The Social Network is a 2010 American drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin. Adapted from Ben Mezrichs 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires, the film portrays the founding of social networking website Facebook and the resulting lawsuits. It stars Jesse Eisenberg as founder Mark Zuckerberg, along with Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin and Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker, the other principals involved in the websites creation. Neither Zuckerberg nor any other Facebook staff were involved with the project, although Saverin was a consultant for Mezrichs book.
In a 2009 interview with The Baltimore Sun, Eisenberg said, Even though Ive gotten to be in some wonderful movies, this character seems so much more overtly insensitive in so many ways that seem more real to me in the best way. I dont often get cast as insensitive people, so it feels very comfortable: fresh and exciting, as if you never have to worry about the audience. Not that I worry about the audience anyway it should be just the furthest thing from your mind. The Social Network is the biggest relief Ive ever had in a movie.
The real-life Zuckerberg was maniacally focused on building a web site that could potentially connect everyone on the planetBy contrast, in the film he seems more obsessed with achieving the largesse that bad boy Sean Parker, an original Napster founder, portrays when he arrives to meet Zuckerberg at a New York restaurant.
Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz called the film a dramatization of history ... it is interesting to see my past rewritten in a way that emphasizes things that didnt matter, (like the Winklevosses, who Ive still never even met and had no part in the work we did to create the site over the past 6 years) and leaves out things that really did (like the many other people in our lives at the time, who supported us in innumerable ways).
Several noteworthy tech journalists and bloggers voiced their opinions of how the film portrays its real-life characters. Mashable founder and CEO Pete Cashmore, blogging for CNN, said: If the Facebook founder [Zuckerberg] is concerned about being represented as anything but a genius with an industrious work ethic, he can breathe a sigh of relief.
Main article: The Social Network (soundtrack)On June 1, 2010, it was announced that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross would score the film.
The Social Network appeared on 78 critics top 10 lists for 2010, of those critics 22 had the film in their number one spot.
During its opening weekend in the United States, the film debuted at No. 1, grossing $22.4 million in 2,771 theaters.
breaking Inceptions 32.0% record as the smallest second weekend drop for any number-one film of 2010, while being the third-smallest overall behind Secretariats 25.1% drop and Tooth Fairys 28.6% drop. As of August 19, 2011, the film has grossed $96,962,694 in the United States and $127,957,621 elsewhere, for a worldwide total of $224,920,315.
The Social Network appeared on over 70 critics top ten lists of the best films of 2010. Over a dozen publications ranked the film first in their lists.
Jessi Hempel, a technology writer for Fortune who says shes known Zuckerberg for a long time, wrote of the film:
While visiting the new headquarters for a meeting, Eduardo discovers the deal he signed with Seans investors has allowed them to dilute his share of the company from 34% to 0.03%, while maintaining the ownership percentage of all other parties. He confronts Mark and announces his intention to sue him. During a party celebrating Facebooks one millionth member, Sean and a number of underage Facebook interns are arrested for possession of e. Sean tries deceiving Mark into believing that he had nothing to do with the incident and that Eduardo stashed the e, but Mark does not believe him and tells him to go home.
The White Stripes song Ball and Biscuit can be heard in the opening of the film and The Beatles song Baby, Youre a Rich Man concludes the film. Neither song appears on the soundtrack.
Sorkin responded to these allegations by saying, I was writing about a very angry and deeply misogynistic group of people.
The film was nominated for seven British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Jesse Eisenberg), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Andrew Garfield), and Rising Star Award (Andrew Garfield) won three for Best Editing, Adapted Screenplay, and Best Direction on February 13, 2011.
The film was released in the United States by Columbia Pictures on October 1, 2010.
