Twelve days after opening “Atlas Shrugged: Part 1,” the producer of the Ayn Rand adaptation said Tuesday that he is reconsidering his plans to make Parts 2 and 3 because of scathing reviews and flagging box office returns for the film.
“Critics, you won,” said John Aglialoro, the businessman who spent 18 years and more than $20 million of his own money to make, distribute and market “Atlas Shrugged: Part 1,” which covers the first third of Rand’s dystopian novel. “I’m having deep second thoughts on why I should do Part 2.”
Blaming the critics is much easier than blaming themselves, apparently. Didn’t the market, the only true arbiter of worth in the world, dismiss this dumb movie? (And, therefore, Ayn Rand?)
Who is John Galt? Nobody cares. [LAT]
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Do us all a favor and don't clog up the Red Box kiosk with this drivel either. We don't want to see it for a dollar either.
If there's really an invisible hand of the market, it will strangle this demon spawn in the cradle..
Invisible hand job?
Witness the invisible finger of the market.
How likely is it that the same person would make the worst movie ever twice? Nevermind.
Bay, Michael
Shyamalan, M. Night
Lucas, George
"I loved the movie. Can't wait for it to be on DVD." Chuck Norris via Pastor DuBord
The free market sucks when no one wants to buy your shit.
And the invisible hand isn't such a good thing when it empties your wallet.
But that’s not the way it’s supposed to work. Look at the Wall Street CEOs, who screwed up the economy back in ’08; they still make boatloads of money even though they suck.
You're using the wrong metric. They ROCK… at stealing, lying, cheating, and exploiting people.
That invisible hand–always giving guys like Aglialoro a prostate exam with three unwashed fingers.
And they did, they just used live actors instead of Korean cartoonists.
The fact that this movie failed is the ultimate validation of the free market system. Ugh.
If bad reviews can make a film fail, how does Michael Bay keep getting work?
Witchcraft.
Hey, even hentai makers have some standards.
I'm looking forward to the porn version Atlas Sucked starring Bristol.
Surely 'Atlas Shagged'?
Atlas Took My Black Cherry
The Mountin' Head
Only cowgirls can cure the blue-balls.
“Critics, you won,” said John Aglialoro, ….. “I’m having deep second thoughts on why I should do Part 2.”
A true believer would make it anyway, profits be damned.
I never read Atlas Shrugged, and it's been a loooong time since I read The Fountainhead, but isn't The Fountainhead all about how Roark singlemindedly pursues his own art despite critics, funding troubles, etc.? Isn't it all about how you should never compromise or abandon your vision, no matter how out of step with the rest of the world (aka 'totally batshit') it is?
Movie producer Randian ideal FAIL. Morally weak, indeed.
Also known as the NY Post/Weekly Standard Theorem.
And hey, the NY Post is home to the one single published critic (not just some guy with a web page) that gave this shit a positive review.
Oh, I was going to point to the Moonie Times, but then you headed me off with "not just some guy with a web page."
Still, it's hilarious how thoroughly the commenters -and, just a reminder here, this is the Washington Times we're talking about- completely ripped him a new one over it.
****SPOILER****
They all starve to death!
Can you imagine the kind of third world looking shithole Galt's Gulch would be if today's "intellectual" right wing tried to pull it off? There'd be lots of guns and probably a train, and everything else would be falling apart. They can't build things without browns and cutting corners.
The remains of the train — probably with decomposing bodies still inside — would sit next to the twisted tracks made of the alloy that was untested because the metallurgist "studied engineering".
Those still living off of the scraps they could find would envy the dead.
Us mechanical engineers know material science buster, we just don't go around bragging about it and think we should make the most money in the world off of it. New alloys and composites come out every week that would put Galt's to sham er shame.
One of them would end up buying the New Jersey Nets.
And like all Objectivists, the dude is a total whiner:
"Why should I put up all of that money if the critics are coming in like lemmings?" Aglialoro said. "I’ll make my money back and I'll make a profit, but do I wanna go and do two? Maybe I just wanna see my grandkids and go on strike."
Psst, you may think you're going Galt here but not making the sequels is not much of a threat when the failure of the first movie indicates almost nobody wants to see them.
You know who should still go Galt?
Donald Trump?
Chuck Norris?
Willie Gault?
I ain't come to cause no trouble, I just came to do the Reardon shuffle.
Hitler?
Doesn't he go Long?
Jean-Paul?
Charles de Galt?
I think it is more likely that the general public won, rather than the critics. One might even say that "future generations" are the winner here, or "millions yet unborn". I'd even go so far as to say that the cancellation of part 2 is a win for all of mankind, throughout the arc of past and future time. Yea, even the dead are breathing dusty sighs of relief on this one, and the Gods themselves relax their angry brows, lay down their weapons, and move to new and different plagues.
