6. The Social Network: Don't Believe Anything You Read About The Internet
Columbia PicturesThat Ben Mezrich fella pops up again, with his book The Accidental Billionaires serving as the basis for David Fincher's surprisingly dark and bombastic story of the founding of Facebook and all the nastiness that ensued. With the framing device of Jesse Eisenberg's social misfit Mark Zuckerberg at not one but two depositions, having screwed over his former business partners Eduardo (played by Andrew Garfield) and the Winklevoss Twins (both played by Armie Hammer, with the help of some computer magic). Surprisingly, the story of The Social Network is incredibly cinematic, full of betrayal and broken friendships and Greek tragedy. And the Alton Towers music.
What really happened: Mezrich actually didn't make up as much with this book compared to Bringing Down The House, mostly telling the story courtesy of court documents and extensive interviews with the real life Eduardo Saverin. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, celebrated boffin behind The West Wing and the lesser-spotted creator of Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, took a few more liberties with the facts when he was adapting Mezrich's book for the film, mind. Although we probably can't blame Sorkin for the casting of white Englishman Garfield as the thoroughly Brazilian Eduardo. If only there was a word for that kind of casting choice... We can probably blame him for everything else, though. Especially since he started writing his script before the book was even written, having leapt onto the project after reading Mezrich's twelve page outline for the Accidental Billionaires. They didn't even share resources, although Sorkin did a lot of first hand research, with people whose identities he claims he can't reveal. Apparently one of those wasn't Zuckerberg, however, who gives a totally different version of events: he wasn't inspired to make Thefacebook because he got dumped, or because he wanted to get into one of the elite Harvard clubs. He didn't care about the clubs, and the real-life inspiration for Rooney Mara's Erica Albright has strongly disputed her portrayal in the film. Zuckerberg was actually a pretty popular guy, having plenty of friends and girlfriends during his time at Harvard. In fact he met his wife, Priscilla Chan, during the events of The Social Network. Eduardo also played a lot smaller part in the site's development compared to, say, minor characters like Dustin Moskovitz. In fact the site nearly died while Saverin wasn't supporting the site in Palo Alto, with Zuckerberg having to rely on a crisis loan from his parents. Basically, Eduardo wasn't as much of a victim as the film shows him to be, everyone was much nicer, and Facebook's development was more a clumsy series of accidents than a Westeros-style chronicle of betrayal and intrigue. Oh, but the real Mark Zuckerberg did once have a business card that "I'm CEO... bitch." So he's probably a little bit of a tit.