The total and absolute absurdity of the world where the engines of a federal lawsuit get cranked up to adjudicate the hurt feelings (because our idea was stolen!) of entitled Harvard undergraduates is completely missed by Sorkin. We cant know enough from the film to know whether there was actually any substantial legal claim here. Sorkin has been upfront about the ct that there are brications aplenty lacing the story. But from the story as told, we certainly know enough to know that any legal system that would allow these kids to extort $65 million from the most successful business this century should be ashamed of itself. Did Zuckerberg breach his contract? Maybe, for which the damages are more like $650, not $65 million. Did he steal a trade secret? Absolutely not. Did he steal any other property? Absolutely not the code for Facebook was his, and the idea of a social network is not a patent. It wasnt justice that gave the twins $65 million; it was the fear of a random and inefficient system of law. That system is a tax on innovation and creativity. That tax is the real villain here, not the innovator it burdened.
It won three for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Film Editing at the 83rd Academy Awards on February 27, 2011.
The full length theatrical trailer debuted on July 15, 2010, which plays an edited version of the song Creep, originally by Radiohead, covered by the Belgian choir group Scala &nstead of an effort to get girls, he says he created the site because he enjoys building things.
However, according to Sorkin, Mezrich did not send him material from his book as he wrote it: Two or three times wed get together. Id go to Boston, or wed meet in New York and kind of compare notes and share information, but I didnt see the book until he was done with it. By the time I saw the book, I was probably 80 percent done with the screenplay.
Through Christy, now Eduardos girlfriend, Eduardo and Mark arrange a meeting with Napster co-founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake). Eduardo becomes skeptical, noting Seans problematic personal and professional history. Sean presents a vision for Facebook very similar to that of Mark, which earns Marks instant admiration. In a parting comment, Sean suggests they drop the The from Thecebook, saying it looks cleaner without the The.
During a visiting lecture by Bill Gates (Steve Sires), fellow Harvard University student Christy Lee (Brenda Song) introduces herself and her friend Alice (Malese Jow) to Eduardo and Mark and asks the boys to Facebook me. Christys use of this phrase impresses both of them. Christy invites them to a bar, where Mark runs into Erica, who is not aware of Thecebook because she is not a Harvard student. Mark tries to apologize for the Facemash incident, but Erica coldly rebuffs his attempts to make amends. As Thecebook grows in popularity, Mark decides to expand the site to Yale University, Columbia University and Stanford University, while the Winklevoss twins and Narendra watch their idea advance without them. Cameron refuses to sue them, instead accusing Mark of violating the Harvard student Code of Conduct. Through their ther Howards (John Hayden) connections, they meet with Harvard President Larry Summers (Douglas Urbanski), who is dismissive towards the twins and sees no potential value in either a disciplinary action or in Thecebook website itself.
Additional scenes were filmed on the campus of Wheelock College, which was set up to be Harvards campus.
(Coincidentally, in an interview with Diane Sawyer on ABCs World News with Diane Sawyer, Zuckerberg revealed that Eisenbergs cousin, Eric Fisher, was a Facebook product designer.) Several days later, Justin Timberlake and Andrew Garfield were confirmed to portray the roles of Sean Parker and Eduardo Saverin, respectively. In October 2009, Brenda Song, Rooney Mara, Armie Hammer, Shelby Young, and Josh Pence were cast.
The Social Network has received extremely positive reviews from film critics. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 96% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 281 reviews, with an average score of 9/10 and a critical consensus of: Impeccably scripted, beautifully directed, and filled with fine performances, The Social Network is a riveting, ambitious example of modern film at its finest. The film also holds a score of 95 based on 42 reviews on Metacritic, indicating universal acclaim and it one of the sites highest-rated movies of all time.
Although a significant portion of the latter half of the film is set in Silicon Valley, the filmmakers opted to shoot those scenes in Los Angeles and Pasadena. Miniature king process was used in a sequence showing a rowing event at the Henley Royal Regatta.
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Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig wrote in The New Republic that Sorkins screenplay does not acknowledge the real villain of the story:
Filming took place on the Keyser and Wyman quadrangles in the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University from November 24,
It received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (Fincher), and Best Actor (Eisenberg), and won three for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Film Editing. At the 68th Golden Globe Awards, the film won Best Motion Picture Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Original Score.
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, gave the film his first full four star rating of the year and said: The Social Network is the movie of the year. But Fincher and Sorkin triumph by taking it further. Lacing their scathing wit with an aching sadness, they define the dark irony of the past decade.
Hammer states that director David Fincher likes to push himself and likes to push technology and is one of the most technologically minded guys Ive ever seen.
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some of which are not found on the soundtrack. These include songs from The Beatles, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals, 10cc, Gluecifer, Dead Kennedys, and The White Stripes.
An epilogue reveals the following information: Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss received a settlement of $65 million, signed a non-disclosure agreement, and rowed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, placing sixth; Eduardo Saverin received a settlement of an unknown amount and his name was restored to the Facebook masthead as a Co-founder of Facebook; the website has over 1 billion members in 207 countries and is valued at 25 billion dollars; and Mark Zuckerberg is the worlds youngest billionaire.
The rowing scenes with the Winklevoss brothers were filmed at Community Rowing Inc. in Newton, Massachusetts
Divya Narendra said that he was initially surprised to see himself portrayed by the non-Indian actor Max Minghella, but also admitted that the actor did a good job in pushing the dialogue forward and creating a sense of urgency in what was a very frustrating period.
Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin said, What attracted me to [the film project] had nothing to do with Facebook. The invention itself is as modern as it gets, but the story is as old as storytelling; the themes of friendship, loyalty,new york escort jealousy, class and power. [...] I got a 14-page book proposal that Ben Mezrich had written for his publisher for a book he was going to call The Accidental Billionaires. The publisher was simultaneously shopping it around for a film sale. Thats how it wound up in my hands. I was reading it and somewhere on page three I said yes. It was the stest I said yes to anything. But Ben hadnt written the book yet, and I assumed that Sony was going to want me to wait for Ben to write the book, and I would start a year from now. They wanted me to start right away. Ben and I were kind of doing our research at the same time, sort of along parallel lines.
(Harvard has turned down most requests for on-location filming ever since the filming of Love Story (1970), which caused significant physical damage to the campus.)
In 2003, Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is dumped by his girlfriend Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) at a bar. He returns to his dorm drunk and writes a blog entry about her. This inspires him to create an on-campus website called Facemash which allows users to rate the attractiveness of female students using photographs pilfered from various university systems. Mark receives six months of academic probation after traffic to the site crashes parts of Harvards network. Facemashs popularity and the ct that Mark created it in one night while drunk brings him to the attention of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (both portrayed by Armie Hammer) and their business partner Divya Narendra (Max Minghella). The Winklevoss twins invite Mark to their final club, where Mark accepts a job as programmer for a proposed dating website they call Harvard Connection which will be exclusive to Harvard alumni.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, giving it four stars and naming it the best film of the year, wrote: David Finchers film has the rare quality of being not only as smart as its brilliant hero, but in the same way. It is cocksure, impatient, cold, exciting and instinctively perceptive.
Pence was concerned about having no ce time during the role, but after consideration thought of the role as a no-brainer.
Main article: List of accolades received by The Social NetworkThe Social Network won the Best Motion Picture Drama Golden Globe at the 68th Golden Globe Awards on January 16, 2011.
Pirates of Silicon Valley, a 1999 film about the rise of Apple Computer (Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak) and Microsoft (Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Paul Allen) from the 1970s to the 1990s
However, he added that the film accurately depicted his real-life wardrobe, saying, Its interesting the stuff that they focused on getting right like every single shirt and fleece they had in that movie is actually a shirt or fleece that I own.
This included sending the actors to twin boot camp for 10 months to learn everything about the Winklevosses.
Sorkin has stated that, I dont want my fidelity to be to the truth; I want it to be to storytelling. What is the big deal about accuracy purely for accuracys sake, and can we not have the true be the enemy of the good?
Co-founder Eduardo Saverin said of the film, [...] the movie was clearly intended to be entertainment and not a ct-based documentary.
Scenes were filmed around the campuses of two Massachusetts prep schools, Phillips Academy and Milton Academy.
Quentin Tarantino listed The Social Network as one of his vorite 20 movies of the year, second to Toy Story 3.
