During a recent interview about Dawn of Justice, Snyder indicated that one of the upcoming films he’s currently working on is an adaptation of The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand’s 1943 novel that offered a fictionalized narrative based on the philosophy of objectivism. The novel follows a young architect who refuses to compromise his ideals in pursuit of his artistic vision.
“I have been working on The Fountainhead,” Snyder told The Hollywood Reporter. “I’ve always felt like The Fountainhead was such a thesis on the creative process and what it is to create something. Warner Bros. owns [Ayn Rand’s] script and I’ve just been working on that a little bit.”
Rand famously penned the screenplay that was turned into director King Vidor’s 1949 adaptation of The Fountainhead, but later expressed disappointment with the film and disavowed it. The live-action feature cast Academy Award winner Gary Cooper as architect Howard Roark, with a supporting cast that included fellow Oscar winner Patricia Neal and Oscar nominee Raymond Massey. Despite the A-list cast, the film underperformed, earning just $2.1 million on a $2.5 million budget.
While some have scoffed at the idea of adapting Rand’s novel, which many conservative and libertarian leaders have cited as inspiration for their political careers, Snyder is no stranger to adapting books deemed “unfilmable.”
The Dawn of Justice filmmaker previously brought Alan Moore’s Watchmen to the screen successfully, incorporating many of the philosophical elements of the work while making it accessible to mainstream audiences. The graphic novel was once thought of as being impossible to adapt for the screen.
Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice hits theaters March 25. There’s currently no development timeline for Snyder’s adaptation of The Fountainhead.
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