"I think [Ayn Rand's] greatest relevance and strength is people discover themselves, and they say, 'wow, I'm entitled to my own life, self-interest is good,'" says John Aglialoro, the producer of the Atlas Shrugged trilogy. The third and final installment, Who is John Galt? hits theaters on Friday, Sept. 12, 2014.
Aglialoro sat down with Reason TV's Nick Gillespie to discuss the completion of the Atlas Shrugged films, their negative critical reception, and the enduring influence of Ayn Rand's thought.
An entrepreneur since his youth in South Jersey, Aglialoro currently heads up UM Holdings and has been the CEO of exercise-equipment maker Cybex. Among the companies at UM is EHE, a century-old organization that focuses on encouraging healthy living and life extension through state-of-the-art diagnostic testing and evaluations.



Along with the long struggle to bring Atlas Shrugged to the screen, Aglialoro discusses Ayn Rand's relevance and what he believes were her p.r. mistakes (5:45), his own political philosophy (7:00), the persistence of the entrepreneurial spirit (8:00), the growth in crony capitalism (10:20), and his abiding optimism for the future (16:00). (Disclosure: Aglialoro is a supporter of Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes Reason TV.)
About 18 minutes.
Produced by Tracy Oppenheimer. Camera by Jim Epstein and Anthony Fisher.
Below is a rush transcript for the full interview. Check any quotes against video for accuracy.
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NG: Hi, I’m Nick Gillespie with ReasonTV. Today we’re talking with John Aglialoro, he is the producer, the man, the auteur behind the Atlas Shrugged Trilogy, the third installment of which comes out on Sept. 12, 2014. John, thanks for talking to Reason.
JA: Absolutely.
NG: How does it feel to have brought the Atlas Shrugged Trilogy to completion? You bought the rights to this in 1992 and you’re almost done with it.
JA: It’s inspirational. It’s something that I know that Ayn Rand would have wanted to do. She tried with a number of people.
[1:07]
NG: Including herself, right? She left a partly finished script—
JA: She actually wrote part of a script, part of a play. But in the end, she did not want to give up creative control--that really was a thing that prevented the movie from being made. There were a couple of producers: Al Ruddy, who produced The Godfather, one in particular. They actually had a news conference, this was back in ’72 I believe, and they announced that they were going to make the movie and all that, but the creative control was a tough one for her.
NG: So, you were lucky enough to buy the rights after she had expired.
JA: It was August of 1992. So, I went to Hollywood, got into some of the studio chiefs and talked to them. Some explicitly said: “Cannot, we won’t get box office.”
[2:01]