Harvards mous rowing tradition is depicted in the filmCommunity Rowing Inc. held a casting call and a tryout for 20 rowing extras; some were graduates from Harvard, Northeastern University, Boston University, George Washington University, and Trinity College, as well as local club rowers from Union Boat Club and Riverside Boat Club.
The DVD includes an audio commentary with director David Fincher, and a second commentary with writer Aaron Sorkin and the cast. The Blu-ray and 2-Disc DVD releases include the commentaries, along with a feature length documentary, How Did They Ever Make a Movie of Facebook?, featurettes, Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter and Ren Klyce on Post, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and David Fincher on the Score, In the Hall of the Mountain King: Reznors First Draft, Swarmatron, Jeff Cronenweth and David Fincher on the Visuals, and a Ruby Skye VIP Room: Multi-Angle Scene Breakdown feature.
(October 1, 2010). kevinmarks Spot on Kevin. Im a n of Sorkin, but tsn is anti-geek and misogynistic. jeffjarvis agrees.. Twitter.
Journalist Jeff Jarvis acknowledged the film was well-crafted but called it the anti-social movie, objecting to Sorkins decision to change various events and characters for dramatic effect, and dismissing it as the story that those who resist the change society is undergoing want to see.
Reznor and Ross won the award for Best Original Score at the 2011 Golden Globe Awards,
The film also won the awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Original Score, it the film with the most wins of the night.
In an onstage discussion with The Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington, during Advertising Week 2010 in New York, Facebooks Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said she had seen the film and it was very Hollywood and mainly fiction. In real life, he [Zuckerberg] was just sitting around with his friends in front of his computer, ordering pizza, she declared. Who wants to go see that for two hours?
The background song used in the club scene (in California) is performed by Dennis de Laat, and is called Sound of Violence (Main Mix).
None of the cast rowing extras for the Henley Royal Regatta racing scene appeared in the film; filming for the race was originally planned to take place in Los Angeles, but Fincher decided to film in New England during production.
Casting began in early August 2009, and open auditions were held in various states. Jesse Eisenberg was first announced to be attached to the project in September 2009.
The story is intercut with scenes from depositions taken in lawsuits against Mark and Facebookone filed by the Winklevoss twins, the other by Eduardo. The Winklevoss twins claim that Zuckerberg stole their idea, while Saverin claims his shares of Facebook were unirly diluted when the company was incorporated. At the end, Marylin Delpy (Rashida Jones), a junior lawyer for the defense, informs Mark they will be settling with Eduardo, since the sordid details of Facebooks founding and Marks callous attitude will make him highly unsympathetic to a jury. After everyone leaves, Mark sends a friend request to Erica Albright on Facebook, and refreshes the page every few seconds waiting for a response.
Some reviewers pointed out that the film plays loosely with the cts behind Facebooks founding. Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal praised the film as exhilarating but noted: The biographical part takes liberties with its subject. Aaron Sorkin based his screenplay on a contentious book, Ben Mezrichs The Accidental Billionaires, so everything thats seen isnt necessarily to be believed.
Eduardo has been dismayed to learn that his girlfriend Christy is psychotic, as he terms it. Upon his return to New York, Christy angrily confronts Eduardo about his Facebook profile, which lists him as single. She refuses to believe Eduardo when he reluctantly explains that he does not know how to change his profile. She accuses him of cheating on her and sets fire to a scarf he gave to her as a gift. While Eduardo extinguishes the fire she caused, Mark reveals on the phone that although he was upset that Eduardo almost jeopardized Facebook by freezing the bank account, they have secured $500,000 from (Wallace Langham). Eduardo breaks up with Christy and returns to California.
The indoor rowing scene was filmed at Boston Universitys indoor rowing tanks. All of BUs blue oars in the scene were repainted to Harvards crimson color for filming. Dan Boyne was the official rowing consultant for the film both in the US and the UK.
