Oh, The Ayn-Randian Irony (And Hypocrisy)
Remember the much-hyped film version of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” from a couple years back? The low-budget, cheap-looking, stagey turkey that only covered the first third of the book and got pretty much panned by everyone including more than a few Rand devotees? We hadn’t even been aware that “Part 2” had been released last year — did it go straight to VHS, or what?
I know, I digress.
Well, it turns out “Atlas Shrugged, Part 3: The Final Insult”, or whatever they are calling it, is in pre-production — and the Titans of Objectivist Cinema are so flush with cash that… oh, wait… they claim they have production costs covered, but they’re trying to raise an additional $250,000 and have turned to mooching! Horrors! What would St. Ayn say?
Producers of “Atlas Shrugged Part III” have full funding for their upcoming Ayn Rand adaptation, but that hasn’t prevented them from hitting Kickstarter in search of an additional $250,000. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter to announce the Kickstarter campaign, producer Harmon Kaslow said the goal is use the crowdfunding site for its marketing value.
“There is an incredible amount of vitriol out there and we have every intention of capitalizing on it this time around,” Kaslow said about the third film in the “Atlas Shrugged” franchise. “The day we launch the Kickstarter campaign those haters are going to come alive. They’re going to come after us in droves, attacking us everywhere online. To them, we say, thank you.”
On the “Atlas Shrugged Part III” Kickstarter page itself, associate producer Scott DeSapio discussed the plea for funds with one of those “haters,” a commenter who called the producers “lazy moochers” who were “begging for charity.”
You have to give the fella some credit: another for-profit charity. Now that sounds pretty darn Randian — ’nuff said!
