Facebook Movie in the Works, David Fincher May Direct
Posted 06.24.09 by Rich Z
Yesterday, Variety reported that David Fincher (Benjamin Button, Zodiac, Fight Club) is in talks with Columbia to direct The Social Network, an upcoming movie about the creation of Facebook. The movie would be based on a script by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, Charlie Wilson's War) and tell the story of Mark Zuckerberg, who created the social networking site in 2004 while a sophomore at Harvard. In the five years since, Facebook has amassed more than 200 million users.
SlashFilm reports that the Sorkin script is actually an adaptation of the Ben Mezrich book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal, which is due in stores on July 14. On the Amazon.com page for the book, there's a plug for the movie from none other than Kevin Spacey, one of the project's producers.
You may think you know the story of the Facebook phenomenon, but you
haven't heard the whole story and never like this ... [Mezrich] tells a
captivating story of betrayal, vast amounts of cash, and two friends
who revolutionized the way humans connect to one another – only to have
an enormous falling out and never speak again ... I'm currently working
with Dana Brunetti, Scott Rudin, Mike Deluca, and Aaron Sorkin on the
movie adaptation of The Accidental Billionaires.If the book is any indication, the film is going to be a must see.
We can only speculate as to Fincher's interest in a project like this. The only connection we can come up with is the theme of obsession, which has shown up repeatedly in his films, from methodical serial killers (Se7en) to the "good guys" tracking them (Zodiac). And of course, there's the anarchic ramblings of Tyler Durden in Fight Club. We're anxious to see what happens next with this project.