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Don't Say I Never Did You No Favors: Producer Sh*tcans Plans for Atlas Shrugged Trilogy Because of Critics

By Brian Prisco | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (45)

atlascrushed.jpg

I love using my powers for good or for awesome. But, because I’m not Donald Trump (I own up to my beautiful baldness), I’m not going to take all the credit. The Playlist annouced this morning that producer/screenwriter /wealthymotherfucker John Aglialoro has decided to suspend future plans for Parts 2 and 3 of his proposed Atlas Shrugged trilogy. But why? What could possibly sway you from your focused vision for an Dickensian America, dearheart?

Us damned critics. Aglialoro said in an interview, “Critics, you won. I’m having deep second thoughts on why I should do Part 2… Why should I put up all of that money if the critics are coming like lemmings? I’ll make my money back and I’ll make a profit, but do I wanna go and do to? Maybe I just wanna see my grandkids and go on strike.”

Well, now the bitched up dialogue in the script makes sense. But I think the overall delicious irony of Aglialoro’s response is particularly reticent when you consider the content of the film. When the going got rough for Dagny and Hank, when everyone was against them, they never gave up. But not John. He curled up pissing in a corner when the first spanking came down. Even better is the strident message about how the media is nothing but a tool, a hammer or a crowbar or a salad shooter, wielded by the corrupt government to take down the hardworking little man. It’s not like he wasn’t prepped for this. The project itself has been boiling like a bunny for damn near 40 years, but Aglialoro has had creative control since 1992. But I guess the weight of the world was a little too much for him to bear. *snort*

Is this gloating a little unseemly? Perhaps. But on a morning where I wake up to find out a wealthy reality TV star with a Richie Rich haircut piece is taking credit for forcing the President of the United States to release his birth certificate, I’m a little grouchy. Nobody was asking W to submit to a fucking IQ test to prove he should legally be operating the country while wearing a bicycle helmet and mittens.

But this isn’t about politics. This is about economics. The people have chosen. And they chose Scream 4. Nobody gave a good goddamn to see this poorly scrapped together heap of crap. And wallet votes are all that count. Because The Passion of the Christ being the most successful independent film of all time ever and ever amen gets kicked into secular debater faces on a constant basis. Critics rightfully blasted the final product, objectively if not a bit crushingly, because it was a terrible movie. Even fans of the novel and Objectivism admit, it was pretty fucking bad. And I feel you, kids. I still like Jersey Girl.

Aglialoro will make every cent of the $254 he put into Atlas Shrugged, so it’s not like he’s crying to the bank. Plus, this is all probably a clever crocodile tears attempt to bolster DVD sales. It’s not like he has a huge deficit to overcome with production values, so he can make parts 2 and 3 easily. If he really wanted to. If he really wanted to work hard, and be dilligent. But he doesn’t. He wants to feel persecuted. I say, fine, feed him to a fucking lion. Just film it first so it can make as much as Christ Club The Passion.









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Comments

I was typing a comment for this, but then a Pepto Bismol ad interrupted it and I had to start over. Fuck that shit. That's gotta stop or I'm gonna have to stop coming to Pajiba. Seriously. Make it stop.

Posted by: Slash at April 27, 2011 12:49 PM

Objectivist butthurt. Gotta love it.

Posted by: Wednesday at April 27, 2011 12:51 PM

3 million revenue on 20 million budget. the critics are why he isn't going to finish the job, right. gotcha. I don't know how poor Michael Bay continues to nobly slog at his craft, the critics hate him too. He just has a thicker skin, I guess.

Posted by: idleprimate at April 27, 2011 12:58 PM

I agree. I've been enjoying this site for years now and while I appreciate the need to make a living, I wonder if there is a less intrusive way to do it than these ads?

Posted by: WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot at April 27, 2011 12:58 PM

Is that his actual quote or did you paraphrase it because it's sort of incoherent, is it not?

"Why should I put up all of that money if the critics are coming like lemmings"

Is he upset that critics came to his movie?
Is he making some kind of joke comparing the sexual satisfaction of critics to that of lemmings?
Aren't lemmings known for jumping off cliffs en masse? Is he afraid his movie is killing critics and there will be none left?
What is his point?
I always knew Objectivists were idiots but for some reason I thought they were idiots of the semi-literate variety.

