10 Insane Things Studios DEMANDED In Movies
6. A 2-Hour Runtime - The Social Network
If you assumed that Sony Pictures simply let director David Fincher and writer Aaron Sorkin cook unimpeded during production of their Facebook drama The Social Network, that wasn't the case at all.
The draft of the script which Sorkin turned in to Sony totalled a stonking 162 pages, and going by the typical rule of one page equating to one minute of screen time, that indicated the film would be veering dangerously close to three hours once the end credits are factored in.
Sony insisted that a film about the creation of Facebook couldn't release with such an epic runtime, and that it needed to come in at around two hours.
Sorkin, however, had a perfect rebuke - given his tendency to write snappy dialogue that's spoken at a fast speed, the typical page-per-minute rule didn't really apply, and he ascertained the final film would indeed be more shorter.
Sony were skeptical of Sorkin's claim, and so legend has it that David Fincher timed Sorkin reading the screenplay aloud, where it came in at just under two hours, allowing shooting to go ahead without any edits to Sorkin's mammoth script.