Fanboys Flip as Fincher Friends Facebook Feature

It comes complete with its own widget

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Wednesday, June 24th 2009 at 1:39 AM

I would assume the majority of the independent movie websites out there were started by someone that has an undying love of David Fincher as a result of either Seven, Fight Club or both. Fight Club, of course, being a film I would assume many of them would include on their list of all-time favorite films. So, anytime the name David Fincher comes up it is going to light a fire in the blogosphere. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, I only bring it up because I know it is the reason Variety felt it was necessary to send out a Breaking News email blast with the latest news regarding Fincher's potential next film and the Internet did not disappoint.

First, the news appears minuscule since it's not a sure thing, but Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and Entertainment Weekly must have all received the same publicist note saying Fincher was in advanced talks to direct The Social Network, the Aaron Sorkin ("The West Wing", Charlie Wilson's War) 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.

Aaron Sorkin set up a Facebook page some time back, which you can find right here, in an effort to learn more about the website and its users, but I have also read the film will be based on the forthcoming book "The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal" by Ben Mezrich, who also wrote "Bringing Down the House," which was then adapted into 21 starring Kevin Spacey who happens to be one of the film's producers and has written a review of "The Accidental Billionaires" on Mezrich's official website. Here's a snippet:

Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg were two geeky, socially awkward Harvard undergrads who wanted nothing more than to be cool. While Eduardo chose the more straightforward path of trying to gain acceptance into one of the school's ultra-posh, semi-secret Final Clubs, Mark used his computer skills by hacking into Harvard's computers, pulling up all the pictures of every girl on campus to create a sort of "hot-or-not" site exclusive to Harvard. Though the prank nearly got Mark kicked out of college, he and Eduardo realized that they were on to something big. Thus, the initial concept of Facebook was born; what happened next, however, was right out of a Hollywood thriller.

The book hits shelves on July 14.

When news of this project first hit there was skepticism around the Internet as to how this could be turned into a film, but there must be something to the project to attract such talent… Right?

The consensus around the Internet now seems to be a bit of confusion as to how this could possibly be a good film, but the fact Fincher is showing interest seems to have energized the masses.

I have no idea what the "Hollywood thriller" portion of the story may be, but Spacey's glowing review must come with a reason. Perhaps it delves into the legal battle the Facebook founders faced when ConnectU accused them of pilfering their profitable idea back in 2003, when they were all Harvard students. (ConnectU reportedly took home $65 million in a settlement on that by the way.) Who knows? I just hope it is worth it, because I too am a David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin fan and would hate to see their time wasted on a film that goes bust since we don't get a lot of projects out of either of them.