainment are movies that blow shit up and race cars that go round and round and round… yeah, sounds like a brilliant idea…
Villago Delenda Est
@christian mistermix:
“Hey, asshole! Where’s your neck?”
Doug Hill
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
It’s not a bad idea at all.
I’ve always thought NWA summed up libertarianism perfectly in the the single line “Life ain’t nothing but bitches and money.”
Svensker
@Villago Delenda Est:
Muy excelento…but wrong book.
RSA
From the source interview with the producer:
I think this is funny–fifteen years, even covering the dot com boom days, to scare up enough interest and money for the movie.
Villago Delenda Est
@Svensker:
Yeah, but gosh, this whole thing just SCREAMS for a Matt Groening take on it.
Petorado
This is such a brilliant plan. Since a movie about a 90 page speech on the virtues of absolute selfishness will be ingratiating and suck, turn it into a musical! Because nothing says “teh gay” like a musical, and this way they can blame a sucky movie on gay, liberal, Hollywood elites rather than lousy subject matter. The conservatarian culture of victimhood shall live on.
fraught
@pablo: Right. Not even part 1 1/2. Oh, and Charlie Sheen is sounding more like John Galt every day. Winning!
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@christian mistermix:
with the audience leaving the theater like working class italian kids after seeing a rocky movie.
which gives me an idea.
a discreet camera and a homeless guy with a cup around the corner from theaters where this movie opens.
Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937
Maybe they can get Ted Nugent to do the sound track. Wingnut welfare needs to expand to other cultural forms besides print and yelling.
cleek
i suppose The Beatles’ “I Me Mine” will play on the closing credits.
John Cole
Les Miserables or just plain miserable? I won’t watch to find out.
Chyron HR
Hey, kids these days love the Rings of Narnia and all that shit. Why doesn’t John Galt give his speech while doing battle with the evil demon prince By-Tor?
chopper
@Villago Delenda Est:
then he sits and starts furiously drawing and sean connery steps out from behind a door and sings “you’re the man now doooooogggggggggg!”
K488
I’m thinking we’re missing something here – a musical on John Galt’s speech begins to suggest… Is the producer by any chance named Max Bialystock? I just fear that if, say, they actually get Charlie Sheen to do this, it might turn out to be popular.
cyntax
@Brian S (formerly Incertus):
While I applaud your entrepreneurial spirit, I can’t help but wonder if distribution doesn’t imply demand. You could post that thing up on piratebay and what all else, but I’m thinking it’ll just sit there all sad and lonely like.
Redshirt
I just had a chuckle imagining a certain class of teatards avidly picking up the works of Rand and forcing themselves to read therefrom – and despite the ever growing subconscious feeling its all terrible, they push on, convincing themselves they not only like it, but love it.
A wonderful dynamic.
Dennis SGMM
@K488:
“Springtime for John Galt and liberteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…..!”
Allan
Galtspell.
debit
@Allan: This is the dawning of the age of the dollar sign.
Carol
Maybe they will turn part two into a musical as well? Or turn it over to Bollywood because it’s cheaper? Bollywood could do both and without those pesky union actors as well who ask for profits and credits (although just about nobody expects the former, and the latter most actors will delete from the resume)
Damned at Random
Please, please let there be roller skating, like that horrible Olivia Newton-John thing from the disco era
Redshirt
@Damned at Random: Or roller derby, with the proles getting righteous elbows of personal responsibility and invisible hands to the face. For FREEDOM!
water balloon
I wonder how much of Rand’s vehement anti-Christian rhetoric will make it into these movies. There’s a lot of it in her books. I also can’t wait until Ragner, the philosopher/pirate (yes really) gives his big speech naming Robin Hood as literature’s greatest monster.
Carol
Galt, the Road Show! Bigger than Cats! Rollerskating, singing, and dance!
Carol
@water balloon: None, probably. Anti-Christian rhetoric would make it impossible to book anywhere but the indies and a few daring multiplexes.
