[ObjectiveAnalyst wrote:
"Can you imagine the hubbub if it were still struggling to reach its initial goal?"]

You're misinformed. Reaching the goal was never what the hubbub was about. The hubbub had to do with whether the producers had legitimate funding needs for their movie, or whether they were looking for a way to make extra cash for themselves despite the movie already being fully funded.

It turns out, there might be a different reason for the Kickstarter campaign. It seems Aglialoro and Kaslow are being sued by the original director chosen for Part I, Stephen Polk, for $6.5 million. Polk was fired 2 weeks before shooting began, and claims the producers used many of his pre-production ideas without ever compensating him. It's an old story in Hollywood.

Many are wondering if some of the financing collected via Kickstarter might have to do with current or expected legal fees regarding this litigation.

See:

http://www.entlawdigest.com/2011/04/18/P...

Producer Demands $6.5 Million Over "Atlas Shrugged" Movie
By GLYNIS FARRELL

(CN) - Filmmaker Stephen Polk says the creators of the movie adaption of the Ayn Rand novel "Atlas Shrugged" replaced him with another director and then used his ideas without payment or credit.

Hollywood producers Harmon Kaslow and John Aglialoro, who purchased the 15-year lease on the "Atlas Shrugged" movie rights, the film's distributor, Rocky Mountain Pictures, The Strike Productions and Kaslow Consulting Services duped Polk into providing two months of creative services for free, according to his complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court.

In 1992, Polk says Aglialoro optioned the 1,100 page novel from the founder of the Ayn Rand Institute and heir to the Rand estate, Leonard Peikoff, who put a strict June 2010 deadline on the agreement.

In March 2010, Polk says Kaslow teamed up with "Ray" producer Howard Baldwin, who is not a party to the complaint.

Baldwin and Aglialoro "were looking for a production company which was ready, willing and able to put the project into production on short notice so that the rights would not be lost," the lawsuit states. If the cameras were not rolling by June 11, 2010 the movie rights to "Atlas Shrugged" would be returned to Rand's estate, according to the complaint.

Polk says he agreed to produce and direct the movie, and to get it started in a hurry.
Polk says he "established a production schedule, enrolled a production team and continued to work on the budget." He says he "scouted locations, brought in a casting director and a production designer and worked with the writer to revise and rewrite the script."

In April 2010, Kaslow and Aglialoro launched "The Strike" Productions in order to produce the "Atlas Shrugged" trilogy, and sent Polk an email officially confirming his position as director and producer.

But in early June Kaslow allegedly booted Polk from the project.

Polk says Kaslow hired a new director and produced the movie "using all the elements" that he had put together for the project.

Polk demands $6.5 million for "oppression, fraud and malice" from the defendants' false promises that he would "be compensated and credited as producer."

Richard M. Rosenthal of Beverly Hills Calif. is representing him.