…And if you think that's going too far, you didn't see the movie.
However, this is bad news for the post-MST3K Riftrax and Cinema Titanic crews.
Actually Mike Nelson is a right wing nutbag…so he probably actually liked the movie.
So, he wants to ABORT the next installments of a special needs film?
(Kenyan Islamist Socialist Atheist anti-colonial minion says yes)
Atlas Shriveled
Atlas Unplugged.
Atlas Whined.
Atlas (and his friend Jesus!) Wept
Atlas Lost Its Producers a Hilarious Buttload of Money.
Atlas….my love has come along. And my lonely nights are ended.
Audience shrugged
Edit: Just saw obfuscator2's comment below; damn, I thought I came up with original comment.
Atlas Shat on the Rug
He never stood a chance against Big Critic.
Rename it "Pointless Torpedo of Crap: Sequel is not an option"
I often imagine Ayn Rand as a Half Tiger Half Squid with laser eyes and sixteen vaginas with shark teeth.
As long as she still spouted her pseudo-libertarian line of horse shit, Greenspan would still hit that.
Andrea Mitchell likes to watch.
& the squid ink might help clear up her acne. (She's an unfortunate looking woman — though, in her marriage, she's still the pretty one.)
Here's a sad fact: as you get older, all parts of you stop growing except your ears and nose. This means that at some point, now or in the future, we are all Andrea Mitchell and Alan Greenspan.
Check out the jug(ear)s on that one!
& the only big-eared freak to whom I ever want to be compared: Ross Perot.
I guess John Aglialoro will be "going Galt" very soon.
I fucking hope so.
Well if worse comes to worse, he can always film Part 2 and Part 3 with sock puppets as they are the perfect actors to the depth and spirit of Ayn's crazy ass bullshit.
that's demeaning to sock puppets.
Zombie Shari Lewis is upset.
audience shrugged
/totally chucknorris'd that from the av club comment section.
Your pastor stole it for you?
The big mistake was trying to throw this Objectivist masterpiece out there to compete in the "marketplace of ideas." It was doomed from the outset by the choice of venue. Ayn Rand's philosophy shouldn't be required to compete in the marketplace of ideas. There should be some kind of "special" marketplace for Rand's ideas. Something like the "special olympics," where everyone gets a medal, and a juicebox, because everyone wins!
I see you there, with your "special needs" references…. Thin ice, man, thin ice!
I want a box of juice, now.
Prommie always has the best mixers.
Are you thinking of a "Cannes" for conservative cinema? Rupert and Faux News Channel would promote the snot out of it, Limbaugh would be a presenter of the "Palme d'merde" for best picture. Where could they put this one? Alabama? Missisippi? Texas? It needs water for K-Lo and Coulter and other "Sexy Legendary Conservative Ladies" to do topless and bikini shots for the paparazzi.
The red neck Riviera aka the Florida panhandle.
Biloxi/Gulfport was what jumped into my mind. And casinos!!
yes we cannes?
Yes we can-can.
But only if they're done in 8 mm film. Well, Super 8 if they want top billing.
A Nelson Muntz "ha-haa" seems eminently appropriate at this point.
So is my Amtrak Railpass worth anything now?
Amtrak is a communist conspiracy.
Will these Galt-tards push for a plot depletion allowance for next year's taxes.
There wasn't even a Jar-Jar to make fun of, Prom. That's how bad this was.
So you actually saw this movie? Was a knife, held against a kitten’s neck, part of your decision making?
We were bored, and my boyfriend was kinda mad at me so I wasn't going to get any anyways. I thought it would be bad in a "Faster, Pussycat, Kill Kill!" kinda way, but it turned out to be bad in a "sand in my underwear/wet ballsack as the cold wind blows in a light rainstorm at the beach" kinda way; which is to say, "boring even as it irritated me and wrecked my day".
I advise avoiding even advertising for it, lest you be tricked as I was.
Thanks for taking one for the team. Can't promise that I would do the same.
I know a 30 year old woman who never saw the first star wars trilogy based solely on how shitty that movie was, especially Jar Jar Bush, er whatever.
I think that is a real fucking shame. i boycotted the next movies in the series, but hell, I can still hold on to the movies of my childhood…
Atlas (really) Sucked
This is the worst subversion of the free market and the will of the people since those horrible critics cut short the imminent success of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Why do the elites hate great art?
