You know those two films that make up the beginning of an adaptation of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged? You know how they made almost no money and received a well-deserved critical drubbing for being terrible? Well, now you can contribute a Kickstarter to make the final film, Atlas Shrugged: Part III, a reality. Not that the filmmakers need your help; they just would really like your money.
Producer Harmon Kaslow told THR that they do not really need the $250,000 they are asking for; they just want the publicity. They also want to make people angry:
There is an incredible amount of vitriol out there and we have every intention of capitalizing on it this time around. The day we launch the Kickstarter campaign those haters are going to come alive. They’re going to come after us in droves, attacking us everywhere online. To them, we say, thank you.
OK, then. I find it difficult to get particularly angry about a series of films so risible in their execution, but it is kind of offensive to go to Kickstarter when you don’t even need the help. So now all of you Randites (Randies?) can give your money to a film with no chance of making it back, for producers who apparently have total contempt for you and everyone else. Nice.
What do you get for your money? Well, for $10 you get your name on a website (nice), but for $10,000 you can hang out with Kaslow and star John Aglialoro. There are many other offers, like being an extra in the film and getting your name carved into John Galt’s house (what?). So, for $100,000 can I get Paul Ryan to read me all of Atlas Shrugged in a Porky Pig voice? I’d pay for that.
Would you like to contribute to the production of Atlas Shrugged: Part III? Are you hot to bring to the screen the most influential book since the Bible (that’s kind of a lie, actually, but that’s what the Kickstarter campaign claims)? If you are, then please go right ahead and give them your money. Never mind that the all-powerful market has more or less said that no one cares about Atlas Shrugged. What does the market know?
