Back in May, the producers of Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 were dissolute over the movie’s lack of success. In its opening weekend, it showed some promising per-screen averages, but attendance thoroughly fell apart after that. (Not to mention the critical drubbing it received. For instance, Slate’s David Weigel said, “Anyone who’s seen a SyFy Channel original movie in which a mutated insect battles a mutated amphibian will be comfortable with the production quality.”)
Still, after a lot of public pouting, they had some hope that they’d get to make Part 2, thus coming one step closer to completing their love letter to the objectivist philosophy that’s at the heart of Ayn Rand’s original novel. (They’re still talking about making this a three-parter, F.Y.I.) They seemed to understand that some kind of traditional advertising would be needed as well as support from a more-seasoned studio.
Today, producer Harmon Kaslow further outlined their plans. His strategy? Recast many of the roles with bigger names, spend more money overall, and make the movie longer than the first, always a sure bet when redeeming an already critically-unloved franchise.
My favourite part of the Politico article that outlines all of this, though, is when Kaslow compares his movie’s box office performance to that of Larry Crowne.
Shoot for the moon, guys, and you’ll land among the lower-tier Tom Hanks flicks.
