Atlas Productions LLC announced several days ago its plan to replace more than 100,000 cover sheets that appeared on the Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 DVD and Blu-rays that were distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on Nov. 8, 2011. (Read our DVD review here.)
Based on the highly-regarded 1957 novel by Ayn Rand, the discs were packaged with an inaccurate synopsis of the film on the title sheet box art which states that “AYN RAND’s timeless novel of courage and self-sacrifice comes to life…” Ooops.
Taylor Schilling gets burned in Atlas Shrugged, Part One.
Okay, a quick Lit. 101 lesson: Atlas Shrugged is known as the book that trumpeted Ayn Rand’s philosophical (political?) theory of objectivism, which general proposes that the proper moral purpose of one’s life is the pursuit of one’s own happiness or rational self-interest. That said, where does self-sacrifice come into the picture when we’re talking about Rand’s theory that society denizen’s should be driven by self interest?
The new title sheet will now read “AYN RAND’s timeless novel of rational self-interest comes to life…”
Here’re a bunch of statements regarding the affair from the Official Atlas Shrugged Movie Blog:
“It’s embarrassing for sure and of course, regardless of how or why it happened, we’re all feeling responsible right now.” says Scott DeSapio, Atlas Productions’ COO and Communications Director “You can imagine how mortified we all were when we saw the DVD but, it was simply too late – the product was already on shelves all over the country. It was certainly no surprise when the incredulous emails ensued. The irony is inescapable.”
DeSapio continued “Ultimately, the responsibility falls on us, Atlas Productions. We are putting policies in place now to ensure we avoid these types of unforced errors in the future.”
Harmon Kaslow, CEO of Atlas Productions and Producer of the film stated “As we all well know, the ideas brought to life in Atlas Shrugged are entirely antithetical to the idea of ‘self-sacrifice’ as a virtue. Atlas is quite literally a story about the dangers of self-sacrifice. The error was an unfortunate one and fans of Ayn Rand and Atlas have every right to be upset… and we have every intention of making it right.”
Atlas Productions has setup a web page for consumers of the DVD to request a replacement title sheet free of charge: http://www.AtlasShruggedMovie.com/title-sheet.
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