Atlas Shrugged...a movie??

I saw a post at GeekTyrant in regards to the book Atlas Shrugged becoming a movie.

I recall this book being assigned to read in my 9^th grade economics class. The paperback was roughly measured like a 5x7 and at least two inches thick. I think it was something like 1100+ pages of smaller-than-normal print. I remember the teacher assigning pages/chapters for reading at the first of the year and said we'd have pop quizzes on what was read. I think the first quiz had a class average of 20%. The second and third quizzes were about the same. Out of frustration the teacher told us "C'mon guys! You really need to be reading this!" The problem is that she already had the reading and quizzes as a low percentage of the overall grade. So, getting a 20% average on the quizzes would only affect like 5% of the overall class grade.

Her little pep talk still didn't affect the majority of the class. The nerdy ones (3 out of 30 students) remained diligent in their reading and quiz taking. The slackers, me included, continued with not reading and getting bad quiz grades. Eventually, she said that she'd just make the reading of Atlas Shrugged extra credit. So, those that already did the reading benefited more and those that didn't read, didn't have to worry about failing the quizzes.

Other than my own personal story of how boring the beginning of the book was, my only other memory is the characters of John Galt and Taggart (I don't remember which Taggart, just the last name).

So, anyway, long story short. I have no effing idea how this is going to become a movie when at least 27 people (I'm sure more since she taught more than one economic class) in the 80s couldn't keep interest in this boring novel! It's not like it's The Great Gatsby!