Posted by: PaddyDog at April 27, 2011 1:03 PM

Oh this is delicious! Thank you ten thousand times, Prisco.

Think about the levels of Meta this demonstrates... an Objectivist Filmmaker refusing to finish the Atlas Shrugged Trilogy by Going Galt!

That's some serious comedy. I'm going to be grinning about this until the snow starts falling again.

Now, Mister Aglialoro, be a good Producer and take your ball and go home in a snit.

What a whiny Randroid twatwaffle.

Posted by: Wintermute at April 27, 2011 1:03 PM

actually, i think that dagny and hank DID, in fact run away in the book...in that case, it was to create a new utopian society with all the other visionary industrialists that had been disappearing. or maybe they're the last two left after the others. some such nonsense...

forgive me, it's been a long time since college and every time i read the wikipedia page i end up weeping with bitter self-loathing over my 20-year-old self.

Posted by: matty blue at April 27, 2011 1:07 PM

Bloody typical. The market has spoken. Your movie bombed. So blame the media.

I'm sure we'll be seeing Aglialoro on the 700 Club soon blaming the homosexual/liberal/Muslim alliance for sabotaging his movie.

Posted by: The Mutt at April 27, 2011 1:12 PM

Critics? Likely story. It's about the money.

And I dig the choice of header pic.

Posted by: DarthCorleone at April 27, 2011 1:23 PM

+20 points for opening the piece with a Strong Bad quote, btw.

Posted by: Markus at April 27, 2011 1:30 PM

I believe two words that are best descriptive of this guy are Stupid Wanker. Honestly, if he actually believed the critics were going to savage the film, why didn't he make a better one? Isn't that the entire point of moviemaking (or any other product) - making the best thing possible according to your resources and abilities?

Wasn't that the point of Atlas Shrugged? Making the finest railroad on earth and never mind the carping of critics and etc.?

Aglialoro should have made a magnificent film right from the word dot, and it would have drawn in audiences and either silenced the critics or filled their hearts with joy to see such a wonderful movie.

Alas, reality has intruded. Mr. Aglialoro has been revealed to be no better than Michael Bay. Sad, really.

Posted by: The Wanderer at April 27, 2011 1:31 PM

Not true The Wanderer. Micheal Bay films actually make money.

Posted by: Socrates_Johnson at April 27, 2011 1:45 PM

Normally, I would look to Scientologists for this kind of logic.

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at April 27, 2011 1:59 PM

Donald Trump says that Obama needs to prove that his school grades had nothing to do with the decision not to continue Atlas Shrugged trilogy.

Posted by: lil_a at April 27, 2011 2:11 PM

Indeed, this is all an attempt at self-crucifixion. People with political agendas are amazing at that. Galvanize that base, sir. Galvanize it!

Posted by: RobP at April 27, 2011 2:22 PM

This birth certificate shit was about race pure and simple, naked racism. Yes Trump was the mouth piece, but a vast and white citizenry supported this stupidity with their silence, color blind society my ass. And now the first black President had to produce a motherfucking birth certificate. Democrat and Republican alike should lower their heads in shame. I’ve listened to senators say that they take President Obama at his word when he says he was born in this country. I had to listen to the Clintons make innuendoes about Obama’s citizenship during the primaries. I’ve listened to my fellow Democrats say Obama should just release his birth certificate and get it over with, despite the fact that he’s already done so when he first took office in 1997. And now today the leader of the free world had to show his birth certificate because of the color of his skin.

Posted by: Pookie at April 27, 2011 2:24 PM

Let's be honest here.

If this movie made a shit-ton of money, he'd be making sequels no matter what any of the critics said. Hell, the critics could have had a reenactment of the premier of La Fin Absolue du Monde, and if it made $100 million+, he'd have announced the sequel series was being expanded to five movies, with a prequel, a cartoon series, and a weekly podcast.

The fact that he's blaming critics for its failure and not because it blows goat chode, is testament to this being part of the original plan. He's still going to make himself a tidy little (okay VERY little but still a) profit despite the lack of quality, but instead of blowing the little stash on two more projects that have no hope of doing the same performance, he can fall back on this great hype conspiracy as the proper reason and he somehow saves face for it.

So as much as I would love to pin a medal on you critics for putting this monstrosity down, I think it far more likely that you did exactly as you were expected to. Somewhere in a perfect world, Mel Brooks is expected to get a residual for this.

Posted by: bleujayone at April 27, 2011 2:28 PM

Socrates, you are quite right.

Pookie, I confess a great deal of shame on behalf of the racist fools who, through an accident of genetics, share my skin color.

Posted by: The Wanderer at April 27, 2011 2:35 PM

Pookie:

I disagree slightly with you there. I believe Obama is hated more because he is of mixed race than because he is "Black". A cursory glance at blog comments on anti-Obama sites reveals that such people would be more comfortable with a "fully Black" person but they really have a problem with the fact that the President is the product of a relationship between a white woman and a black man because to those kinds of people, that's the worst possible thing. Just this morning, even in the New York Times coverage, a guy posted that reading the details of the birth certificate "made him vomit".

Posted by: PaddyDog at April 27, 2011 2:36 PM

@Pookie: I love that in some circles, the conversation has already shifted from "what does he have to hide?" to "see? Why didn't he just produce this months ago?" It's not that he didn't jump through hoops for our amusement, it's that he didn't jump soon enough.

I can't wait for the first rumors to start about this being photoshopped...

Posted by: Markus at April 27, 2011 2:38 PM

The reason conservatives don't like Obama is because he is an incompetent and clueless fool who has ZERO experience in actually running anything and you thought it was a good idea to make him the leader of the most powerful country on the planet. Funny how the left always screech about racism yet voted for a guy because of his two qualifications: skin color and his raging socialist/liberal agenda. After all, Obama is the first Affirmative Action president.
And fuck Obama, I don't like his white half either.

Posted by: Common Sense at April 27, 2011 2:44 PM

Don't any of you fucking dare bite on that.

Posted by: The Other Agent Johnson at April 27, 2011 2:49 PM

@PaddyDog

“I believe Obama is hated more because he is of mixed race than because he is "Black".

Really PaddyDog? So if both of his parents were black everything would ok?

Posted by: Pookie at April 27, 2011 2:49 PM

*be*

Posted by: Pookie at April 27, 2011 2:51 PM

Why is that TK, afraid of a little dissent? Didn't liberals say that dissent was patriotic or does that only apply when there is a Republican in the White House? I don't like Obama because of his shitty policies or is that racist?

Posted by: Common Sense at April 27, 2011 2:52 PM

So I take it that Bush's policies were better?

Posted by: Pookie at April 27, 2011 2:58 PM

Yes, his economic policies were better. Bush was/is pro-business and Obama is living in fantasy land with his economic policies. Look at the unemployment numbers, home prices, etc...under GW and look at them now. Bush made a bunch of mistakes to be sure, but Obama it taking asshatery and making it an art form.
Come on, Obama never had a real job in his life, never had to make payroll, never had to produce a damn thing. He is a politician and NOT a leader.

Posted by: Common Sense at April 27, 2011 3:08 PM

Pookie, don't paint the entire "white citizenry" of the U.S. with the same broad strokes. Jesus. (Okay, I know you're not, but what you typed could be interpreted that way.) I can only speak for myself and the people I know, but we've shouted down every "birther" we could whenever the topic arose. Of course you're right that it's racism, and whether Obama is mixed or not has very little to do with it, I think. Save your anger for the people in power (government, media) who didn't put an end to this story two years ago, not the people who are just relieved it might finally be over. Or, at least that particular brand of racism against our sitting President finally over (mostly, there will still be crackpots, always).

That said, am I glad he did it? Yes, because, maybe Donald Trump and the rest will move on from it. Do I think he should have done it? Hell no. But that's one of my main problems with his time in office, he cowtows to his opponents far too often. Compromise is good, but compromising yourself to stave off the venom of the adversaries who will never come to your side is just maddening. I hope his next four years have more of the ballbusting that I know Obama is capable of. See: his meeting with Republicans over health care where he took all their absurd questions and crushed them with real answers.

Posted by: RobP at April 27, 2011 3:19 PM

This reminds me... when does "Troll Hunter" get a US theatrical release?

Posted by: Markus at April 27, 2011 3:21 PM

Yes, his economic policies were better. Bush was/is pro-business and Obama is living in fantasy land with his economic policies. Look at the unemployment numbers, home prices, etc...under GW and look at them now. Bush made a bunch of mistakes to be sure, but Obama it taking asshatery and making it an art form.
Come on, Obama never had a real job in his life, never had to make payroll, never had to produce a damn thing. He is a politician and NOT a leader.

Posted by: Common Sense at April 27, 2011 3:08 PM


Thank you Common Sense for providing me a target rich environment.

1. Bush’s business acumen lead him to become the first oil man to Not find oil in Texas. Look up Harken Oil when you get the chance.

2. Of course the unemployment numbers will go up if you spend 8 years destroying the economy with wall street and banking corruption.

3. Of course the economy will be flounder if you wag two wars and not pay for them.

4. Of course the economy will flounder if you pass a senior drug bill and not pay for it.

5. Bush has never held a job other than being a politician, and when he did go into business he was a complete failure.

Posted by: Pookie at April 27, 2011 3:21 PM

I'm sorry, The Other Agent Johnson...

Yes, his economic policies were better. Bush was/is pro-business and Obama is living in fantasy land with his economic policies. Look at the unemployment numbers, home prices, etc...under GW and look at them now. Bush made a bunch of mistakes to be sure, but Obama it taking asshatery and making it an art form.
Come on, Obama never had a real job in his life, never had to make payroll, never had to produce a damn thing. He is a politician and NOT a leader.

Posted by: Common Sense at April 27, 2011 3:08 PM

Obama isn't pro-business just because he wants some of the Bush Tax Cuts to expire and increase regulation? Right. Tell me again, is it the government, you, or Wall Street who are always in the news for receiving large bonuses in the midst of a recession?

Unemployment numbers have gone down from Bush's last months in office. True fact. I don't know much about "home prices", but I do know that the mortgage crisis had very little (re: zero) to do with Obama. I also know that both the auto industry and home sales have gone up since 2008/2009, thanks in large part to the tax credits/write-offs signed into law by... Obama.

Obama never had a real job? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Are you saying he's so rich and wealthy that he just coasted through life without ever earning a paycheck or managing even a single person? You clearly do not know the man's biography, or choose to see it in purely ideological terms. Is college professor not a real job? Is community organizer not an elaborate form of "making payroll"? Was his time as both a state/U.S. senator not real?

What the hell did W. ever do besides run a baseball team into the ground and suckle off daddy's teat? Common Sense? This thread is just loaded with irony.

Posted by: RobP at April 27, 2011 3:29 PM

"When the going got rough for Dagny and Hank, when everyone was against them, they never gave up."
The point of the book ATLAS SHRUGGED is that Dagny and Hank were wrong to keep going, because they were simply propping up the corrupt system. So about halfway through Hank sees the light and quits ("goes on strike"). But not until the very end does Dagny finally learn.

So Aglialoro is definitely doing a John Galt.

This means maybe I can make part 2 and part 3 myself. I have no previous experience in film, and it will certainly be godawful, but since there is a dedicated audience who finds that irrelevant and will support me no matter what, why shouldn't I get $30 million? My version would cost a helluva a lot less, so I should be able to make a profit.

Posted by: Pat C. at April 27, 2011 3:35 PM

Do not feed the trolls. Jeebus.

No matter how many statistics and verifiable numbers and graphs and testimonials and commission findings and peer reviewed studies you throw at these creatures, it will not make a difference. They do not process logic. Their brains aren't equipped to handle such data. They are unable to understand facts.

Don't waste your time. Don't rile them up. Don't encourage them by giving them attention.

So says Godtopus.

