United Liberty

During our recent Q&A with Harmon Kaslow, producer of Atlas Shrugged: Part 1, he confirmed that the second installment of the film series based on Ayn Rand’s magnum opus would indeed be made. In a podcast with the Heritage Foundation, Kaslow offered more details:

It was no coincidence that “Atlas Shrugged Part 1” made its box-office debut on tax day, April 15, earlier this year. So it was only appropriate that the DVD release would fall on Election Day.

Harmon Kaslow, the movie’s producer, visited Heritage’s Bloggers Briefing today to talk about the film and preview “Atlas Shrugged Part 2,” which is slatted for a fall 2012 release. He also visited our Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio to share his thoughts on Hollywood, how the Internet has transformed movie marketing and the relevance of Ayn Rand in today’s culture.

Listen to the interview with Harmon Kaslow on this week’s Scribecast

The special-edition DVD includes several exclusive features. Kaslow hopes the Google Affiliate Network offers fans of Rand an opportunity to promote the work virally. Several organizations, most notably FreedomWorks, are also helping to distribute the DVD.

“We’ve now reached a point in time where it just seems like everything that’s going on in this country parallels what was being described in the book,” Kaslow said, noting the book was written more than 50 years ago as a parody of New Deal policies.

The goal of the film, Kaslow said, was always to inspire people to read Rand’s book. That alone is a different approach from most Hollywood films.

“Hollywood does not make message movies. ‘Atlas Shrugged’ is a message movie. It’s about a philosophy,” Kaslow explained in the interview. “It’s designed to inspire people to think about things and think about the implication of things, and what’s going to be the effect if we go down various paths.”

If you haven’t already, please buy the DVD of Part 1. The story told is all too reminiscent of what we are experiencing in today’s political atmosphere, showing Rand was prescient in her view of human nature and politics; more so than many mainstream commentators, including those on the Left, would ever give her credit for.