Aaron Sorkin is officially working on a sequel toThe Social Network.
Last year, the Oscar-winning writerrevealedhe was working on a film that would revisit the subject of Facebook, andDeadlinehas now reported that The Social Network Part II is in development at Sony Pictures yet isn’t a “straight sequel”.
The original film, which traced the early days of Facebook and its creatorMark Zuckerberg, was directed by David Fincher. Sorkin is rumoured to be directing the follow-up.
“I blame Facebook for January 6,” he said in 2024 on a special edition ofThe Town podcast, live from Washington DC. When asked to explain why, he responded: “You’re gonna need to buy a movie ticket.”
The Social Network was an adaptation of Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires, and the sequel will be based on the Wall Street Journal seriesThe Facebook Files. The 2021 investigation examined the damage caused by the social networking site and how internal findings had been buried. Subjects included the influence on the January 6 riot and the mental health of teenage users.
“Facebook has been, among other things, tuning its algorithm to promote the most divisive material possible,” Sorkin said. He added: “There is supposed to be a constant tension atFacebookbetween growth and integrity – there isn’t.
Jesse Eisenberg, who earned an Oscar nomination for playing Zuckerberg in the original, has yet to be officially attached to the project. He recently directed the Oscar-winning comedy dramaA Real Painand will next be seen in the thirdNow You See Memovie.
The Social Network made $224m worldwide and won three Oscars.
Zuckerberg has been critical of the film, including in a recentpodcast interview.
“It was weird, man,” he said. “They got all these very specific details of what I was wearing, or these specific things correct, but then the whole narrative arc around my motivations and all this stuff were, like, completely wrong.”
Sorkin’s last film wasBeing the Ricardos, starring Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball.