Not a lot of writers are less cinematic than Ayn Rand. The best movies are usually made from short books that are longer on action and imagery than dialogue, and there’s just no one who’s longer on dialogue and shorter on action than Rand. Some of the lectures her characters give literally go on for ten or more pages – as if you could actually browbeat someone for that long before they left the room or slipped into a coma. Her novels aren’t about theater of the mind as much as they are about philosophical evangelism. Regardless of their artistic merit, however, her works have remained quite popular in some circles and are quite loved by people who share Rand’s worldview. Well, by people enamored of her ideas and willing to overlook a lot of speechifying and a disconcerting tendency toward rape.

So you can imagine my surprise when I saw that someone is making her ponderous novel “Atlas Shrugged” into a feature film. Even more interesting, the producers are hoping response will be good enough to merit completing their planned trilogy.

I’ve included the trailer below. Bear in mind that trailers are generally created by stringing together all of the most visually striking and exciting moments of the movie. Then imagine that the rest of the movie is likely less interesting than what’s on display in the trailer. Then imagine that there will be three of these.

If the target market is confirmed Objectivists, there probably aren’t enough of them to make the movie profitable. If it’s aimed at converting non-believers, there really needs to be something happening in the trailer. You’re not gonna beat Harry Potter and Iron Man with besuited men discussing politics over steak and brandy.