Posted by: Godtopus Law at April 27, 2011 3:53 PM

Just chiming in to say that the banner ad for this page is telling me to go see Atlas Shrugged in theaters now and it made me laugh.

Posted by: Craigilicious at April 27, 2011 4:12 PM

Common Sense, I can’t believe you’re talking against your best interest. You’re probably near retirement age and the last thing you should be doing is talking against someone that’s trying to keep you from deciding between buying groceries or buying medication.

Posted by: Pookie at April 27, 2011 4:18 PM

I could be wrong because I don't really know or understand the motivations of these people, but I'd guess that negative remarks about his mixed ethnicity are because those making them don't think the black community will rise to defend someone who isn't "really, actually black."

(breath)

My freshmen comp teacher is rolling over in her grave over that sentence.

Posted by: Socrates_Johnson at April 27, 2011 4:34 PM

It's like a microcosm of the entire birther argument. Logic doesn't work, people. Cognitive dissonance is a terrible thing and most people will do anything to minimize it, including willfully ignoring any facts that may contradict their point of view.

It's just so sad that people are so blinded by their conditioning that almost nothing can break them free of it. Pitiful, really. And also proof that there will always be racism, and classism, and sexism. O discordia!

Posted by: Nobody's Little Weasel at April 27, 2011 4:46 PM

Hey, I apologized beforehand. I was just excited because it moved from the birther stuff to things that should actually be arguable.

Alas.

Posted by: RobP at April 27, 2011 8:20 PM

Well, clueless director-guy clearly didn't read the book he was adapting. You gotta have something people want before you can "go Galt."

That's a shame because there really is an interesting trilogy in that book. You don't have to agree with the philosophy. I'm particularly a fan of compelling presentation of people I find sketchy.

Posted by: BierceAmbrose at April 27, 2011 9:06 PM

Back to the subject we started with: I liked Jersey Girl too, Prisco. I think that's maybe the first thing we agree on. I guess that makes it us against the world.

I haven't seen "Atlas Shrugged". If they had made it in Arnold's prime and starred him as Atlas, it probably would have been better.

-Ralphie

Posted by: Ralphie at April 27, 2011 9:49 PM

/Birthers

First, whack-jobs.

Second, a troll (
That President Obama is black, or half-black is an irresistible incitement for folks who are already twisted, or a convenient handle for people who can't find anything better. So, really, beneath both contempt and notice in either case.

Posted by: BierceAmbrose at April 27, 2011 10:21 PM

Trying Again ...

/Birthers

First, whack-jobs.

Second, a troll (--See what I did there?) through the InterWebs will find all manner of accusations thrown about in the blood sport of politics since before the country was founded. For example, Senator John McCain has also been called ineligible to be president because of where he was born - Panama to American parents. I believe Senator McCain is white.

That President Obama is black, or half-black is an irresistible incitement for folks who are already twisted, or a convenient handle for people who can't find anything better. So, really, beneath both contempt and notice in either case.

Posted by: BierceAmbrose at April 27, 2011 10:27 PM

Posted by: Markus at April 27, 2011 2:38 PM:
I can't wait for the first rumors to start about this being photoshopped...

Well, it didn't take long for the birther dipshits to move their goalposts:

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/04/27/orly-taitz-raises-a-new-issue-obamas-social-security-number/

And now Trump is on Obama's grades (though I'm convinced Trump is just trying to keep himself in the media spotlight, hence the timing of his birther rage).

No way would this be happening if Obama were white.

Posted by: strife at April 28, 2011 3:00 AM

Of course he actually pulled it because it was losing him money hand over bloody fist. But if we take him at his word? There are actually unkinder words than "pussy" for a man who pulls his film because of critics.

"Amateur."

And the film itself?

"Vanity project."

Posted by: John Roberson at May 1, 2011 6:54 AM

The latest big bailout, supposedly of Portugal, turns out to include many billions exclusively for the use of the Portugese banks, who themselves in turn owe a great deal to many foreign banks. Who is this bailout aimed at exactly, the Portugese people or the international banking system?

Posted by: Dyslexia Daisy at May 4, 2011 7:58 AM