Atlas Shrugged Part 3

"Who Is John Galt?"

Report from the Set

by J. Kent Hastings

On Monday, February 3rd, 2014, I visited the set of Atlas Shrugged Part 3: "Who Is John Galt?", the final movie of a series that completes the first film adaptation of Ayn Rand's 1957 perennial best selling novel.

Harmon Kaslow, one of the producers of Atlas Shrugged, invited J. Neil Schulman to the set and Neil brought me in on the deal. Neil rated the invite as the author of the prophetic 1979 novel, Alongside Night, and also as the director/screenwriter of its movie adaptation (being released this year). I was an editor on Alongside Night and like Neil, I wore other hats on the production. Neil is arranging an exchange of movie trailers between the film projects and discussing promotional tactics with the associate producer of Atlas Shrugged Part 3's new media efforts, Scott DeSapio.

A Kickstarter.com campaign, started by DeSapio, raised a total of $446,907, 179% of its stated $250,000 goal. An Atlas Shrugged parody project called "Atlas Punked" intending to make fun of capitalism run amok, had an unsuccessful funding attempt on Kickstarter of $5,345 of its $78,400 goal. So they get nothing—the wages for not making money. Of course, AS3's total budget is much higher than just the Kickstarter money.

Neil and I joined the top AS3 Kickstarter supporters at the appointed 7:30 am call time as volunteer extras in the film. There were also paid extras from Central Casting, veteran characters who amused me with anecdotes from other film projects. The "Set Etiquette" instructions for extras suggested leaving cell phones in the car to prevent leaking images of the copyrighted sets or at least keeping phones turned off while shooting. I foolishly obeyed the "leave it in the car" directive, but fortunately was the only dope who did so. Whenever I wanted a photo, someone was close at hand with a smart phone to email the pic to me.

We were instructed to wear blue collar auto worker type clothing: denim, dickies and boots. I brought my own work gloves and goggles as an electronics enthusiast, which the wardrobe department lady liked, but my new denim shirt from WalMart looked too good. I was given a gray shirt to replace it and a ratty cap with the "20th Century Motor Company" logo. Fellow "worker" extra Timothy King took the picture of me in wardrobe away from the shooting set. I took a photo of Neil in wardrobe with Neil's own phone. Veteran TV actor Tony Denison, playing character "Cuffy Meigs" (don't you just love Ayn's character names?), took the pic of me with John Galt actor Kristoffer Polaha holding a certain magazine.

Feb 3 was day 11 of a 17 day shoot, located in downtown LA at the Park Plaza Hotel. The Park Plaza entrance leads to an impressive staircase with very high ceilings and massive chandeliers. They weren't shooting those that day, but I hope they use them. 17 days is a short schedule for a studio picture, but typical of efficient indie productions. The departments were staffed with LA locals and well equipped, so I expect the movie to look professional.

Neil and I were filmed in the stands of a basketball court on an upper floor. The set was dressed for the 20th Century Motor Company assembly scene. Director James Manera instructed all us "auto workers" to react to some engineer named John (Galt), giving guff to factory owner Gerald Starnes, Jr., and then to react some more after Galt said his most famous line ("I will stop the motor of the world.") and walked off. Various angles and takes were filmed to get different line readings from the actors, and to get more coverage, including reverse shots from behind us.

Later at the same location in the Park Plaza, the set was cleared so Polaha could record the John Galt speech. In the script, it's five pages. When I spoke with the actor about it later, I told him he got off easy given the length of the same speech in the original novel. Kristoffer had finished the novel recently and said it was seventy-five pages. That would have taken most of this last part's running time. Kristoffer Polaha is known for his roles in Ringer, Life Interrupted, and four episodes of Mad Men.

Brad Linaweaver said an uncompromising version of the speech could be done in one page, and proved it by reciting his own example, which suggests to me a possible "One Page John Galt Speech" essay contest promotion idea for students.

There was a fine dining room set on the first floor used for several "Wayne Faulkland ballroom" scenes in the afternoon, with the actors playing characters Dagny Taggert, Dr. Floyd Ferris, Dr. Robert Stadler, Cuffy Meigs, etc. Some of the Kickstarter volunteers appear in formal wear in these scenes. Neil and I were already wrapped as extras and didn't have tuxedos anyway.

Craft service was attentive and ready at all times with water, snacks and coffee. There was a catered lunch. We patiently waited for cast and crew to get their food before attempting to get in line for the catering, but the main dishes were depleted by then. Someone said they had bigger fish to fry. Neil quipped that if that were true, there'd have been some food left.

Neil Schulman took the opportunity to consult with the producers after lunch and even met Grover Norquist of Republican tax pledge fame. Norquist recognized Neil's name because he had read Alongside Night, endorsed by Milton Friedman, back in 1979 when the novel was first published.

Kristoffer Polaha (L) and J. Kent Hastings (R)
on the set of ATLAS SHRUGGED PART 3.
PHOTO: Tony Denison

Executive producer John Aglialoro let me borrow his call sheet so I could get the cast and crew info for the day, and I heard part of his conversation with Neil. Atlas Shrugged Part 3 was originally scheduled to be released through conventional distribution on July 4 for symbolic reasons, but now the schedule is set to September 2014, which gives more time for editing and should be a better release time after the summer blockbusters. Scott DeSapio's new media role includes activity on GaltsGulchOnline.com (a forum with many participants), and Kickstarter, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

I gave DeSapio the one copy of Mondo Cult 3 I had with me, inscribed and carefully marked by me. But before I did that, I tracked down Kristoffer Polaha, who was wrapped as Galt for the day, in street clothes at the trailers discussing the Super Bowl with Tony Denison. I asked Polaha to hold up the magazine, but he wanted to inspect it first. I pointed out the previous rave review by Neil of the first Atlas Shrugged film, several pieces I wrote, and other interesting features. He agreed MC3 is published by the good guys and did the shot, thanks to the convenient iPad held by Denison. After he posed for photos, I showed him the "Submission To Moscow" article with the full page hammer and sickle artwork behind a text page and the picture of an actor playing Stalin and said, "We of the Communist Party have tricked you! There's our hero, Uncle Joe! Bwah hah hah!" Then I explained it was an anti-commie piece. He said he suspected something was fishy and laughed.

I think it would be funny to have Gerald Starnes, Jr. and Ivy Starnes in a Labor Day ad talking about the greatness of unions, fair shares, and the threat of income inequality. John Galt could then jam the broadcast with a rebuttal. But I doubt that will happen.