'Atlas Shrugged' film born of sheer will, the Ayn Rand way

John Aglialoro felt as if he'd been sprinting full-tilt for years now.

"Try since 1992," he said.

That was the year Aglialoro - a Haddonfield resident and chief executive officer of exercise-equipment makers Cybex International - paid $1 million to lease the movie rights to Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It's a sprawling, challenging novel that has inspired millions and frustrated millions more.

Speaking by phone from an Amtrak train speeding through Philadelphia on its way to New York, Aglialoro said he pounded Hollywood's starry pavements for years.

"I thought sure a major studio would jump at a long-awaited project like this," he said. Deals came close but faded away. Maybe a TV series . . . but no. "We had five or six different scripts at one time or another," he says. Angelina Jolie, a Rand fan, was interested - then she couldn't.

With time running out on the lease, Aglialoro decided to make the film himself. With more than $20 million of his own money, and with the help of other Randians such as Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider, he assembled the ultimate in indie movie teams.

He saw his movie come out Friday, April 15, traditionally Tax Day, appropriately enough. (A favorite Rand theme was the friction between big government and the individual.) It debuted in more than 300 theaters in 80 cities, thanks to Aglialoro, producer Harmon Kaslow, and a grassroots campaign by Randians and true believers to get people in the seats.

It's the first part of a trilogy. It has to be. Atlas Shrugged is a monumental tale involving massive steel and railroad companies, a federal takeover of private enterprise, and a courageous and principled national strike.

"It's mind-boggling what John has done, absolutely tremendous," said Snider, listed as an executive producer.

It almost didn't happen. "As of last April," said producer Kaslow, also from the train, "we had no script, no cast, nothing. And less than 100 days to start production, or else the lease would expire" - which it was set to do on June 14, 2010.

Not about to let the project die, Aglialoro assembled a team of 250, preproduction got started just in time, and this year, the film was shot in only six weeks. Kaslow had been a producer and legal adviser with movies such as Dog Soldiers, but he'd never been the main man before. "John just came to me," said Kaslow, "and he said, 'We can do this, we have to do this.' "