Facebook The Movie
by Motte Brown on 06/25/2009 at 12:21 PM
According to this blurb in Variety, Facebook is coming to a theater near you.
Columbia Pictures is in advanced talks with David Fincher to direct "The Social Network," the Aaron Sorkin-scripted film for Columbia Pictures about the formation of Facebook.
The film will focus on the evolution of Facebook from its 2004 creation on the Harvard campus by sophomore Mark Zuckerberg to a juggernaut with more than 200 million members.
It's interesting that Hollywood chose to make a movie about the formation of Facebook instead of creating a story (or stories) about how the advent of social networking has affected our lives. You know, like what they did with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in "You've Got Mail."
What about you? Does a movie about the evolution of Facebook sound compelling enough to go see?
1. Tami said the following at 12:32 PM on Jun 25:
Only if it's directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Would I *really* go see it? I dunno. I would prefer watching a documentary about it, rather than a scripted feature. It seems too soon for that.
2. kaj said the following at 12:43 PM on Jun 25:
I wonder how big its "friends list" will get? (:
3. BDB said the following at 12:45 PM on Jun 25:
It's my understanding thatYou've Got Mail (which I've never seen) was really a technologically updated version of the classic movie The Shop Around the Corner.
Seems like you'd need some sort of plot with conflict that relied on social-networking to make a movie instead of a documentary. Were these guys mad at MySpace or something?
4. BDB said the following at 12:52 PM on Jun 25:
As an example of conflict, the guy who founded Federal Express, Fred Smith originally submitted the idea a paper in an Economics class at Yale. Folklore has it that the professor told him it would never work. He created a new industry.
5. Jeremy said the following at 12:52 PM on Jun 25:
"Only if it's directed by Steven Soderbergh."
Ah come on now, David Fincher is a much better director than Steven Soderbergh. Soderbergh hasn't made a good film in 8 years*.
* I have not yet seen The Girlfriend Experience, but even if it is his first good one since Ocean's Eleven, that is not a very solid track record.
6. Tami said the following at 1:05 PM on Jun 25:
BDB, I saw the script. Here's the conflict:
SCENE: INTERIOR. Team meeting.
Manager (pounding on table): You UNFRIENDED ME!
Developer 1: What are you gonna make of that?
Manager: Why, why, why!
Developer 1: Because you always comment on the photos from my weekend parties in team meetings!
Manager: Then don't post them to your wall! If they're there, it's fair game for me to comment!
Developer 2 [VO]: And that is how I got the idea for the profile privacy settings.
7. Tami said the following at 1:09 PM on Jun 25:
Jeremy: But Soderbergh's multi-layered, multi-perspective way of telling stories (e.g., Traffic) would be a natural fit for the story of social networking.
I don't know that the director of videos for Paula Abdul and George Michael will do as well. ;)
8. Tami said the following at 1:20 PM on Jun 25:
This blog post is like potato chips: can't just post one! ;)
Next up: Superpoke!: The Musical.
9. Lisa Anderson said the following at 1:22 PM on Jun 25:
BDB #3: And both are based on Pride and Prejudice.
10. BDB said the following at 1:39 PM on Jun 25:
Lisa (#9) how so?
Both are romantic comedies that involve conflict and a story arc that ends with a pairing that would initially rejected. But the plot difference is significant: the anonymous communication aspect does not appear in Pride and Prejudice that I can recall.
Would you also say that Beauty and the Beast was based on Pride and Prejudice?
Or perhaps that it simply defines the world?
11. Dan Gill said the following at 1:46 PM on Jun 25:
This sounds like a terrible waste of celluloid to me.
12. BDB said the following at 1:50 PM on Jun 25:
Begin with this WSJ item:
The question pops up anew because of Tuesday’s news that a Russian Internet-investment group, Digital Sky Technologies, is putting up $200 million for a 2% stake in the social-networking web site. The investment implies a value for Facebook of $10 billion.
And then there's Bozeman, Montana, that attempted to require all applicants for city positions to provide their passwords to social networking sites when applying for a job (in violation of those sites Terms of Service).
So, maybe you could do a plotline where Russian Mafia infiltrated the Bozeman government and a bunch of tweens thwarted them by twittering...
Fun Fact: When I tried to find this article on WSJ.com, over 261 articles came up mentioning Facebook. Just in the Wall Street Journal!
13. Megan said the following at 1:53 PM on Jun 25:
Really!? Yeah I'd go see that. I've been on thefacebook (hehe) since 2004. Anyone else been on it since then? November 2004 was when my Facebook account was conceived in the music library at East Carolina University.
Anyone else remember when they opened their Facebook account?
14. Nikki Webber said the following at 1:58 PM on Jun 25:
But Lisa, what isn't based on Pride & Prejudice?
-Boy and girl meet
-Girl dislikes boy
-Boy goes to heroic efforts, makes ammends, and declares his love for the girl
-Boy and girl fall in love and marry.
Come to think of it, I suppose they could make a facebook movie with this formula. They could 'friend' and 'unfriend' eachother for 2 hours and twenty minutes on the big screen :0)
15. Cassandra said the following at 2:16 PM on Jun 25:
Please tell me it's a documentary.
16. pebble said the following at 2:17 PM on Jun 25:
#13,
i joined in sept 04, when only 10-15ish schools were on it. it was good times back then!
17. JuliaH said the following at 2:42 PM on Jun 25:
Yawn
18. Jeremy said the following at 2:49 PM on Jun 25:
"Jeremy: But Soderbergh's multi-layered, multi-perspective way of telling stories (e.g., Traffic) would be a natural fit for the story of social networking.
