More than a decade after chronicling the rise of Facebook on the big screen, The Social Network is gearing up to revisit the subject matter with a forthcoming sequel. Aaron Sorkin, who penned the screenplay for the Oscar-winning darling has been set to direct for Sony, based on his already written script.
Despite having Part II in the title, sources close to Deadline claim that it won’t be a direct continuation, but a follow-up to the original, inspired by a series of articles published in The Wall Street Journal known as The Facebook Files, which explored the pitfalls caused by the social network. Todd Black, Peter Rice, Sorkin, and Stuart Besser are producing the project.
It’s unclear whether original lead Jesse Eisenberg will reprise his role as Facebook-turned-Meta founder Zuckerberg, earning him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in 2010. Helmed by David Fincher, the first movie scored eight Oscar nods and won three, including adapted screenplay for Sorkin. It raked in S$226 million at the global box office and remains a fan favourite.
Based on Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires, The Social Network follows Zuckerberg’s founding of Facebook with his friend Eduardo’s help, as he severed ties with several people along the way. Sorkin has expressed interest in doing a sequel on several occasions, fuelled by Facebook’s role in the Capitol riots that took place on 6 January 2021.
“There’s supposed to be a constant tension at Facebook between growth and integrity. There isn’t. There’s just growth,” Sorkin said last year. “If Mark Zuckerberg woke up tomorrow morning and realised there is nothing you can buy for US$120 billion that you can’t buy for US$119 billion, ‘So how about if I make a little bit less money? I will tune up integrity and tune down growth.’ Yes, you can do that by switching a one to a zero.”
The Capitol riots refer to the attack on the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., by supporters of President Donald Trump in an attempted self-coup, two months after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. It was one of the topics examined in The Facebook Files, extending to the damage caused by the social network and its role in burying internal findings.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
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