• Actor Morales on Obama: ‘Where’s the Change That Was Promised?’ 

Atlas Shrugged movie  | Actor Esai Morales calls “hispandering” any attempt to artificially woo the Hispanic community. Naturally, the co-star of “La Bamba” and the upcoming “Atlas Shrugged” sequel used the term to disparage Mitt Romney simply for mentioning he had family members born in Mexico.  

• • BH Interview: Michael Medved On Conservative Films Then, and Now – Part 2 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  | Michael Medved: I think we may err, and I would include myself in this as I say “we,” in being a little bit too eager to promote some of those rare [movie] projects on the Right. It was very hard for me because I love “Atlas Shrugged” the book. “Atlas Shrugged,” the movie… I couldn’t believe that so many on our team contrived to like it. Because it was not a successful film, it wasn’t good.  

• • • New Ayn Rand Documentary Wrapping Month-Long Tour 
,
Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  |Video  | Author/philosopher Rand began writing her last and most ambitious novel – “Atlas Shrugged” – in the years immediately following World War II. Her working title for the book was “The Strike.” It was about what would happen if all the productive people in America went on strike, leaving the entitlement recipients and governmental regulators she called “moochers” and “looters” without anyone to create value for them. The result is chaos and ultimate disaster.  

• • • ‘Atlas Shrugged Part 2′ Release Date Timed for Presidential Election 

Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  |We The Living  |Video  | Ayn Rand may have a voice in the upcoming presidential election if the folks behind the “Atlas Shrugged” series have their way. “Atlas Shrugged Part 2,” based on Rand’s iconic 1957 novel, begins principal photography in April in Los Angeles, Colorado, and New York. The film’s release window is October 2012, roughly a month before the presidential election.  

• ‘Runaway Slave’s’ CL Bryant Pulls No Punches Decrying Modern Political Plantation 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  | [Rev. C.L.] Bryant suggests some film studios wouldn’t mind scooping up the distribution rights to “Runaway Slave” and letting it languish on the proverbial shelf. “There is an element of this country that doesn’t want this particular message to be heard,” he says, refusing to name any names but comparing his film’s situation to that of the long-delayed conservative feature “Atlas Shrugged.” “They will actually offer you money for it so they can put it on the shelf so it won’t be heard.”  

• • Ron Paul, Republican King of Celebrity Endorsements: Does This Mean Change for Liberal Hollywood? 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  |Egoism  | We have a new generation of conservatives who care for individual liberties above all else, and it seems a few of them are Hollywood celebrities. We even recently got a film adaptation of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.” [Ron] Paul may not be as modernly Republican as, say, Rick Santorum, but it means something to see actors/artists support a man who preaches doing away with income tax completely and that the self-interest principles taught by philosophers like Rand can lead to peace and prosperity for all as opposed to the nanny states proposed by sitting president Obama.  

• How New Documentary Rules Might Smite the Right 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  |Personal life  | The organization that puts on the Academy Awards has created a new rule aimed at narrowing awards eligibility next year to documentary films that are reviewed in The New York Times or the Los Angeles Times, according to sources in the group.That doesn’t sound horrible at first blush. Both papers offer extensive coverage of documentary features. But often right-of-center films fall through the newspapers’ cracks. [....] The New York Times dragged its feet before reviewing Atlas Shrugged.  

• Audiences Share Some Blame in Hollywood’s Decline 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  | We don’t support the films which need our help: Too often conservatives fail to line up for right-of-center films like “Atlas Shrugged” when a strong showing could change the economic realities in Hollywood.  

• A Student’s-Eye View of Center Stage Liberalism 
,
[A George Pate/Marla Carlson update of Life is a Dream] singled out Ayn Rand and Ronald Reagan for scorn: at one point, a bewildered corporate exec extolled the Gipper (with much sarcasm) for “tearing down the Berlin Wall with his bare hands.” Needless to say, the line drew guffaws from a sympathetic audience. If you are confused by my description of the play, that’s because it made as little sense to me as it does to you.  

• • Big Hollywood’s 2011 Holiday Shopping Guide – The Home Video Edition 

Atlas Shrugged movie  | “Atlas Shrugged: Part 1” – The Ayn Rand completist on your shopping list will demand the first chapter in the oft-delayed trilogy.  

• • • ‘Atlas Shrugged: Part I’ Hits Home Video Today 

Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  |Video  | The film follows a driven capitalist (Taylor Schilling) trying to save her family’s railroad company by using an experimental metal. Governmental regulations, and the disappearance of several noteworthy innovators, threaten to derail her ambitions. “Atlas Shrugged: Part II” will begin production in 2012, but for now Rand fans can savor the original feature along with a quartet of home video extras.  

• • HomeVideodrome: Hopper Gone Wild in ‘Blue Velvet’ Blu-ray Edition 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  |Audio  | Atlas Shrugged – Part I: If you want to hear my thoughts on this movie, go listen to this week’s HomeVideodrome podcast over at The Film Thugs.  

