The Social Network is a 2010 American biographical drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, based on the 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich. It portrays the founding of social networking website Facebook. It stars Jesse Eisenberg as the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, with Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin, Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker, Armie Hammer as Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Max Minghella as Divya Narendra. Neither Zuckerberg nor any other Facebook staff were involved with the project, although Saverin was a consultant for Mezrich's book.^[4]

Production began when Sorkin signed to write it. Principal photography began that same year in October in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and lasted until November. Additional scenes were shot in California, in the cities of Los Angeles and Pasadena. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails composed the film's score, which was released on September 28, 2010.

The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on September 24, 2010, and was released theatrically in the United States on October 1, by Sony Pictures Releasing. A major critical and commercial success, the film grossed $224 million on a $40 million budget and was widely acclaimed by critics. It was named one of the best films of the year by 78 critics, and named the best by 22 critics, the most of any film that year. It was also chosen by the National Board of Review as the best film of 2010. At the 83rd Academy Awards, it received eight nominations, including for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Eisenberg, and won for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Film Editing. It also received awards for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Original Score at the 68th Golden Globe Awards.

The Social Network has maintained a strong reputation since its initial release, and is commonly cited by critics as one of the best films of the 2010s and 21st century.^[5][6][7][8] The Writers Guild of America ranked Sorkin's screenplay the third greatest of the 21st century.^[9] While no official sequel has been announced, Sorkin has publicly expressed interest and willingness to write a screenplay for one should Fincher return to direct.^[10]

Plot[edit]

On October 28, 2003, 19-year-old Harvard University sophomore Mark Zuckerberg is dumped by his girlfriend, Erica Albright. Returning to his dorm, Zuckerberg writes an insulting post about Albright on his LiveJournal blog. He creates a campus website called Facemash by hacking into college databases to steal photos of female students, then allowing site visitors to rate their attractiveness. After traffic to the site crashes parts of Harvard's computer network, Zuckerberg is given six months of academic probation. However, Facemash's popularity attracts the attention of twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and their business partner Divya Narendra. The trio invites Zuckerberg to work on Harvard Connection, a social network exclusive to Harvard students and aimed at dating. Zuckerberg approaches his friend Eduardo Saverin with an idea for the Facebook, a social networking website that would be exclusive to Ivy League students. Saverin provides $1,000 in seed funding, allowing Zuckerberg to build the website, which quickly becomes popular. When they learn of the Facebook, the Winklevoss twins and Narendra are incensed, believing that Zuckerberg stole their idea while misleading them by stalling development on the Harvard Connection website. They raise their complaint with Harvard President Larry Summers, who is dismissive and sees no value in disciplinary action on the Facebook or Zuckerberg.

Saverin and Zuckerberg meet fellow student Christy Lee, who asks them to "Facebook me," a phrase that impresses them. As the Facebook grows in popularity, Zuckerberg expands the network to Yale University, Columbia University, and Stanford University. Lee arranges for Saverin and Zuckerberg to meet Napster co-founder Sean Parker, who presents a "billion-dollar" vision for the company. Zuckerberg is impressed, but Saverin dismisses him as paranoid and delusional. Parker also suggests renaming the site to Facebook. Later, Zuckerberg relocates the company to Palo Alto on Parker's advice; Saverin remains in New York to work on business development. Parker later moves into the house that Zuckerberg is using as a base of operations and becomes more involved with the company, much to Saverin's annoyance.

While competing in the 2004 Henley Royal Regatta for Harvard against the Hollandia Roeiclub, the Winklevoss twins discover that Facebook has expanded to Europe with Oxford, Cambridge and LSE, and decide to sue the company for intellectual property theft. Meanwhile, Saverin objects to Parker making business decisions for Facebook and freezes the company's bank account in the resulting dispute. He relents when Zuckerberg reveals that they have secured $500,000 from angel investor Peter Thiel. Saverin becomes enraged when he discovers that the new investment deal allows his share of Facebook to be diluted from 34% to 0.03% while maintaining the ownership percentage of all other parties. He confronts Zuckerberg and Parker, and Saverin vows to sue Zuckerberg before being ejected from the building. Saverin's name is removed from the masthead as co-founder and CFO. Later, Parker is apprehended for cocaine possession at a party celebrating 1 million users. He attempts to blame Saverin, so Zuckerberg cuts ties with him, telling him to go home.

