• Videogame Developer Ken Levine Talks Bioshock Infinite and Politics 
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BioShock  | From its first release late in 2007, Bioshock has become iconic as a critical darling for gamers and first-person shooter fans as well as a curiosity for a mainstream press that often writes videogames off as childish or thoughtless pursuits. The game’s dark, atmospheric approach to story-telling can be seen as a critique both of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of objectivism and the way we play games.  

• • Why Bruce Lee Has More Kick Now Than Ever 
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Egoism  |Individualism  | Though Lee was a firm believer in the power of the individual, he was if anything the inverse of the Ayn Randian self-interested superman, contemptuous of the lesser beings around him.  

• • • Ayn Rand Gets Her Own App (Plus Exclusive Photos) 

Ayn Rand Archives  |Atlas Shrugged  |Personal life  |Image  | Penguin Group will launch a new iPad app of Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel, “Atlas Shrugged,” combining the unabridged text and rarely seen photos from Ayn Rand’s archives. The app, which will be made available on iTunes starting tomorrow, will include videos and audio lectures given by Rand, original manuscript notes, an illustrated timeline of Rand’s life, and other features. Speakeasy has an exclusive preview of the images in the timeline.  

• • • Atlas Shrugged’ Producer Hopes for Round Two 
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Atlas Shrugged movie  |Image  | “Atlas Shrugged” producer-financier John Aglialoro isn’t giving up on the famous Ayn Rand property he spent nearly two decades trying to bring to the big screen. Though box-office momentum for his independently financed “Atlas Shrugged – Part I,” the first of a planned trilogy, stalled in its second weekend, dropping a considerable 47.8% even after adding 166 theaters, Aglialoro is staying committed to the project and trying to learn from his mistakes.  

• • • What would Ayn Rand have said about ‘Atlas Shrugged’? 
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Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  |Personal life  | It’s safe to say that [Ayn Rand] would not like John Aglialoro’s “Atlas Shrugged: Part I.” The philosophical speeches are missing or truncated, the cast is obscure, and the plot—so carefully constructed and rollicking in the book—is murky. But she would love the movie, too, if she could forget that it was based on her creation: shots of trains and forges and factories and towering offices representing America’s industrial might always thrilled her, and watching the grim determination of those she liked to call “the best” to prevail against the machinations of the incompetent and unworthy always raised her spirits, right up to the end.  

• • • Atlas Shrugged’ earns $1.7 million at weekend box office 
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Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  |Image  | Did conservatives make “Atlas Shrugged – Part 1,” a low-budget adaptation of Ayn Rand’s famous 1957 novel, a box office hit? While the film’s opening weekend sales didn’t reach blockbuster levels, earning $1.7 million from about 300 theaters, the film’s backers are enthusiastic about the results. “We’re at the upper edge of our expectations,” said “Shrugged” producer Harmon Kaslow. “And we’re a way above what the industry expected us to do.” [....] Whether the movie does break out or not, evidence of its potential impact can be felt on the increasing popularity of its source material: As of Sunday, Plume’s paperback edition of “Atlas Shrugged” was the No.4 bestselling book on Amazon.com.  

• • • Will conservatives make ‘Atlas Shrugged’ a hit? 
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Atlas Shrugged movie  | While advance interest in the film may be high among the film’s conservative base, reviews have been terrible. For example, Rotten Tomatoes lists more than 5,000 user ratings with a total of 86% saying they “like it,” while the critics’ average is a disastrous 7%. (Only two movies, “Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son” and “The Roommate” rate lower.) “We expected that the critics would have a fear of embracing this film,” says [executive producer Harmon] Kaslow. “We knew that there was a substantial likelihood that they would not view the film as to whether we got the message right, but would look at it comparing it to what Hollywood would have done. I don’t think our audience is persuaded at all by those reviews.”  

• • Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’ heads to theaters after long wait 

Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  |Video  | The backers of “Atlas Shrugged Part I” are encouraging fans to push theaters to book the movie, and are trying to generate excitement about the film’s themes. “Ask yourself: What would happen, if our producers disappear – Steve Jobs, Sergey Brin and other industrialists fall off the radar, their companies shuttered and their creative genius no longer powering America?” the movie’s website reads. “The answer lies in Atlas Shrugged Part I.” The trailer has been viewed online more than 600,000 times so far.  

• Fable III isn’t legendary 
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I really wanted to like this game, which is out in stores today, but I couldn’t get myself immersed or lost in a world that offers far too many faux life choices and has a windup longer than an Ayn Rand novel.  

• • • Ayn Rand’s ‘Ideal’ debuts in New York City 
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The Fountainhead  | Ayn Rand, author of “The Fountainhead” and inventor of the philosophy of Objectivism, was also a dramatist. “Ideal,” about an idealistic actress accused of murder, will have its New York premiere June 23, 66 years after Rand penned it. It runs through July 3 at 59E59 as part of the “Americas Off Broadway” Festival. Jenny Beth Snyder, 24, directs. Speakeasy talked to Snyder about the production.  

• • BioShock 2 captures world of rapture with art deco design, period ... 
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Atlas Shrugged  |The Fountainhead  |Capitalism  | One of the appeals of 2K Games’ “BioShock” videogame is a complex storyline, which was influenced by Ayn Rand novels like “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.” In “Atlas Shrugged,” Rand writes about a dystopian world where innovators like business leaders and artists go on an organized strike and disappear to protest an oppressive society. Similarly, BioShock is about Rapture, a fictional underworld city that was designed in 1946 as a utopia for the intellectual elite, who fled an oppressed society above land, only to see Rapture also break down.  

• • • Ayn Rand’s Hollywood years 
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Altruism  |Ayn Rand Institute  |The Fountainhead  |We The Living  |Personal life  |Image  |Video  | Interview with Ayn Rand biographer Anne C. Heller.
If Ayn Rand was criticized for writing unrealistic plot lines and one-dimensional characters in her novels, she likely took inspiration from her background: Rand spent her early years in America as a Hollywood screenwriter. In a fortuitous bit of timing, the Russian émigré met director Cecil B. DeMille two days after arriving in Los Angeles, in 1926, and was soon on the set of his biblical epic, “King of Kings.” DeMille hired Rand as a junior screenwriter, and she was paid $25 a week to work on scripts like “His Dog,”a piece of studio fluff about an ex-con reformed through love for his pooch.  

• • • Ayn Rand’s rebirth: New bio shows why Glenn Beck’s set adores her 
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Atlas Shrugged  |The Fountainhead  |Capitalism  | Interview with Ayn Rand biographer Anne C. Heller.
[Q:] How do [Rand’s] novels hold up as literature? [A:] Her books are what I would call melodramas of ideas. I don’t think anyone would consider them great novels. But in spite of her plots being rather implausible and her characters wooden, she does carry reader along on a rollicking mystery tour and delivers her ideas at just the right intervals.  

• Afternoon roundup: Serena williams gets in on the apology act 

The Fountainhead  | And the Howard Roark Award Goes To…: A Santa Monica-based architect, Tommy Landau, is developing plans for what would be the world’s tallest building –- a 224-story, eco-conscious skyscraper in Abu Dhabi.