• BREAKING: Sony to Push Release Date of Bin Laden Film to Post-Election Slot? 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  | If the studio and filmmakers want to begin to repair the damage they’ve created by pretending their multi-million dollar film’s release date wasn’t intended to be a multi-million dollar in-kind contribution to the Obama 2012 campaign, they need to bump the picture well into 2013. Or… They can be honest about what they’re up to, like the “Atlas Shrugged” producers have been, and admit their desire to impact the election.  

• • • Producer Harmon Kaslow: ‘Atlas Shrugged’ Sequel Release Date Meant to Impact 2012 Electi 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  |Image  | Kaslow admits the team behind ‘Atlas Shrugged: Part 1’ sent plenty of mixed messages about the future of the franchise. Now, they’ve agreed to start working on ‘Part 2’ early in the new year. But the faces from the next ‘Shrugged’ may be unfamiliar to fans of the original.  

• • How Audience Apathy Kills Conservative Art 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  |Image  | I paid money to see An American Carol in a theater. Atlas Shrugged, too. They weren’t films that met the unbelievably high expectations of their audiences. So what? They were not bad films. Hello? They were trying to do a helluva lot with limited budgets and the expectations that came with being the first “conservative” films in their genres. Almost no film could have met the expectations those two had to deal with. No new artistic movement occurs overnight, and these films were steps in the right direction that deserved our money.  

• • • Introducing: ‘The Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged’ 
,
Atheism  |Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  |Egoism  |Video  | When I first read Rand in college, I was oblivious to the controversial or political aspects of the novel. It’s not that I failed to grasp Rand’s ideas – she makes them abundantly clear. But at that tender age I couldn’t imagine them being controversial. Wasn’t she talking about individual rights, creative freedom, self-sufficiency? Atlas for me was just a good read – a page turner (if you don’t count John Galt’s 57 page speech near the end). Nor did I recognize much connection between the world of Atlas Shrugged and the world I lived in. I saw no chance that the America I knew would soon or ever deteriorate into anything resembling the bleak dystopia depicted in the novel. That’s why I was surprised to discover that Atlas and Rand were not universally admired. In fact, quite the opposite was true. “You can’t be serious. You actually liked that book?” Rand was an elitist, a fascist, an atheist, a Darwinist. She’s all about greed. She calls selfishness a virtue. She wants corporations to rule. She wants to exploit the poor! Was this true? How could I have missed that? What did Ayn Rand know and how did she know it? That’s the question I looked to answer when I began the documentary Ayn Rand & the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged.

 

• Harry Potter: Conservative Hero? 
,
Personal life  | When Dumbledore warns the world that Voldemort has returned, the MOM tries to discredit Dumbledore and then Harry. When this proves ineffective, it tries to drive Harry from the magic world through a Soviet-style show trial. It then drums up fake charges against Dumbledore and chases him from Hogwarts, where he is replaced with a bureaucrat (Delores Umbridge) who imposes an educational agenda designed to lower all children to the lowest common denominator. The government also seizes key industries, hides behind a veil of secrecy, denies the truth, and locks up its opponents. Frankly, this sounds like something Ayn Rand or George Orwell could have written.  

• • Could Mila Kunis Be a Sign of Hope and Change? 
,
Hollywood will never become a socially conservative industry. It never has been and never will be. But I can see libertarian ideals becoming popular in the very near future. There is something naturally appealing to “free spirits” and artists of the industry in the ideas of personal liberty and personal responsibility. And I’ll save the snarky commenters the precious time by saying that it shouldn’t surprise anyone that many self-absorbed, narcissist actors find a kindred spirit in Ayn Rand.  

• • Political Correctness Is Destroying Broadway 
,
The Fountainhead  | The always prescient Ayn Rand foresaw the enshrining of mediocrity as a means to control the hearts and minds of the public in the person of arts critic Ellsworth Monkton Toohey, who aimed to create a society that would be “an average drawn upon zeroes.” This is Broadway today: the sum total of zeroes. [....] Ellsworth Toohey has won and the lights have gone out on Broadway.  

• • George Washington’s Words Through the Prism of Today: Part 3 
,
Atlas Shrugged  | [A] haunting prediction of what America would be like in Socialist hands, is found in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. It is a powerful example of the crisis at hand and the insidiousness of propaganda. In Atlas Shrugged, the social realms of all levels are eventually led to believe that people who work hard, and reap from their labors, are bad people. They are led to believe that government is the answer to all the problems. The talented, the wise, the brilliant are despised by the populace and run off to exile. The ones who are left behind, the leaders of the socialist movement, watch the economy dissolve around them; the very economy they had possessed and controlled. Debt, depression, starvation and lack of spirit eventually crush America. [....] Today our children are taught to deny God in school and that loving their country is passé, that it is stingy and selfish to succeed and that the government owes them happiness. Sound familiar? Where is reason? Can we pull ourselves out of another slump if our spirit is broken – if our mantra is give me instead of let me?