Riot police broke up a sanctioned protest rally on May 6. After that, police detained Moscow pedestrians carrying white ribbons — the symbol of the protest movement. They also stopped “suspicious individuals” carrying no ribbons at all. That is why writer Boris Akunin proposed a truly Taoist form of protest: a walk along Moscow’s central streets on Sunday.

The idea was for Akunin and fellow writers Dmitry Bykov, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Lev Rubinshtein and yours truly to walk from the Pushkin monument on Pushkin Square to the Griboyedov monument at Chistiye Prudy, with an open invitation for readers to join them. I can’t say exactly how many people actually turned out, but it was clear that the number was close to 15,000.

On Sunday, I arrived at the Pushkin monument by noon and tried unsuccessfully to locate Bykov or Akunin. Before I could take another step, I was mobbed by people proffering books for me to sign.

I at last struggled free to look for Bykov on the steps of the nearby movie theater, but he wasn’t there. People once again came running from everywhere asking me to sign their books. One even held out a copy of “Atlas Shrugged” — the novel written by U.S. objectivist writer Ayn Rand who was persecuted in Russia by the Bolsheviks — and said, “Well, you’re a second Rand, so sign it.”

The only other writers I found in the crowd were Bykov and Akunin — each of them for only an instant — because the moment I would stop to speak to one of them, a crowd of people would instantly crystallize around me, sticking together like grains of sand and thrusting forward copies of books written by myself and others that they wanted signed.

This whole facet of the crowd’s spontaneous behavior was terribly fascinating. The people who were ostensibly supposed to lead the walk — Ulitskaya, Bykov, Akunin and musician Andrei Makarevich — were unable to walk together or speak to one another because the moment any two of them spotted each other and briefly stopped walking, each was immediately encircled by this crystallizing mob. Despite the lack of organization, the whole group of us walked from Pushkin to Griboyedov without any problems whatsoever.

See the full article for more insights about the protest.

Norquist, the president of Washington-based Americans for Tax Reform, first shot an office scene, handing a three-ring binder to heroine Dagny Taggart’s assistant. Easy enough, it sounds. Then producers suggested a second role. For a scene where Dagny and Hank Rearden walked along the street discussing the decline of society, they put Norquist in the background as some kind of down-and-out businessman, slumped on a stone bench, a bottle of wine in his lap. They roughed up his face with makeup, and messed up his hair, but he wore his own suit.

The actor playing Hank commended Norquist’s acting ability — he even stayed in character between takes! Consider it his Method approach: Having woken up 20 hours earlier for his West Coast flight, Norquist was nodding off by the time of the night shoot. “I’m half asleep, my character’s half asleep,” he said.

The article begins:

A light breeze blows, a few ducks glide on a pond, a small cabin is nestled in the trees. Dagny Taggart stands knee deep in flowers at the side of the weathered porch. Her blond ponytail bobs smartly as she examines a broken rail, a power drill heavy in one hand. From a short distance, Francisco D’Anconia watches her, preparing for their confrontation. The sun lights her face, shining through a giant white silk stretched across a black square frame. Three men hoist the sail onto two metal posts, adjust the angle, and trudge away. A large camera’s tripod is staked on the lawn, its lens trained on the scene, its thick black wires weaving the way back to a cart overflowing with electrical equipment. From a short distance, the director yells “Action!”

See the full article for much more.

It’s on the way: “Atlas Shrugged Part II” is now filming in Los Angeles, the second installment of an ambitious independent movie project — due for commercial release in October, just as the presidential election looms. A source says some of the film’s background extra roles will be played by persons of note who, uh, get the significance of Ayn Rand’s original 1957 novel, and this determined undertaking.

See the full article for more.

With less than two weeks till the planned final day of shooting (May 15), IMDb continues to add cast. As I had noted previously, it looks like these might be scenes we may expect:

• Wedding reception for James Taggart & Cherryl Brooks with Frisco’s “Money” speech
• Charges against Ken Danagger & Hank Rearden; disappearance of Ken
• Rearden oven break-out
• Rearden’s trial
• Directive 10-289
• Dagny quits; rushes back after the tunnel disaster
• Dagny rides train to scene of disaster and Jeff Allen tells her about 20th Century Motor
• Dagny flies after Quentin Daniels and crashes in Galt’s Gulch

Nothing shown for the Wet Nurse (Tony) – perhaps he never appears in the film? – or Ragnar – maybe he’ll just appear in Part 3?

Dagny Taggart – Samantha Mathis
Hank Rearden – Jason Beghe
Francisco d’Anconia – Esai Morales
James Taggart – Patrick Fabian
Lillian Rearden – Kim Rhodes
Eddie Willers – Richard T. Jones
John Galt – D. B. Sweeney
Wesley Mouch – Paul McCrane
Dr. Floyd Ferris – John Rubinstein
Dr. Robert Stadler – Robert Picardo
Head of State Thompson – Ray Wise
Quentin Daniels – Diedrich Bader
Leonard Small – Bug Hall
Ken Danagger – Arye Gross
Kip Chalmers – Rex Linn
Cherryl Brooks – Larisa Oleynik
Jeff Allen – Jeff Yagher
Ted ‘Buzz’ Killman – Michael Gross
Clem Weatherby – Stephen Macht
Robert Collins – Thomas F. Wilson
Judge Griffin – Jordana Capra
Gwen Ives – Jennifer Cortese
Lillian’s friend – Rebecca Dunn
Luke Stone – Mel Fair
Judge Beckstrom – Kip Gilman
Reception Guest #1 – Martin Grey
Giselle – Alexa Hamilton
Laura Bradford – Amy Hedrick
Dave Mitchum – Kevin M. Horton
Gilbert Keith Worthing – Gildart Jackson
Operator – James Jordan
Pilot – Larry Poindexter
Sara Connelly – Jamie Rose
Reception Guest #2 – Dana Sparks
Holly – Patricia Tallman
News Reporter – Mae Segeti
Lawyer – Rodney J. Richards
Rail Foreman – Freedom (uncredited)
Man in Train Station – Steve Kaufmann (uncredited)
Gas Attendant – Marcus Natividad (uncredited)
Stock Broker – Greg Scholl (uncredited)
Orren Boyle – Michael James Spall (uncredited)
Railroad Worker – Rafael Zubizarreta (uncredited)

It’s Ayn Rand bashing time once again. Our “friends” on the left are on the warpath for a change, and have Miss Rand in their crosshairs.