The Social Network received nominations for eight Academy Awards, Social Networking, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Mark approaches his friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) and tells him of his idea for what he calls Thecebook, an online social networking website exclusive to Harvard University students. He explains that this would mimic the popularity of FaceMash but since signing up would be consensual it would avoid the ethical problems of the earlier site. Eduardo agrees to help Mark, providing $1,000 to help start the site. They distribute the link to Eduardos connections at the Phoenix S-K final club, and it becomes popular throughout the student body. When they learn of Thecebook, the Winklevoss twins and Narendra believe Zuckerberg has stolen their idea while stalling on their website. Tyler and Divya want to sue Mark for intellectual property theft, but Cameron convinces them to settle the matter as Gentlemen of Harvard.
While competing in the Henley Royal Regatta for Harvard, the Winklevoss twins discover Facebook has expanded to Oxford, Cambridge and LSE, and footage of their lost rowing race final against the Hollandia Roeiclub is posted on it. Cameron relents The Social Network Social Networkingand they decide to sue. When Eduardo visits from New York, he is angered to find Sean living in their house and business decisions for Facebook. Eduardo argues with Mark, with Mark a demeaning remark regarding Eduardos iled attempts to find advertisers. Eduardo freezes the companys bank account out of anger and returns to New York.
Armie Hammer, who portrayed the Winklevoss twins, acted alongside body double Josh Pence while his scenes were filmed. His ce was later digitally grafted onto Pences ce during post-production, while other scenes used split-screen photography. Pence himself appears in a cameo role.
Lead actors Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield formed a close friendship during filming, which Eisenberg has stated made the filming of more emotional scenes difficult because he was upset by Garfields heartbreaking performance yet had to remain unresponsive and in character.
The Social Network was released on DVD and Blu-ray January 11, 2011. In its first week of release, DVD sales totaled $13,470,305 and it was the number one sold DVD of the week.
A lot of exciting things happened in 2004, but mostly we just worked a lot and stressed out about things; the version in the trailer seems a lot more exciting, so Im just going to choose to remember that we drank ourselves silly and had a lot of with coeds.... The plot of the book/script unabashedly attacked [Zuckerberg], but I actually felt like a lot of his positive qualities come out truthfully in the trailer (soundtrack aside). At the end of the day, they cannot help but portray him as the driven, forward-thinking genius that he is.
At Seans suggestion, Mark moves the company to Palo Alto while Eduardo remains in New York seeking advertising support. Sean advises Mark to keep hold of his ownership of Facebook to ensure that Mark does not lose control of a potentially lucrative business venture. After Sean promises to expand Facebook to two continents, Mark invites Sean to live at the house he is using as the company headquarters.
Andrew Clark of The Guardian wrote that theres something insidious about this genre of [docudrama] scriptwriting, wondering if a 26-year-old businessman really deserves to have his name dragged through the mud in a murky mixture of ct and imagination for the general entertainment of the movie-viewing public? Clark added, Im not sure whether Mark Zuckerberg is a punk, a genius or both. But I wont be seeing The Social Network to find out.
The film won Best Picture from the National Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the National Board of Review, it only the third film in history (after Schindlers List and L. A. Confidential) to sweep the Big Four critics.
Theres a lot of available research, and I also did a lot of first person research with a number of the people that were involved in the story. I cant go too deeply into that because most of the people did it on the condition of anonymity, but what I found was that two lawsuits were brought against Facebook at the roughly same time, that the defendant, plaintiffs, witnesses all came into a deposition room and swore under oath, and three different versions of the story were told. Instead of choosing one and deciding thats the truest one or choosing one and deciding thats the juiciest one, I decided to dramatize the idea that there were three different versions of the story being told. Thats how I came up with the structure of the deposition room.
The film received widespread acclaim, with critics praising it for its editing, acting, score, direction and screenplay. However, some people, including Zuckerberg himself, criticized the film for its many inaccuracies. The Social Network appeared on 78 critics Top 10 list for 2010; of those critics, 22 had the film in their number-one spot. Rolling Stones Peter Travers said The Social Network is the movie of the year. But Fincher and Sorkin triumph by taking it further. Lacing their scathing wit with an aching sadness, they define the dark irony of the past decade.
