Atlas Shrugged Film in the Works

According to The Hollywood Reporter, after a decade and a half of false starts, a movie version of Rand's 1,100-page novel "Atlas Shrugged" is in the works.

The current incarnation, pitched by Ryan Kavanaugh's Relativity Media, is already attracting attention from prospective partners. Baldwin Entertainment has expressed interest in bringing the film to life. If successful, it would be the first such film based on a Rand novel since the 1949 Warner Bros. adaptation of "The Fountainhead" starring Gary Cooper in the starring role of Howard Roark.

Though the "Fountainhead" film flopped in the theaters when it originally opened half a century ago, in an age of industry bailouts and stimulus packages, Kavanaugh and Baldwin Entertainment are hoping the economic crisis would give the film added relevance to say nothing of revenue.

"This couldn't be more timely," said Karen Baldwin, who co-owns Baldwin Entertainment with husband Howard. "It's uncanny what Rand was able to predict--about the only thing she didn't predict are cell phones and the Internet."

The road to filming has been a rough one. Over a 10 year-plus period, no less then two A-list actors, Clint Eastwood and Faye Dunaway, bowed out of the prospective film, and a director, Vsdim Perelman of "House of Sand and Fog" fame dropped out of the project also.

But this new version seems to be more promising. In the space of a few weeks, A-listers Charlize Theron, Julia Roberts and Anne Hathaway have expressed interest in the title role of Dagny Taggert.
,Br>Even if the film gets off the ground, the Baldwins have a small window in which to get the film made. According to the Hollywood Reporter, if the film isn't made by 2010, the rights to the film revert to the Rand estate.

In addition to her two novels, Rand, a Russian immigrant, wrote numerous scripts for Hollywood studios, including a two-part film, "We the Living" set in Fascist Italy. Rand died at her home in New York City in 1982.