Atlas Shrugged slapped me upside the head for the first time while I was a Mormon missionary in the early ’90s. (Immediately after having read Nathaniel Branden’s Judgment Day, I should point out.) And when I emerged from a two-year cocoon of relative seclusion from pop culture, I started watching movies again. Lots and lots of movies. And I always wondered who should play John Galt.
So even before Albert Ruddy’s 1999 announcement that he planned to film an Atlas Shrugged miniseries for TNT, I was building mental cast lists. Who could pull off such an iconic character “The face without pain or fear or guilt”?
My first choice was Martin Donovan, who had starred in my favorite film of all time, Trust. He could’ve pulled it off a decade ago, but seems an increasingly less appropriate choice as the years go by.
In 1997, after seeing Grind (which coincidentally featured Martin Donovan’s Trust co-star Adrienne Shelley), I decided Billy Crudup was the man for the job.
And in 1998, after seeing The Thin Red Line, I added Jim Caviezel to the list.
Martin Donovan went on to play Jesus Christ in The Book of Life.
Billy Crudup went on to star in a film called Jesus’ Son.
Jim Caviezel went on to play Jesus Christ in The Passion of the Christ.
Coincidence?