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Angelina Jolie will play her dream role as Dagney Taggart in the up-coming film “Atlas Shrugged” written by the late Ayn Rand. “Atlas Shrugged”, perhaps the most famous book written by Rand, is a tale of a no-nonsense railroad executive named Dagney Taggart who strives to keep her company alive despite a society falling towards collectivism.

Rand’s novels are extremely long, and “Atlas Shrugged” is no exception. Another one of Rand’s books was made into a movie while she was alive. “The Fountainhead”, staring Gary Cooker and Patricia Neal was released in 1949. Like “The Fountainhead”, there is a long speech made by the hero. In the book “Atlas Shrugged” the speech is made by John Galt. A famous line repeated over and over again in the book is “Who is John Galt?”

According to Variety, who broke the story, producer Al Ruddy has been trying to bring "Atlas Shrugged" to the bigscreen for years, attracting the interest of Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway along the way. There were rumors that Brad Pitt was being considered for a role in the film too.

Many conservatives and libertarians have applauded the concepts and writings of Ayn Rand. Russian born in 1905, Rand learned to loath the collectivist mentality of communism. She came to America and became a broadly influential figure in post-WWII America; her work attracted both enthusiastic admiration and scathing denunciations. Comment on this Article at our Forum

Alan Greenspan wrote a chapter in one of her books entitled Capitalism. She believed that people should not be forced to be self-sacrificing for the good of the community. Her politics have been described as minarchism and libertarianism, though she never used the first term and detested the second.

Rand's Objectivist philosophy encompasses positions on metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics, and aesthetics. Along with Nathaniel Branden and his wife Barbara, Alan Greenspan and Leonard Peikoff, Rand launched the Objectivist movement to promote her philosophy.

The Economist reported in 1991 that 300,000 of her novels are sold each year. They say that the novels ask the reader to think big about themselves, build big and earn big. Cinema Blend says Jolie is a perfect fit for the take-no-prisoners, supremely confident, and supremely sexy Taggart. Comment on this Article at our Forum

By Nancy Connor
Best Syndication Writer