The Social Network, Photo by Merrick Morton – © 2010 Columbia TriStar Marketing Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Asserting that he’s blaming Facebook for the January 6 insurrection, Aaron Sorkin has confirmed that he’s working on a followup to The Social Network, the 2010 film directed by David Fincher that chronicled the rise of the social-media behemoth. According to industry observers, the project is in its ‘very, very early stages” and is not connected to another January 6 project Sorkin had been talking about.
Sorkin. who had earlier won an Oscar for his screenplay for that production, revealed his plans during a live recording of “The Town” podcast, which was taped at a pre-party event before last week’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
“Facebook has been, among other things, tuning its algorithm to promote the most divisive material possible,” Sorkin complained. “Because that is what will increase engagement. That is what will get you to — what they call inside the hallways of Facebook — ‘the infinite scroll’ … There’s supposed to be a constant tension at Facebook between growth and integrity. There isn’t. It’s just growth.”
Sorkin had said in 2021 that “what has been going on with Facebook these last few years is a story very much worth telling, and there is a way to tell it as a follow up to The Social Network,’ and that’s as much as I know.” At the time, he expressed his hope that David Fincher would again sign on as director. Fincher acknowledged afterwards that he’d discussed the idea with Sorkin but seemed reluctant to take on the project.
The Social Network, which starred Jesse Eisenberg as Facebook guru Mark Zuckerberg, was both a critical and a commercial success. It garnered eight Oscar nominations, including one for best picture, and earned $224 at the box office around the world.
In the recent podcast, Sorkin also drew parallels between this year’s presidential campaign and the one in 1968. He said he was worried about the impact pro-Palestinian demonstrators might have if they target this year’s Democratic National Convention. “I hope that students — people who are planning on demonstrating there, and I’m all for demonstrating — I hope they remember that Nixon barely beat Humphrey in 1968, and it’s very likely the sight of riots at the [Democratic convention in Chicago], turned some people off from Democrats. I hope people especially remember that as complicated and important as the war in Gaza is, this is an election about Trump vs. not-Trump and there is an existential choice there.”
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