Maybe they could license the characters and do it in Claymation, with Pokey playing the part of Dagny Taggart and Gumby that of Hank Rearden. Art Clokey died last year, so his reputation would not be too sullied.
Team Amnesia, fuck yeah.
That idiot can barely read. There is no way in hell she made it through a gazillion page novel with no pictures and no teen vampires.
Isn't there an illustrated Cliff's Notes version?
She only needs to sound out a few words and you know she gets nippy and wet…
"Th, th, th, th, the b, bi, bi, bi, big, the big… OH MY GAWD I'M SO SMART, Uhhhhhh"
"Tawd! Pinch this now!!"
I am so sorry for typing that out…
But, but, it's written in such finely wrought gibberish that it ought to be right up Sarah's alley, amirite?
Someone probably tweeted it to her.
There are no teen vampires in Atlas Shrugged? What the hell's the use then.
Still, I would hope for Palin's sake that she at least picks up the illustrated kids version (Richard Scarry's Big Book of Objectivism), so she at least can say she had read all of it when she is asked.
Today seems to just be the ultimate anti-conservicunt smackdown. Seriously, I need to make some popcorn or something.
Please don't gloat. For the downfisters, they're all having PTSD flashbacks to the day their scoutmasters raped them in the garden shed.
As the skin of hate, rage, anger and malevolence made manifest, I volunteer that it is, in fact, contingent upon me to gloat.
Is it rape when it's followed up with a piece of candy?
Well, you might have a point if they didn't make you fish around in their pockets to get it.
Chuck Norris as Ayn Rand was a bit of a stretch, but Briskit's developing a one-woman show where the entire series is interpreted through dance.
Didn't work for Tom DeLay, but maybe Chucky will find the "right" approach.
Atlas Tromped
Yes, following the Hollywood formula for success, he's decided instead to make The Passion of Christ Part II.
At least the first one made money. (I'm pretty sure – ?)
I heard it was going to be about Galt's voracious appetite for oysters due to their enormous aphrodisiacal potential: "Atlas Shucked."
This is a tragedy on an order never before contemplated!!! What if there had only been one Caddyshack? One Police Academy? One Troll?
What about Highlander? That second movie was a pure masterpiece! (A masterpiece of santorum, but a masterpiece nonetheless.)
"There can be only one!"
Breakin 2:Electric Bugaloo?
Was I truly the only Wonketeer to see this revolting horror, for research?
I was waiting for it to hit the elitist streaming section of Netflix.
No, no — the ultimate expression of disdain for that piece of dreck called a movie is to pirate it. And then not watch it.
I was waiting for redbox. Best bad movie night ever.
Yes.
My plan was to hold out for the $1 rental, then watch it alone so no one would be annoyed by my copious laughter.
Sucker.
Blaming the critics is much easier than blaming themselves, apparently. Didn’t the market, the only true arbiter of worth in the world, dismiss this dumb movie? (And, therefore, Ayn Rand?)
Check…and mate! Good job Jack!!!
Socialism triumphs again! Moohoohahahahaha!
The invisible hand gave this movie two downfists, and the producer blames the critics for not being socialists and giving it critical welfare.
You have to admit, there's something delciously ironic about all of this.
After deep reflection, I want to say to Mr. Aglioloro:
"Ha, ha. Fuck you, stupid. Go hang yourself." or
"Now that you are broke, if I see you starving by the side of the road, I will walk past you." or
"Parasite. You are a huge disappointment to Ayn. You produced nothing but failure."
The first one bored viewers to death. Well, most of them.
A few of them sold their medicaid scooter to the pawn shop to be able to afford tickets, and now have no way to leave the theater. So I'm sure they'll still be sitting there to view the second installment.
Damn, Sarah must be feeling the heat. This fellow quit 1/3 of the way through! What will Sarah do now?
"But, what will Sarah fap to now?"
Levi's spread in Playgirl.
Gross. +1.
This is all the proof Maury needs, though.
John Gault tells them to drink a special batch of Kool-Aid he's made for all of them.
I'm waiting for the MST3000 version before I decide if this is truly the sack of shit the elitists say it is
/s/ T. Turbo
Mike Nelson is a Republican, but maybe Joel's up for it?
"Well, let me say this, I read the National Review cover to cover. Check in at Townhall.com every day. Check the Washington Times daily. Listen to Dennis Prager and Michael Medved on a regular basis. Read Mark Steyn with regularity. Read the Weekly Standard. So, yes, I do vote Republican. As the pundit Hugh Hewitt has observed, there are indeed two Americas: Serious America and Silly America. The Democrats seem bent on turning this into Silly America, so I stick with those who wish this to remain Serious America." — Mike Nelson
Mike Nelson is a dickbag.
