Books to Film -- Atlas Shrugged

Back in 2008, I wrote a short article for FB&C on the stellar season of award-winning films that were based on books (it was the year of Atonement, No Country for Old Men, Into the Wild, and others). I asked antiquarian booksellers whether a good film adaptation had any effect on book sales. The consensus seemed to be that only if the film was great would book sales surge. Harvey Jason of Mystery Pier Books in West Hollywood told me at the time that all the movie hype "does help because it brings the title to prominence." But, he added, "it has to be a literary high spot to begin with."

As many of you know, Ayn Rand's conservative classic, Atlas Shrugged, was released into theaters last Friday (Tax Day!). So I was intrigued to see this write-up in Forbes about how the film has already spurred Atlas to the Amazon bestseller list (it is #21 today). In the article, Mark E. Babej writes, "all signs point to the fact that the mere existence of the movie is causing interest in the book to spike to new heights."

Curious about the film? Here's the trailer: