Why The Fountainhead? Well, to start off with it's one of the books on my Top 10 Fave Books of All Time.  That should be reason enough for you caffeinated maniacs out there.

No?  All right, be that way.  But do go read the book so you can understand completely.  It's been done before, back in 1949, with a screenplay by the author herself, Ayn Rand.  It's a book that hits subjects near and dear to my heart, such as individualism, artistic integrity, and lack of compromise.  A must read, so that means (if done correctly) it could be a must see.  And hey, since Hollywood is going to remake everything they ever previously made, we might as well do some choice ones, right?  Enough of this TV show revival crap.

Gary Sinise as Howard Roark: This was a fairly hard role to cast.  Gary Cooper was the original from 1949, but his performance was understated to the point of non-existence. We considered Ralph Fiennes at first, but that would be too much given our next casting choice.  Then Sinise sprang to mind, and we weren't sure until we pictured him working in the quarry.  He's proven himself to be a damn good actor with tremendous range, so he'll be perfect.

Kristin Scott Thomas as Dominique Francon:  This one was even tougher than Roark.  You need someone icy cool and yet sexy as hell.  Someone who can do the things Dominique does in the book and make them believable.  Cosette said Thomas and it just stuck.  Which is why we didn't cast our buddy Ralph as Howard.  Even in our DreamCast Perfect World (TM), it would have been too much for the audiences to bear.

Michael Douglas as Gail Wynand: Wynand is the bazillionaire who did it...the way the public wanted it.  Which makes him a tremendous opportunist, despite his tendencies to want to do the right thing.  Douglas can play the newspaper magnate type, the confident smart-ass, and the ladies' man--so let's have him do it all at once.  I briefly considered Harrison Ford, but later in the book Dominique has to leave Gail, and no woman breathing would give up Ford.  Too unbelievable even for Hollywood.

Gene Hackman as Ellsworth Toohey:  For some reason, Hackman sprang to mind.  As you know, Toohey intends on turning the world into big collectivist dumbfest.  He wants to equate Shakespeare with some one-bit playwright who writes something called "No Skin Off Your Ass".  And what's frightening is that he seems to be able to do all this while convincing you it's for your own good.  Like I said, Hackman sprang to mind.  I had second thoughts and almost cast Rip Torn, but went with my first impulse instead.

Oliver Platt as Peter Keating:  Let me tell you that on first putting this together, James Spader was my original choice for Keating.  But I wasn't sure he was right choice.  I mean, Keating is a pathetic prick, and Spader has some experience in roles that are pricks.  His parts in Wolf and Less Than Zero are two examples.  But it seemed too easy, too obvious, no stretch for Spader--and I wouldn't do that to him.  So we'll save James for another project and instead cast our buddy Oliver--I'm sure he'll be a winner.

Paul Newman as Henry Cameron: Okay, at least in the 1949 movie, this was almost a cameo role as the embittered alcoholic architect.  It was "Stay away, you're too brilliant!"  And then the next scene, "I'm dying, you're still too brilliant!"  That of course was your friend and mine, Henry Hull.  I think we should meat up the part a little bit and give it to SDI fave Paul, who would enjoy having a part he could shoot quickly and get back to running his various food companies.  And hey, Paul: love the salad dressing.  "Low fat, hell!  The pesticides on the greens will probably kill ya!"

 William H. Macy as Alvah Scarret: Newspaper editor guy, right?  Well, since all the names seemed to come to me as if they were a result of divine inspiration or something, Charles Durning was the first name to pop out of my head.  I stuck with Durning for a while until I started looking around for ideas on who to cast as Roger Enright (see below).  Then I ran across Macy and suddenly it all made sense.

James Caan as Roger Enright: The original film's Enright, Ray Collins, had even less than a cameo, eh?  Well, we like James and we know he's a busy man, so sometimes you just need damn good actors in cameos, right?  Right.