Who is John Galt? Now, filmgoers everywhere will find out. From the Hollywood Reporter:

The critics are “revitalizing me with their outrageousness,” John Aglialoro, who spent $10 million of his own money on the film, tells THR.

The man who says he spent $10 million of his own money to bring Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 to the big screen vowed Wednesday to go through with his plans to make the next two installments, even though critics hate the movie and business at movie theaters has fallen off a cliff.

In fact, said John Aglialoro, the co-producer and financier, it’s the monolithic view from critics that say the movie stinks that is motivating him to make Parts 2 and 3, he told The Hollywood Reporter.

That is sooooo Howard Roark. I love it.

“It was a nihilistic craze,” Aglialoro said. “Not in the history of Hollywood has 16 reviewers said the same low things about a movie.

“They’re lemmings,” he said. “What’s their fear of Ayn Rand? They hate this woman. They hate individualism.

“I’m going to get a picture of Ebert and Travers and the rest of them so I can wake up in the morning and they’ll be right there. They’re revitalizing me with their outrageousness.”

…

“The critics killed it so badly that agents may tell their clients they shouldn’t be associated with this thing,” he said. “I’ve got to give it to the critics. They won this battle, but they will not win the war. The message has been told in Part 1, and it will be told in Parts 2 and 3.”

Roger Ebert, a/k/a Elsworth Toohey can’t confound this film architect. I’ll note that the only thing I know about Roger Ebert I learned from his cartoon persona on The Critic with Jay Sherman.

So when will we see Parts 2 and 3?

He said he’s sticking to his plan to release Part 2 on April 15, 2012, and Part 3 on April 15, 2013, though gathering the same talent and crew might be a problem.

For my review of this not-as-disappointing-as-I-thought-it-would-be movie, see here.