Facebook can do a lot of things=-- kill several hours while playing Scrabble, for example-- but it hasn't been known for its ability to break stories about movie projects in development. But when announcing his next feature project, Aaron Sorkin did it in the most meta way possible-- announcing a movie about Facebook on Facebook. It's like a giant hall of mirrors!
Variety eventually reported the project, but Sorkin's Facebook page has pretty much all the details you need. Like the fact that Sorkin doesn't know a damn thing about Facebook: "I figured a good first step in my preparation would be finding out what Facebook is, so I've started this page. (Actually it was started by my researcher, Ian Reichbach, because my grandmother has more Internet savvy than I do and she's been dead for 33 years.)"
So Aaron Sorkin's star has dimmed a little in recent years, given that Studio 60 was a flop (and deservedly so, in my opinion) and The Farnsworth Invention, his Broadway show, didn't exactly earn rave reviews. But watching the first few seasons of The West Wing proves how much brilliance Sorkin has to offer, particularly the kinetic energy he can bring to scenes about something that might otherwise be boring-- like White House policy discussion, or, say, the invention of a website.
The story I've always heard about the invention of Facebook involves Mark Zuckerberg stealing ideas from a bunch of fellow Harvard students who didn't get credit for their work on the site. Who knows how true it is, or whether Sorkin will look into it, but there's probably a lot more drama behind the scenes than some dude sitting at a computer in a dorm room. Sorkin, provided he can learn enough about Facebook and the Internet, may actually be the man to tell that story.
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