What, pray tell, are the charges? It would appear that Ayn Rand, one of the greatest libertarian minds as far as I am concerned in the entire history of mankind, is, wait for it; no, you had better be sitting down when you read this or I won’t be responsible for your doctor bills, is, yes, a socialist! And a hypocrite to boot. And why is this? It is because while she railed against Social Security and Medicare, she availed herself of payments from these funds. Isn’t that horrible?

But these leftie critics are pikers. This leader of Objectivism also favored the gold standard. Yet, when she went to the store, she never offered anyone gold coins. Instead, like everyone else, she paid in fiat coin of the realm, even though she properly detested this system. She also favored the privatization of the post office, but she mailed letters care of the hated government monopoly post office. Shall we indict her, too, for hypocrisy on these grounds? But wait, the charges against her mount up even more. Ayn also opposed subsidies to farmers, and yet, ate food produced under this system. Isn’t she really despicable? She thought the New York City taxi medallion system was a socialist disgrace, and yet, upon occasion, could be found ensconced in a Yellow Cab.

I hope and trust everyone realizes where I am going with this. I am not at all joining her critics and “piling up” on Ayn Rand. Very much to the contrary, I am demonstrating, via the reductio ad absurdum method, that the argument of these real socialists has not a logical leg to stand upon.

See his full article for much more.

Part IIs new Dagny Taggart—the railroad magnate heroine struggling to keep the motors of the world running while mysterious forces try to shut them down—is Samantha Mathis (perhaps most famously of Pump Up the Volume opposite Christian Slater). She wasn’t on set Wednesday, but co-screenwriter Duncan Scott, fresh to this project but with a long history with Ayn Rand and the movies, showed me some rough footage he shot of her filming a couple of scenes on earlier days. One of them quietly helps frame the deteriorating world of Atlas—with Mathis walking past grim lines of citizens selling their possessions on the streets in a world of 20 percent unemployment and $40 per gallon gas, shot outside the Los Angeles convention center. Another was of her fateful solo plane ride. Kaslow and Scott are both excited about their new Dagny. Scott says Mathis is always believable as a woman serious and powerful enough to run a railroad, and Kaslow says she’s fully embraced the character and went out of her way to read the novel to understand the character more fully.

The article begins:

Atlas Shrugged Part I, the 2011 film version of Ayn Rand’s hugely influential novel Atlas Shrugged, was the result of a decades-long journey, and its sole financier, John Aglialoro—a successful serial entrepreneur best known for running the exercise equipment company Cybex—found the costs and troubles more than he bargained for.

Official critical reception wasn’t so great—though normal folk seemed to like it better than the credentialed tastemakers, according to fim review sites such as Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes. For a brief moment even Rand-inspired businessman Aglialoro, new to filmmaking and brought to the business through his love of Rand and desire to bring her message to a movie audience, was discouraged. He told critics last April “you won” and said he was reconsidering whether or not to move forward with filming parts two and three.

By January, buoyed by what he calls encouraging DVD and video-on-demand sales, and the partnership of four other Rand-inspired financiers to help bear the production and marketing costs, Aglialoro and his production partner from Atlas Shrugged Part I, Harmon Kaslow, decided they were ready to finish what they started. At Reason Weekend, the annual event held by the Reason Foundation back in February, they announced Atlas Shrugged Part II was a go.

See the full article for much more.

Here’s another interim update on casting:

John Galt – D. B. Sweeney
Man in Train Station – Steve Kaufmann
Sara Connelly – Jamie Rose

and one change in casting:

Ted ‘Buzz’ Killman – Michael Gross

IMDb still not showing casting for Dagny, Ken, or Frisco

Dagny Taggart – Samantha Mathis
Hank Rearden – Jason Beghe
Francisco d’Anconia – Esai Morales
Dr. Robert Stadler – Robert Picardo
Mr. Thompson – Ray Wise
Ken Danagger – Arye Gross
Conductor – J.P. Manoux
Lillian Rearden – Kim Rhodes
Eddie Willers – Richard T. Jones
Kip Chalmers – Rex Linn
Jeff Allen – Jeff Yagher
Wesley Mouch – Paul McCrane
James Taggart – Patrick Fabian
Clem Weatherby – Stephen Macht
Dr. Floyd Ferris – John Rubinstein
Luke Stone – Mel Fair
Gilbert Keith Worthing – Gildart Jackson
Dave Mitchum – Kevin M. Horton
Reception Guest #1 – Martin Grey
Judge Beckstrom – Kip Gilman
Judge Griffin – Jordana Capra
Gwen – Jennifer Cortese
Leonard Small – Bug Hall
Robert Collins – Thomas F. Wilson
Ted ‘Buzz’ Killman – Curtis Armstrong
Giselle – Alexa Hamilton
Laura Bradford – Amy Hendrick
Operator – James Jordan