Inside the mind of Ayn Rand

Award-winning producer Duncan Scott worked with Ayn Rand to restore the Italian screen adaptation of We The Living. Today he intends to capitalize on the wave of interest in her ideas — by creating a new film where those ideas take center stage.
Joshua-zader

The freshly released movie version of Atlas Shrugged is generating a ton of attention in the media, fueling new waves of curiosity about Ayn Rand’s ideas. How can supporters of Rand’s philosophy best capitalize on this momentum?

Producer-director Duncan Scott thinks he has the answer. Last week Scott revealed details about a new movie project his company has recently launched, titled Inside the Mind of Ayn Rand. Slated for release in theaters in early 2012, the ninety-minute feature film explores the relevance of Ayn Rand’s views to the fundamental issues facing society today.

“The film also weaves in the epic story of her life, but it’s not focused on the biographical details,” Scott says. “It’s really the first major film to examine in some depth the full range of her ideas.”

Scott thinks the Atlas movie release has created a short-lived opportunity that Objectivists shouldn’t squander. “The best way to spread Objectivist thinking into our culture is through media that creates excitement with the general public, primarily film and television. No other medium combines all these powerful elements — images, movement, words, music, pacing, storytelling — to fully engage the audience.

These concepts are under assault right now. They need to be defended, and nobody did that better than Ayn Rand.

“We want the viewer to come away charged up by just how critically important her concepts of reason, limited government, and free markets are in today’s world — and in their own lives. These concepts are under assault right now. They need to be defended, and nobody did that better than Ayn Rand.”

Many years ago, Scott worked with Ayn Rand on the restoration of the film classic We the Living. “From that point onward,” he says, “I was hooked on her ideas.”

He has been a filmmaker and television producer for over 26 years, including a nine-year stint with public television, and has won four Emmy Awards. In 2004 he created the Objectivist History Project, to document the founding period of Objectivism.

Scott's new film is being produced independently by his Santa Monica based production company. Financing for the film comes from four sources: investors, institutional support, pre-sales to distributors, and a grassroots internet campaign.

“The internet provides a way for the thousands Ayn Rand fans around the world to help us bring this film to fruition,” Scott explains. To help kickstart grassroots support for the film, Scott has just launched the project at Kickstarter.com.

She foresaw, more than fifty years ago, what is happening today in our country.

“Our Kickstarter page lets anyone who wants to, show their support for Rand’s ideas. People can see a video about the film there. They can find out how to get free tickets to the film’s premiere, a DVD of the finished film, T-shirts, and more.”

He is convinced there couldn’t be a better time than today to showcase Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. “Rand has been in ascendance for about two years, and the new Atlas film just puts it over the top,” Scott says.

“Of course the main reason is that she nailed it with that novel. She foresaw, more than fifty years ago, what is happening today in our country — and she understood the underlying causes, as well.”

Scott points out that, despite Rand's popularity, many people have only a superficial grasp of her philosophy. ”They know she was a champion of free markets and individualism, but the underlying core of her philosophy — the moral superiority of capitalism and rational self-interest, in particular — is still misunderstood by many people, even some of her fans.

”We think Inside the Mind of Ayn Rand will be a real eye-opener, not only about her ideas, but also about the fascinating and complex woman behind those ideas.”

To learn more about the project and watch Duncan Scott’s video preview, visit the project’s Kickstarter page.

Joshua Zader is the founder of the Atlasphere and co-founder of Atlas Web Development. He is also a regular contributor at the Atlas Shrugged movie blog, which provides the latest news, discussion, and analysis of the movie.

6 comments from readers  

To post comments, please log in first. The Atlasphere is a social networking site for admirers of Ayn Rand's novels, most notably The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. In addition to our online magazine, we offer a member directory and a dating service. If you share our enjoyment of Ayn Rand's novels, please sign up or log in to post comments.
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I saw Part 1 on saturday and, not to be critical, found parts of the dialogue nonsensical because of the adsence of background development for several of the main characters.

For instance, a person who has never read Atlas would not understand the powerful interpersonal dynamic beween Dagney, James and Francisco, going back to childhood, which makes Francisco's "playboy" activity utterly schizophrenic.

Otherwise, I enjoyed the movie very much, especially Taylor Schilling as Dagney Taggart and Grant Bowler as Hank Reardon, and am so very happy that the producers decided against using major Hollywood stars in the cast.

Overall: the music was great, special effects were appropriate and did not distract from the story and I found it all very grand indeed.

Congratulations for pulling it off so well on such a small budget!
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The balance of power between what is best for society and what is best for the individual has shifted towards the collective. However, what is best for America is a balance of ideas. Ayn Rand's ideas are defintely revelant but when capitalism is left completely unchecked there are severe consquences as well.
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I saw "Atlas Shrugged Part 1" last Saturday with my wife and several friends with whom I work. Two of our group, one a medical professional and the other a Hillsdale College grad who currently runs a business, had never read Atlas Shrugged; the rest of us had read it at least twice. Those of us who were familiar with the book were concerned that the film omitted details we thought were important to understanding both the story and the philosophy, but the two who had not read the book both enjoyed and understood the film, and were able to participate intelligently in an ensuing discussion of the Objectivist view.

The time is right, the door is open; if "Inside the Mind" clearly presents the philosophy Ayn Rand developed and expounded, it could engender a pivot point in modern popular thought.
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I would like to see this proposed work include some objective analysis also of her failings, which have allowed the mainstream press and academics to marginalize her and her followers as a "cult."

Now is the time to take a look at her contradictions so as to make her fully current (as opposed to making a star-struck last-ditch attempt at gold-plating her memory.)

We have seen a lot and learned a lot since her death. She believed the "men of merit" should rise to leadership within the traditional socio-political framework but that seems ever more unlikely to happen.

The good news is that the Bad Old Order is crumbling under the weight of its own contradictions. In its place, instead of a benevolent authoritarian John Galt bringing order our world (as envisioned by Rand and perhaps her disciple Greenspan) we have today a wonderful emerging 2FM (Free Markets, Free Minds) paradigm, a universal agora of trade, ideas, and social networking.

She did not foresee this powerful evolution, but we can confidently assert she helped make it possible.
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Maybe some day, hopefully in my lifetime (I'm in early seniorhood), we'll get to see a remake of We the Living. That was Rand's first novel and inspired me, at 19, to find and read her other works, culminating in Atlas Shrugged and some of her nonfiction writing.

Watching Atlas Shrugged last weekend was a long-awaited thrill. The filmmaker and all those who made the film possible deserve kudos for a good effort that I think would have pleased the author.
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Looks like a new DVD I'll be buying for friends and family at Christmas...! That is a crucial point he brings up, "the moral superiority of capitalism and rational self-interest" That must be understood by a lot more than do now. The controllers outstrip the emancipators (which you are one of by the way) with false assertions that mooching or looting is in some way moral. When that difference is widely understood, the human race will be on the mend.
To post comments, please log in first. The Atlasphere is a social networking site for admirers of Ayn Rand's novels, most notably The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. In addition to our online magazine, we offer a member directory and a dating service. If you share our enjoyment of Ayn Rand's novels, please sign up or log in to post comments.