It looks like a film version of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged will finally be a reality! At least the first 147 of 1000+ pages…
Fifty-some-odd years after its publication, Atlas Shrugged is still selling briskly, and is still controversial. Rumors of a film version–including one starring Angelina Jolie as Dagny Taggart and Brad Pitt as John Galt–have so far come to nothing.
But now, it looks like Atlas Shrugged, Part 1 will be released sometime next year, made possible by a cast and crew of relative unknowns. Check out this behind-the-scenes short from Reason.tv:
We interview Jennifer Burns, assistant professor of history at the University of Virginia and author of the new biography Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right. It’s a timely book considering the recent resurgence of Rand’s works (especially her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged) as a reaction to the country’s current economic situation. For more about Prof. Burns visit 
[Ayn Rand's magnum opus Atlas Shrugged turns 50 this month. Objectivists are celebrating, and CSPAN 2 recently devoted several hours of programming to discussions about the late Rand and her literary/philosophical influence. Nearly a quarter centery after her death, Rand is still stirring up controversy, and despite her staunch atheism, she is generally unpopular amongst modern-day freethinkers because of her cult-like aura and unflinchingly pro-capitalist stance. I add to the celebration in reprinting two articles I've written over the years that touch on the Randian legacy: an essay titled "But Is It Science Fiction? Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged", originally published in May 2000 in my online magazine