I just watched the Atlas Shrugged movie trailer, and my first impression was that it needed to be placed in an anachronistic not-quite-1930s, like Batman: The Animated Series.
Tyler Cowen came to more or less the same conclusion:
Apart looking like a bad movie, I found this jarring. It should be in black and white, or muted colors, with the palate and overall look of a Visconti film. It has some Art Deco architecture (good), but signs of the modern world intrude at the wrong moments. It should not have high-speed rail (will this confuse conservatives? Did those governors end up cutting Medicaid and coughing up the money?) and it should not postulate unrealistic speeds for freight trains. It should not have 2011 cars and Dagny Taggart should not look like a mousy actress imitating Nicole Kidman playing a local news reporter. “If you double cross me, I will destroy you” doesn’t ring true. Hank Rearden’s line about only wanting to earn money comes across as either a parody of Gordon Gecko or as something worthy of Gecko’s parody. To be properly post-Wall Street, Rearden must somehow contain and yet leapfrog over Oliver Stone’s vision; a pretty boy look will not suffice.