I don't know that the director of videos for Paula Abdul and George Michael will do as well. ;)"
(I can't resist a movie discussion) Traffic was indeed wonderful, but it was really the only great movie that Soderbergh has ever done. Say what you will about Fincher's background, but his films have been nearly universally excellent. Seven, The Game, Fight Club, Zodiac -- these were all masterful. And though I found Benjamin Button oddly unaffecting, you have to admit that from a technical and visual standpoint, it was a stunning achievement.
Soderbergh is certainly more experimental, but I think overall that is to his detriment. Fincher has much more control over his craft and, to my mind, a better visual sense than any other director since Stanley Kubrick.
Surely we can all come together on loving Aaron Sorkin, though, right? ... right? (I curse the American TV audience for letting Studio 60 get cancelled)
19. Joshua Keirn said the following at 2:53 PM on Jun 25:
#13: I joined in fall of 2005. I had never heard of Facebook until my first semester in college, and joined after prolonged urging by a few friends. That was back in the day before high schoolers on Facebook, when you needed a college e-mail address (or at least I think you did).
20. brx said the following at 3:01 PM on Jun 25:
Sounds interesting but not compelling enough to pay more than a discount rental price to see it. Actually, I can't imagine a good, engaging presentation needing more than 30~40min to tell the Facebook story well. It seems like a 90~120min film might be in danger of containing too much fluff.
RE: Lisa [#9], BDB [#10];
Yep, but they're only loosely related because their characters get obviously distracted by our all-too-common sins of pride and prejudice. Funny though, without J Austen stating it in the title, I doubt many people would be able to name those as primary issues the story is trying to confront. Simply, because our culture tends to not see those behaviors as the subtley disguised sins of pride & prejudice that they are. Hmmm, I'll bet those sinful tendencies have been a significant factor for me and many others in keeping me from marrying in my younger years!
Grace, peace & humility...
21. Chris said the following at 7:29 PM on Jun 25:
They should have Michael Bay direct it and have the Governator come out of movie retirement. I can see it now:
(Scene 1: Facebook headquarters. A sterile computing environment with numerous computers, overworked programmers, and a fooz ball table. Lights flicker on and off due to powers surges.)
Programmer Hero who's geeky and slightly unattractive but still likable to target female audience (typing complex full English sentences into a terminal prompt): "It's no use! Someone used an SQL attack to inject malicious code into the database. In less than two minutes, they'll gain root access."
Overweight programmer with facial hair (in thick Indian accent): "If dey mount a DDOS via javascript posts, nothing vill stop dem."
Obligatory curvy young woman who's the love interest of the programmer despite the fact that no girl would ever hang out with the guy in the real world: "Isn't there anything you can do?"
Obligatory war-mongering general: "There's no time to contact the President. I'll have to order the nuclear strike myself."
Obligatory humorous side kick who's a slacker working in a video store and living at home yet seems to be able hang out with people much more intelligent and successful than him: "Game over, man, game over!" (Eats a snickers bar.)
(An Einstein-Rosen bridge opens up and the Governator walks through, completely naked.)
Governator (to general): "Your bootz, pantz, shirt, and blackberry. Give dem to meeeee."
(General obliges.)
Governator: "Come vit me unless you vant to be defriended. Now, comment on this update, lozer."
(Governator turns, fires 150 rounds out of his rifle with a 40 round clip into the computers. They blow up as everyone outruns the explosions in slow motion.)
Obligatory side kick: "Dude, I gotta tweet this." (Looks at phone.) "Hey, the new iPhones are out!"
BTW, before any of you Hollywood hacks try to run with this, I hearby claim copyright on it. The Boundless editors can give you my email address if you'd like to discuss obtaining the rights to this movie script. Please be aware that I will require a good amount upfront, executive producer credit, and 10% on the backend gross.
(The sad thing is that this script is actually on par with a lot of movies.)
22. Rachael said the following at 9:46 PM on Jun 25:
There was a really funny short facebook video clip...called "The Facebook Song" I think...
23. BDB said the following at 10:14 PM on Jun 25:
Megan (#13) wrote:
>>Anyone else remember when they opened their Facebook account?<<
Yes. Soon after some visiting engineering students from Sweden used my laptop to upload pictures to the Swedish facebook site. OK, I can't read Swedish, but I did figure out how to navigate to their pictures as they took a 4-month trip across Southeast Asia.
@19 >>when you needed a college e-mail address (or at least I think you did).<<
Yes, and they still have that function for college (and alumni) networks. My alumni e-mail allowed me in. The "tools" for college students searching their network are quite interesting - I had no idea how much college students could do with it.
24. Carol said the following at 10:20 PM on Jun 25:
Hollywood must be running dry on scripts. facebook will probably fizzle out in a few years when the next big thing comes along, and then we'll wonder what all the fuss was about.
25. Tami said the following at 9:11 AM on Jun 26:
Jeremy (18) -- I admit, I'm not the world's biggest movie buff; and I haven't seen any of Fincher's movies (at least the "biggies," the ones you list above). I know a lot of people admire those films a lot; but I guess they just haven't appealed to me. Blame Brad Pitt, I guess ;)
So I'll stick with Soderbergh ;)
26. Megan said the following at 9:48 AM on Jun 26:
(#16): I'm sure those were good times. I laugh when I think about how far it REALLY has come. Remember when all the "sections" were seperated by boxes? And you could see that someone was logged on from "a non-residential area". Creepy man in the corner that looked like a bum college student. I was for sure that thefacebook was going to be another lame ... thing.
(#19): I bet you never heard of it before college because it wasn't available to high schoolers until after then (2006? 2007?)