Related question: Does an epic have to be heroic? I know that most are, but is it a requirement? For example, I've been wishing for a good movie about the Trail of Tears. Could that be an epic?
I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole, but I'm happy for all the cast-members who probably swallowed their pride and came back to do this one. I still can't believe none of these people other than Diesel were able to breakout and have a bigger career. LA Times had a nice little breakdown of all their post-Furious projects and it looks like Walker's been straight to video for a while.
I thought about that many pages were actually unnecessary in Atlas Shrugged. Either way though, both books would make better for a miniseries than a movie.
[derail] One of the biggest problems with making a faithful Atlas Shrugged adaptation is what to do with John Galt's speech. It is perhaps the most important part of the book, but it goes on for some 60 pages. I think it would take over an hour of the movie just to read it, but cutting it down would almost be sacrilege. The courtroom scene in Fountainhead is much more manageable. In the end, I am sure they will just edit the speech, but it will significantly reduce the power of the story, IMO. [/derail] Like several others, I would say that they are not mutually exclusive. An epic is a movie of grand scope. Big sets, lots of extras, and long running times are good clues that a movie is going to be an epic, though not necessarily required. Lonesome Dove is an epic, I would say. A blockbuster is a movie that is designed to hit it big at the box office and succeeds. The two characteristics are what separates it from a sleeper hit like MBFGW and a flop like Waterworld respectively. Armageddon was pure blockbuster. A movie can be both, and it doesn't necessarily make it better or worse than a movie that is only one or the other or is neither. LOTR is a great example of a movie that is both epic and blockbuster. Fight Club, I would say, was neither epic nor blockbuster, but was a great movie.
Imagine an epic Fountainhead movie though. Scarlett Johansson could play Dominique (ok, maybe Charlize Theron). Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Toohey Kevin Spacey as Wynand (or dare I say... DD-L, doubt he would do it though. Gary Oldman would also be outstanding) James Marsden as Keating. I have no idea who could play Roark, but it would have to be somebody who can keep a stone-faced, unfazed kind of look throughout the entire movie. Adrien Brody comes to mind, but I don't think he's quite right. He's so tall and frail.