Think about it. Hollywood passed on it, and even the indies passed on it as well. Even with a presumably captive audience of libertarians, they couldn’t get anyone to greenlight this project besides an exercise equipment maker. Not even wingnut welfare could get enough sponsors to make it a go.
Donut
@Allan: Allan for the win.
Redshirt
@Carol: Or, conversely, it will have a strong pro-Christian element instead, completely inverting the original theme.
Picking and Choosing, or outright fabricating, is a wingnut specialty.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
la cage aux fox
a funny thing happened on the way to the quorum
how to succeed in business without any taxes.
cthulhu
@RSA: The producer/writer of this impending flop has no other production credits and is moonlighting from his day job as CEO of Cybex, the exercise equipment manufacturer. It does kind of surprise that, for being a well-known (if flawed) work, that they’ve had trouble scaring up sufficient funding. Their shooting budget for part 1 was a paltry $7M or something like that. With this talk of a possible musical, I am now pretty damn sure that they have no idea what they are doing.
Ash Can
Awesome.
RSA
@cthulhu: Interesting! I’d guess that a making-of movie might be more interesting than the movie itself.
JGabriel
cthulhu:
His co-writer, Brian Patrick O’Toole, apparently writes a column on video games for Fangoria magazine and his favorite film is Dawn of the Dead.
Which, to be fair, are probably worthwhile traits when adapting Atlas Shrugged.
.
Jay in Oregon
@Damned at Random:
Hey, I liked “Xanadu”!
(DISCLAIMER: When I was 9. I’ve learned that many beloved movies from my childhood do not hold up well. Flash Gordon, The Pirate Movie…)
Carol
@Redshirt: I did some reading, and yes, now that’s she’s no longer around, I bet there will be a massive rewrite at some point just to make a saleable DVD version.
Hollywood was interested in the past, but she refused because she hated what they did to The Fountainhead, and insisted on creative control, and was working on a script when she died.
But a movie like this is inherently the same as Battlefield Earth: so heavy on philosophy and speechifying that unless you practically rewrite the stuff, the stuff overwhelms the action. A public reading would probably be better, or a radio reading, but there’s no money in those things anymore, so they aren’t done.
Tara the antisocial social worker
This Is the Song That Never Ends….
JGabriel
Carol:
The screenplay of which, it should be noted, Rand herself wrote.
.
Matt
I can see it now: the musical number starts up, and every prominent libertarian toolbag shows up in drag. Finally, they can all reveal their TRUE selves, and get bare-ass spankings from the corporate overlords they’ve been fawning over for decades!
k488
@Carol:
Rollerskating! OK, now we’re talking Starlight Express – music as bad as Cats, and Rollerskating… Wait for it… Trains! Rearden Steel! Taggart Transcontinental! I think they’ve got the best thing going since the musical Carrie, or perhaps The Utter Glory of Morrissey Hall. Stand aside, Spiderman; ASIII is going to set new records!
Svensker
@K488:
und Blum!
Svensker
@Carol:
Benny Lava = John Galt!
jayjaybear
Given the words he’s talking about, this is a physical impossibility.
Sko Hayes
@RSA: You know that a movie project is in trouble when it takes 15 years to raise the money.
This is going to make Starship Troopers look like Citizen Kane.
jayjaybear
Actually, considering the situational similarities, it’s going to make “Battlefield Earth” look like “Citizen Kane”.
John Alfred Taylor
I know how to tackle Galt’s epic speech–with a flensing knife.
SRW1
@christian mistermix:
“Your mission is a failure! Your lifestyle too extreme!”?
Nicole
So sorry I missed this thread yesterday…
Yeah, here’s the thing, Mr. Writer-Producer Guy; yes, Les Misérables is a very successful musical adaptation of Les Misérables the novel. And like Atlas Shrugged, Les Misérables the novel is full of endlessly long passages where the author gives you his opinion on stuff, in Hugo’s case, things like slang and the sewers of Paris. And not one of those interminable pontifications made it into the musical. There’s a reason for that. I’ll give you a hint; it rhymes with “Fair Lucking Whoring.”