Overview: The Passion of Ayn Rand is a 1999 film directed by Christopher Menaul. It is based on the book of the same title by Barbara Branden. The screenplay is written by Howard Korder and Mary Gallagher. The film stars Helen Mirren in an Emmy Award-winning performance as the philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand, who engages in an affair with a psychologist 25 years her junior by the name of Nathaniel Branden, played by Eric Stoltz. Branden built up an institute to spread Rand's ideas, but the two eventually had a falling out. The film also stars Julie Delpy as Branden's wife, Barbara, and Peter Fonda as Rand's husband Frank O'Connor.