I just hope it can come on at a time I can watch it. Prime time for most people is when I go to bed. But, if it runs like most shows, the reruns will be on all the time depending on the channel that carries the series.

Fantastic News!
In answer to; Should the Atlas Shrugged television series be a period piece set in the 1950s or should it take place, as Ayn Rand alluded to, "the day after tomorrow?"
Why not be creative and do both? Start out in the near future ten or twenty years from now and then do flash back scenes or episodes, for each of the main charters depicting how things got that way.
I will use an example: An ex-Airforce pilot that became an Astronaut until they shut down NASA, and he moved on to becoming an Airline Pilot, until the airlines shut down because they didn't have enough qualified people to handle the technology, and he had taken his last job with the trains before the collapse. This would be a wide field of remberances to provide flash back scenes. Since technology will unravel when there is not the brain power to support it, technology will naturally reverse. The foundation of the charters lives can be used to demonstrate this as they ask the question; "How did it get this way"?

I like the idea. It needs to post the episodes on the web for viewing offline. I don't watch scheduled TV any more.

Setting? Tomorrow.

Whatever you do, the left will attack it before it gets out the gate, and those who most need its lessons will be most blind to it. That said, make, and make it well, for those on the fence.

And if anyone is looking for a cool future project, why not adapt the lessons of Rand into a script for a faked reality show, aim it at popular culture and sneak it in under the radar. Don't connect it with known names or money till its over.

My two cents:

The Atlas Shrugged television series should take place "the day after tomorrow". Fans of the novel already have the novel. We have already experienced that world.

Setting the filmization in the near future would underscore the fact that today is just like yesterday. This would increase its political relevance, make a greater impact on public consciousness, and, don't laugh, perhaps even save the world from its own folly.

The cast should of course be kept the same throughout. The constant cast changes were barely tolerable in a trilogy. In a miniseries they would be absurd.

Don't make it in any particular time period. Don't even make it live action with camera's and actors. Make it entirely CGI in the vein of Toy Story or The Incredibles. With all of the mass media outlets available for people to watch in this age, another live-action TV series would be lost in the crowd. But a CGI animated miniseries would be (as far as I know) a first for the industry. And even if it isn't the first, one produced for adults dealing with philosophical issues would be unique.

I mention The Incredibles because its "look" was one that borrowed from the culture of the 50's, 60's, and 70's. If something similar can be done with the AS mini-series, it seems like many problems with production could be overcome.

As it has been said, AS is now non fiction: actually the zero point energy work has come a long way; depends on where one looks. Check the work of Bedini, Bearden, Lindemann, Craddock, http://cheniere.org etc. in following through on the work of T Henry Moray and many others. Tesla had part of it but many others have a better grasp of first principles and applications.
In any case, only near future will grab a current audience since many younger ones will have no clue what the world was like in the 50s, 60s and before. There are so many current examples of how we got to this pass, it will help people connect the dots; there are tons of supporting recent /current historical facts.
The key too, is casting. Obviously AS1, 3 had the best Dagneys. 1 , 2 had the best Antonio.... etc. Persevere.

I am all for it!

Hope they keep in mind the important people to sway. Such an endeavor should not be aimed squarely at the people of the Gulch. It will also take ENORMOUS criticism from the media and the left. It should setup scenes specifically demonizing those that want to take everyone's money and use it as the please (not truly as they say). This key hidden feature of socialism is the biggest threat our society faces. The inefficiency and totalitarian nature of government should feature prominently...I hate to say it, but the value of "greed" (and the simple fact that it is completely natural and inherent in us all) is too obscure for many to grasp.

I recommend you keep the message that "greed" is inherent and natural and that it must therefore be leveraged (through capitalism where it will create wealth), not fought (through socialism, where it will destroy wealth through waste, misdirection and corruption) for later in the series following the hook being set that government corruption follows socialism. Then government corruption, waste and inefficiency destroy wealth, and Ayn is proven right. Only in the rebuilding, or value creation in the Gulch during the shrug can the value of capitalism be apparent to many.

Another point I'd make is that unlike the Industrial Revolution, today most value creation takes some degree of infrastructure and teamwork. There are examples of individual success, but more often than not the brilliant person is lost to those that know how to build, finance and market the product. The "Brownian Motion" that brings these people together is capitalism. Formulaic socialist investment fails every time.

Don't do a period piece. If the two choices are a period piece or a "day after tomorrow" storyline then choose the latter and make it truly innovative. Instead of trains explore space travel. Capture unconstrained innovation. Take us inside what utopia really looks like without insulting anyone's intelligence.

This should be a smart, well-written, and nuanced series that captures both the philosophical diversity within the Objectivist community as well as the world that could and should be. Create a vision not a debate. Clearly, the debate is over regardless of whether anyone wants to admit it or not.

AWESOME, will set my DVR for it so I can skip the commercials.

Bring me your climate change deniers, your people who believe in honest money and value for value, your track workers, your unemployed business executives, ... I see a Statue of Liberty with AR's face on it. Perhaps Non-Mooching Artist might want to sell this through Galt's Gulch Online!

Perhaps this would be an alternate to the 20th Century Fox TV show or movie lead-in fanfare for the Atlas Shrugged TV series!

This is the best news I have in a very long time!

