| Still from "Atlas Shrugged Part 2" |
The movie opened nationwide Friday and is based on the huge
bestseller written over 50 years ago by Russian emigrant Ayn Rand. Her experience living under a totalitarian
regime, lead her to pen a futuristic novel, based on what could happen to our
country if conditions lined up, when “Looters Law” was the driving force behind
government policy.
Her book has served as a waning to those who believe in
capitalism and self responsibility. It has
helped shape the political philosophy of many on the right. Even though written
years ago, many of the authors’ predictions of a totalitarian society seem to
be taking shape, with government in control of key industries, picking winners
and losers...And a looters law mentality creeping into the campaign rhetoric of "getting a fair shot."
I clicked on Fandango to buy tickets, while I picked up the
phone to call Harmon Kaslow.
Following is my interview with Harmon Kaslow, Producer of Atlas Shrugged Part 2
So Harmon, is it by chance that your movie opens 3 weeks
before the November Presidential elections “Absolutely by design! In a capitalistic way
we planned to take advantage of the election fervor. This faithful adaptation of the book offers
an opportunity for swing voters to see what’s going on back in DC and help activate
them to vote President Obama out of office.”
If Ayn Rand were alive
today, what would her message be to us this close to Election Day? “People!
You better right your ship now! You don’t
want to go to part 3 of Atlas Shrugged!”
Not only did you find resistance by Hollywood to help produce
this movie, John Aglialoro your partner, producer and financial backer,
suffered a huge loss of 19 million from
a product liability lawsuit involving his exercise equipment company. You really had to overcome hurdles to get
this movie made. “Yes the lawsuit was a real blow and a stark
reminder of how the tort system is abused.
That 19 million dollar suit will mean thousands of people will lose
their jobs. But John brought in other investors to help complete and market our
film, he is an amazing man. He aspires
to bring Atlas shrugged Part 3 to the screen as well.”
Out of all of the films you have made how does Atlas
Shrugged Part II compare to the others? “No comparison! All of my others were original works and or screenplays. Atlas Shrugged is one of the greatest
American novels ever written, it was a daunting task to bring the truth to the
screen. Fortunately when John read it, it was life changing to him. His focus was to stay true to the books intent;
he provided the guidance and vision. My
job was the nuts and bolts of it.”
Having such conservative views in ground zero of Hollywood liberal elite, seems you would be an
outcast: “Hollywood’s
an interesting place. Obviously actors
and creative people are very supportive of Obama, when he comes here he scoops
up millions. But the studios are public
companies and are driven by bottom line profits. They defer a lot in the creative process to
those who don’t have a direct economic interest in their corporations-It’s hard
to balance their drive to make profitable films.
“In short the studios
don’t have the courage of John Aglialoro
to produce a movie of this type, faithfully adapting to the principles of this
book.”
In the book, a way was found to power a motor with only static electricity. Energy would be cheap and plentiful and the way
the world turned would be revolutionized.
“The handcuffs put on
us by the enormous burden of expensive energy reduce our capacity to be
creative. Ironically in this book
written over 50 years ago, she shows how transformative to society a cheap
source of energy can be by the creative genius unleashed at Galt’s Gulch”.
“Part 3 of Atlas
Shrugged will get much more into the sci-fi stuff when it gets produced. In the meantime we are looking forward to
millions of people seeing Atlas Shrugged part II to introduce the genius of Ayn
Rand to them.”.
But until the time we have a breakthrough in technology that
makes energy almost cost free, the alternative is to use our own fossil fuels
to bring civilization forward. There
will be a great debate on this subject coming up November 5 at Duke University. The name of it is McKibben vs. Epstein. Check it out.
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