Кадр з фільму «Соціальна мережа»
It’s official: Oscar-winning «Social network» will receive a sequel directed and written by Aaron Sorkin. And while the first part was about the founding of Mark Zuckerberg’s empire, its sequel will raise more serious topics based on a series of investigations by The Wall Street Journal, collected in the book «Facebook Files».
The explosive series of articles, based on thousands of pages of internal documents released by former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen, was published in October 2021, exposing the workings of the world’s largest social network and the many harms it causes — among other things, Facebook’s impact on society and the fatal storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2020. In fact, the latter was the main source of inspiration for Sorkin, who took on the role of director and screenwriter in the sequel.
«There should be a constant tension between growth and honesty at Facebook. There isn’t. There is only growth», — said Sorkin last year. «If Mark Zuckerberg woke up tomorrow morning and realized that $120 billion couldn’t buy anything that $119 billion couldn’t buy, he would say: “So how about I make a little less money? I’ll improve integrity and reduce growth.” Yes, you can do that by replacing one with zero».
Sorkin is initially known as a screenwriter who writes the best dialog (recognized by Quentin Tarantino himself), has also directed such feature films as «Molly’s Game», «The Trial of the Chicago Seven» and «Being Ricardo».
The original «The Social Network», based on Ben Mezrich’s novel «Billionaires by Design» and directed by David Fincher, was a huge success with audiences and critics, grossed $226 million at the global box office and was nominated for 8 «Oscars», including the main one (eventually taking home 3, including the award for Sorkin for Best Adapted Screenplay).
The start date of production has not yet been set, and after the deal is finalized, Sorkin will focus on casting. In the first film, Mark Zuckerberg was played by Jesse Eisenberg (and won his first «Oscar»), while Andrew Garfield took on the role of Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.