Definitly the near future. That was how Rand set it in her time, that is how it should be re-told now. Modern references will be much more powerful.

Sooo coool! I can not wait!

Rand set the story in the future relative to her own time, so I definitely think the 1950s would be the wrong way to go.
I also think it will be necessary to re-structure the story, so that things which are revealed late in the book become clear to the audience in the early episodes. If you make the TV series only for people who "know" the book, you will limit your audience. Ideally the first episode (maybe the first two episodes) should engage people who are not already Rand fans.
Also take liberties with the story line, split Galt's speech into a broadcast with follow-up webcasts, showing growing public grass-roots support.
I would prefer to see an AS-style expanded story, keeping to the philosophy, but with new characters and side stories.

To introduce the series would require a flashback from the Movie Trilogy then go into "the day after tomorrow". It should be relevant for today.
Although, Mad Men did very well for an early time period. If Ayn Rands- Atlas Shrugged (the book) is done for television the main characters would have to be flesh-out more and the action picked up more.

Go for it just make the network carrying it gets to the regular people. Keep the time setting from the triology

To establish the concept of the need for Galt's Gulch, you can have some discussions between Francisco, Dagny and Eddie, when they are children, and Francisco discussing the economic history of the US, going over the transition from an agrarian society to an industrial culture from the Revolution to the current day. They can, as children, discuss the creeping statism that has been tainting this country's legacy and, as children, having no solution. Then, when Francisco meets John and Ragnar at the Patrick Henry U., they become fast friends and later John comes up with the solution after quitting Starnes Motors. It might also be a good idea to create some background for John and Ragnar, so their friendship in college makes sense. You can do the same with the other main characters. Finally, it would be a good idea to show how James and his cronies came to their ideas. With a really serious TV series, we can flash back to any year or age that we want, and flash forward to "the future." If this series is going to have the impact that we're all talking about, then a host of issues must be discussed, and they start long before the 50s, and that will give us the flexibility to have the story start "yesterday" and continue into "the future," with appropriate flashbacks.

In my mind there is no question that it should be set in the 50's. People could then see that what was going on then is now coming to fruition. Much more powerful.

I like the idea of the day after but do not know how Dagny and the trains and steel mills would be handled. Therefore I would vote for a 1950 setting.

I feel it should be "the day after tomorrow" as it is happening now. Hopefully "they" will allow it to be produced. Not fiction anymore.

I have never been so excited over a TV series! I think "the day after tomorrow" would allow writers more room for imagination. If it was set in the 1950's too many of us seniors would not have the same anticipation since we lived through those years and know none of the story line actually happened. Give our imaginations a chance to work for us.

In my opinion, the day after tomorrow would be a better pick. I am not a tv marketing expert by any means but I think that setting it in the 50s would constrain the series a bit, in the sense that the history of the 50s is already written. Setting it in modern times will allow the writers more leeway to work in themes that you want.

Maybe something like "Law and Order", or "West Wing"; fiction, but where current events are written in to the episode plots. If you need to work in the theme of the "excesses of government" into the episodes, there are many, many modern examples to pick from.

The Gulch is going to be watching no matter what you do. So, with a quality production, the real bonus would be to expose Ayn's philosophy to uninitiated viewers.

Btw, I am sure you can expect a massive unrelenting assault from the left as soon as news of this gets out....

I think if you can't get the cast from AS1 and AS2, it will be doomed to failure and at best a Youtube series. I would try to get netficks behind this.
The acting on AS1 and AS2 really carried the movie and the cheesey affects didn't slow down the story line at all.

A mini-series would be the perfect format. Definitely the "the day after tomorrow" time period. This has to be commercially viable, and we want to hook some of the younger generation - without falling to their action addiction/ignorance level. They would hit snooze on a 50s time period.
Please, please, do Not put someone like the UN-loving Angelina Jolie in the lead just for the name! Things can go very wrong with Hollywood, so get the right people involved.

Actually...I believe you DID keep one actor, (screen name, Jeff Allen) for a second part of the trilogy...

I have been very supportive of a mini-series, to encompass the entire book (what you will be able to do with John's speech is debatable). However, a TV series would give you much more leeway to properly fill out the story and make the primary characters more "human".

The story Atlas Shrugged, as you know, has been extremely popular over the decades, so I have to believe that a properly written series would also do well. I have to insist, however, that you keep the "sleaze" to a minimum. We don't need multiple love stories occurring when the primary love stories center around Dagny Taggart. Sure, you can build up the relationship between Ragnar and his wife and include Jim Taggart's brief affair, but don't do it simply to gain ratings.

As for a time frame...since steel manufacturing and railroading were at their peaks, sometime past, I would suggest centering the show around the '50s era. There are many TV series that exist in time frames other than the here and now. A later dating would probably require different kinds of industry, but they need to be industries that the United States holds a primary lead in, to keep it realistic.

Above all...please do something to ensure that, like many other enjoyable series of the past, any series of Atlas Shrugged has a chance of actually finishing a story, rather than leaving its viewers hanging. Next to the mindlessness of so many TV shows, there is little else in television that has served more to drive me away from watching.

It could still be about trains set "the day after tomorrow." Look at how often we're reading about train derailments these days. The only complicated part might be figuring out a way to explain people on a passenger train, which just doesn't happen much these days. Can gas become so expensive that airplanes are financially infeasible?