Overtly political movies are a tough sell. Hey, so are overtly religious movies (see the collapse of the "Left Behind" movies despite bestseller stats) and dated movies are not so great either.
Due to that, the film adaptation of "Atlas Shrugged" is in for a difficult time. For starters, it's about railroads and steel, which means it is a period piece. Sure, the metal is a newfangled thing and the 'motor' runs on static electricity but if they wanted to get across the philosophy of Rand while keeping it modern, they could have made Taggart the head of an Internet company under siege by the government - they have the recent efforts by the FCC to control the Internet as prime cultural fodder.
Instead, they are sticking with the literal plot of the book and, worse, are making it a trilogy. Come on, the book is not that complicated. The government wants to drive business out, the government controls Big Science and uses both as weapons against the future technology while bright minds disappear to work in secret. This has to be three parts??
Certainly the message will resonate now, even more than it did then. Anyone who values individual initiative has to shudder at the modern nanny state - but the book and objectivism feels quaint (too recent to be modern, too recent to be alternate history, like Steampunk) and the worst thing a movie can do is come across as quaint. This is not an Al Gore slideshow, conservatives don't go to see things because they feel a need to endorse the politics, they will only show up if it is good. And the 50% of America that are progressives and like the way things are now won't go at all.
The trailer highlights the individual initiative aspects of Rand's seminal work so kudos to the filmmakers for sticking to their guns - but if this does well in today's America I will be surprised.
