Angelina Jolie to be in Atlas Shrugged

According to Variety, Angelina Jolie is going to star in a film adaptation of Ayn Rand’s book Atlas Shrugged for Lionsgate films.

The novel is a three part story, with the two sections following Dagny Taggart (to be played by Jolie), a no-nonsense railroad executive, and her attempt to keep her company alive despite repeated encroachment by a society falling toward collectivism, altruism and statism.

Howard and Karen Baldwin, who hold the rights to Rand’s novel, will produce the project, along with Jolie’s manager, Geyer Kosinski.

Apparently, the film version of the book has been long in development, attracting the interest of Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway previously.

Jolie next stars in The Good Shepherd, opposite Matt Damon, directed by Robert De Niro. She is also lending her voice to Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf, playing Grendel’s Mother, and she is about to start filming A Mighty Heart, based on the book by Mariane Pearl, widow of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The busy actress is also lending her voice to the animated Kung Fu Panda film, and will play Ava Lord in Sin City 2, which is due in 2007.