Atlas Shrugged Part 1

Ok, so it loooks like the film project is going to happen after all. The trailer for the film is up here. The trailer looks good. I certainly hope the film is good. Apparently they're doing three films, to correspond with the three parts of the novel, which served Peter Jackson well making LOTR. That's a good sign: the novel is far too long for a single film, even a 3-hour film. Some had speculated about a miniseries, e.g. on HBO, but spreading it out over three films might do the trick. I noticed that the film seems to be set in present-day, or the near-future from our point of view, as opposed to the near future from a 50s point of view. My initial reaction to that was to think that a period piece would make the centrailty of railroads work better, but I've heard the film deals with this by framing it as a devolution from an age when things worked better, which actually fits the book's theme, so that'll probably be ok. Other concerns, of course, are whether the screenplay does justice to the philosophical point of the novel, as well as whether the acting is good, etc. I was worried about LOTR too, but was very pleased with how that turned out, so maybe I'll be pleased with this also. Trying to remain optimistic. The film opens, perhaps ironically, on April 15th.

Follow-up thought: I'm overdue for re-reading the book! Maybe the impending film will motivate me to do that.