And not nearly as funny as Joel.
No one wanted to see it, producer refuses to continue.
There you have it, the end.
Rather than giving up on Part 2, the producers need to draw commitments from surefire box office magnets like Kirk Cameron, Captain Sig and Dog the Bounty Hunter.
I'm seeing a midnight movies double feature with "Showgirls" giving it a little more legs. Don't give up just yet!
Double feature with Battlefield Earth – both movies were made by cultists, based on books by their cult's founder, and only adapted the first part of the book, with planned sequels that were never made thanks to the movies flopping.
True, but even cultist nerds need a little T&A as a draw. There is NOTHING to make a person watch Battlefield Earth unless they are instructed to. However, (rambling thought), there is lot more philisophically in common between Objectivists and Slime-entologists than there is between Objectivists and Christianity, yet they seemed to form an unholy marriage. Maybe you're on to something…
Paging Benjamin Frisch!
They should just make the followup movies on Xtranormal (using their new "Wingnutz" collection of virtual actors).
Probably not much of a dropoff as far as acting talent or production values, and the true believers won't care that some guy made it on his computer in like 5 minutes. Any guy who can make a movie in 5 minutes, when it takes libtards months or even years, etc. etc.
They said the same thing about Ishtar and Waterworld.
Exactly. Kevin Kostner never got all pissy and blamed audiences for not giving him the profits and accolades he felt he deserved.
Isn't the real lesson here "A fool and his money are soon parted"?
A fool and his money should have never gotten together in the first place.
Only one major critic — Kyle Smith of the New York Post — gave "Atlas" a mixed-to-positive review, calling the film "more compelling than the average mass-produced studio item."
Yeah–that'll draw the crowds…
Rolling Stone's Peter Travers said the movie "sits there flapping on screen like a bludgeoned seal."
Great–now the Randtards will file for endangered species protection…
That's not critics, that's the invisible hand of the market giving you a giant invisible bird.
It takes serious talent to fail that badly with a built-in audience of underemployed teatards. The producers deserve some sort of an equivalent of a Razzie. How about "Randy"?
Well there was Kevin Smith after the failure of Cop Out:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1634755/kevin-sm...
If it's any consolation, I enjoyed it. Not as much as Clerks II, but, stilll…
Notice that no one on the Left was dumb enough to make a movie of Das Kapital, although one hears Tim Robbins has a treatment.
Atlas Shrugged: Turn off the Dark.
Turn off the Galt.
Atlas Shrugged…and then he flipped everyone off, because he's a bad loser.
lol even Alien Vs Predator got a sequel. Atlas failed.
Atlas flubbed.
When you fall asleep and wake up to the repeating DVD menu.
Perhaps Syfy could do the whole book as a mini-series.
The free market box office apparently has a liberal bias.
I guess Andy Breitbart, Victoria Jackson, and all the other clowns that failed in the entertainment industry were finally right about something.
so Aglialoro is going to go all Galt? curse that free market!
Who is John Galt? Why John Galt is the box office GOAT.
Who would have thought that a stale book enshrining selfishness as a virtue wouldn't pack the theatres full of people anticipating stilted dialogue delivered by barn-dinner-theatre actors. They could have gone for cheap sensationalist crap and blown things up and have naked people running around from bed to bed, which might have helped, provided the explosions and moaning from the sex drowned out all the randian speechifying. If they would have done to this what they did to Starship Troopers, it probably would have been a hit. But they decided to be true to the dried up old russian fartsack and reaped the rich reward of doing so.
Does this mean the producer is threatening to "Go Galt"? By which I mean, quit like the baby quitty quitter he clearly is?
They throw in the towel and ask for invisible government handouts.
Meh, he's an ass so no loss.
Hah! It's like every wingnut nightmare come true: a movie made in honor of the "goddess" of the market's book written SPECIFICALLY to sanctify childish self centerdness and elitist hatred of the poor is an abject failure. What's even better is that Faux Newz practically ordered its wingnut base to go see the film and it was endorsed by every clotted artery and butt sexer on the right and yet it STILL failed. It's almost as if Americans really aren't all that right wing and the so-called "democracy" of capitalism has voted it's sociopathic heroine down.
What makes this even sweeter is these same wingnuts who chortled over anti-war films not being as successful as mindless blockbusters are now whining because cwitics are all liberals conspiring to hate them (AGAIN!). This news (especially imagining the tears in various too close together eyes right now) and the hilarious solipcist rejection of Obama's long former gives me the smiles.
Yeah, well, the Objectivists may have won this round of Dumber Cult Smackdown against the Xenu People, but srsly, did Ayn Rand build a Super Power Center?
by "super power center" I mean an unfinished building in Florida designed to sell lessons in superpowers. Because Scientology has one of those. Top that with the Ron Paul blimp if you can, non-levitators.
We have one of those, too.
There used to be a local news video about it at one time, which has now been scrubbed from the internets. Shame. It made for some gooooood watchin'. (And WaPo wrote about it, so it must be legitimate, right?)
3 million dollars. something tells me you can't blame hollywood critics when obviously not even half of glenn beck's audience went to see this donkeyshow.
Mebbe the problem was just not enough Hoveround parking spots at the multiplex.
Probably would have drawn a bigger crowd if they had included a donkey show. With Dagny getting it from Pedro the Burro over in Juarez.
Let me give this development the sober, thoughtful response it deserves:
Hey Aglialoro: Bawk-bawk-bawk-bawk-BAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWK!
So wait, he reads Ayn Rand, who writes about the importance of the Producers, and so decides he wants to be down with that, he wants to be real important and all, so he becomes…a producer?
What an asshole.
No, he should make another one so I can miss it too!
Indeed, move 'er to Broadway. Musical. Score by Bono/Edge. Julie Taymor helms. Poster design based on the Lego version of Lee Lawrie's 'Atlas' at Rock Center. The new Neg-Boffo B.O. model would kick in for big returns. Ayn-us would approve.
Atlas Shrugged with aerial combat on wires? How could that *possibly* fail?
You could give John Galt a number about shoe shopping, *for the market*.
I'm pretty sure everyone already did, by reversing their plans to expend any of their creative energy supporting the parasitic hacks who made this turd.
C'mon now, this thing is going to just ROCK the international market. There's nothing the foreigns love more than subtitled films containing long-winded descriptions of blueprints and thrilling non-action sequences like board meetings.
You poor man.. after 18 years and $20 mil, you never had a single friend who cared enough about you or the project to walk up to you at the first screening of the release print and tell you to your face that the movie was a bomb before it escaped into theaters?
I feel sorry for you. because you're either in an ivory tower, and not listening to anyone else, or someone DID tell you that this was a mess, and you elected not to listen. Because that's the only two ways a film like this gets loose on the public..
Since Rotten Tomatoes ranks it at a 6% rating that places this masterpiece as among the five worst-reviewed films released in the first four months of 2011. Congrats!
The funny thing is that critics have said the acting and production values are reasonably good, so the problem is Rand's god-awful story, which is god-awful (A is A). http://sites.google.com/site/atlassucked/
The second one is way more fun than the first one. In the second one, the little people all get what they deserve – they suffocate and it's a wonderful thing. It would have been such great Ayn Rand fun!
That cunt.
Or why being a maid after running a business division is a career move we can all embrace, even if involuntarily.
Even Tommy Wiseau was smart enough to recognize his movie was trash. This guy must suffer from a cinematic version of Dunning-Kruger.
They all walk around wondering where all their shit is, and complaining about how the government put their hands on their Medicare (which Ayn Rand was already on because she turned into an old).
Gee, too bad you didn't realize Atlas Shrugged was an unredeemable hunk of crap before you spent all those $$$$. Idiot.
I suspect that most knee jerk right wingers have never actually read Atlas Shrugged or anything else by Ayn Rand. Its a rather tedious and lengthy book with really a lot of words in it. Fine print you know. And the word repititive doesnt even begin to describe the sheer tedium. I know because I have personally read Atlas Shrugged, the Fountain head and some other Rand book I cant recall. All exceedingly boring in retrospect. Its the kind of book that makes the reader feel like a genius because THEY are reading the book and the other morns dont get it. Later on you realize boy that book was stupid. Certainly one of the worst ways I wasted my tragic youth. I would have been better off working at McDonalds or trying to get a girlfreind.
Selling 50% stakes to 50 people would be totally legal in libertarian paradise.
The movie Atlas Shrugged is very hard to find in a theater. We couldn't find it anywhere in Virginia Beach. A lot of people that I know have been having that trouble. I didn't go to Norfolk to see it because, I figured I would wait until it came to Virginia Beach. So we just had to wait for it to come out on DVD. I can't find it on RedBox yet. Maybe they are just slow at getting new movies. I may have to rent it at Block Buster. They want $3 for one night. I think RedBox only charges $1 per night for a movie rental. Has anybody been able to find Atlas Shrugged on RedBox? Thanks.
The movie Atlas Shrugged is very hard to find in a theater. We couldn't find it anywhere in Virginia Beach. A lot of people that I know have been having that trouble. I didn't go to Norfolk to see it because
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