In separate depositions, the Winklevoss twins claim that Zuckerberg stole their idea, while Saverin claims his shares of Facebook were unfairly diluted when the company was incorporated. Marylin Delpy, a junior lawyer for the defense, informs Zuckerberg that they will settle with Saverin since the sordid details of Facebook's founding and Zuckerberg's callous attitude will make him unsympathetic to a jury. Alone, Zuckerberg sends a Facebook friend request to Albright and repeatedly refreshes the page.

Cast[edit]

Josh Pence is the body double for Hammer, whose likeness was digitally imposed onto Pence's body. He is listed in the end credits as playing Tyler Winklevoss alongside Hammer. He also appears in a cameo role as the man being detoured from the bathroom by Zuckerberg and Saverin.^[24]

Production[edit]

Screenplay[edit]

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, jealousy, class and power." He said he read an unfinished draft of The Accidental Billionaires when the publisher began "shopping it around" for a film adaptation. Sorkin added, "I was reading it and somewhere on page three I said yes. It was the fastest I said yes to anything ... 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."^[25]

According to Sorkin, Mezrich did not send him material from his book as he wrote it: "Two or three times we'd get together. I'd go to Boston, or we'd meet in New York and kind of compare notes and share information, but I didn't 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."^[25] Sorkin elaborated:

There's 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 can't 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 roughly the 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 that's the truest one or choosing one and deciding that's the juiciest one, I decided to dramatize the idea that there were three different versions of the story being told. That's how I came up with the structure of the deposition room.^[25]

Casting[edit]

Casting began in mid-2009, with Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, and Andrew Garfield announced to star.^[26][27] Jonah Hill was in contention for Timberlake's role, but director David Fincher passed on him.^[28] In October 2009, Brenda Song, Rooney Mara, Armie Hammer, Shelby Young, and Josh Pence were cast.^[29] Max Minghella and Dakota Johnson were also confirmed.^[29] In a 2009 interview with The Baltimore Sun, Eisenberg said, "Even though I've 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 don't 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 I've ever had in a movie".^[30] In 2010, it was mentioned that Rashida Jones would appear as Marylin Delpy.^[16]

Filming[edit]

Principal photography began in October 2009 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[31] Scenes were filmed around the campuses of two Massachusetts prep schools, Phillips Academy and Milton Academy.^[32] Additional scenes were filmed on the campus of Wheelock College, which was set up to be Harvard's campus.^[33] (Harvard has turned down most requests for on-location filming ever since the filming of Love Story (1970), which caused significant physical damage to trees on campus.)^[34] Filming took place on the Keyser and Wyman quadrangles in the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University from November 2–4,^[35] which also doubled for Harvard in the film.^[36] The first scene in the film, where Zuckerberg is with his girlfriend, took 99 takes to finish.^[4] The film was shot on the Red One digital cinema camera.^[37] The rowing scenes with the Winklevoss brothers were filmed at Community Rowing Inc. in Newton, Massachusetts^[38] and at the Henley Royal Regatta; miniature faking process was used in a sequence showing a rowing event at the latter.^[39] 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.

Armie Hammer, who portrayed the Winklevoss twins, acted alongside body double Josh Pence while his scenes were filmed. His face was later digitally grafted onto Pence's face during post-production, while other scenes used split-screen photography. Pence was concerned about having no face time during the role, but after considerable musing thought of the role as a "no-brainer". He also appears in a cameo role elsewhere in the film.^[24] Hammer states that director David Fincher "likes to push himself and likes to push technology" and is "one of the most technologically minded guys I've ever seen."^[40] This included sending the actors to "twin boot camp" for 10 months to learn everything about the Winklevosses.^[24]

Rowing production[edit]

Harvard's rowing tradition is depicted in the film.

Community 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.^[41] 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 England during production.^[42]

David Fincher hired Loyola Marymount coach Dawn Reagan to help train Josh Pence and Armie Hammer.^[43] While Hammer was new to the sport, Pence rowed previously at Dartmouth College.^[43]

The indoor rowing scene was filmed at Boston University's indoor rowing tanks. All of BU's blue oars in the scene were repainted to Harvard's crimson   color for filming. Dan Boyne was the official rowing consultant in the US and the UK.^[42]

Soundtrack[edit]

On June 1, 2010, it was announced that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross would score the film.^[44] The soundtrack was released September 28 in various formats under the Null Corporation label.^[45] Leading up to the release of the soundtrack, a free five-track EP was made available for download.^[46] The White Stripes' song "Ball and Biscuit" can be heard in the opening of the film and The Beatles' song "Baby, You're a Rich Man" concludes the film. Neither song appears on the soundtrack album. Reznor and Ross won the award for Best Original Score at the 2011 Golden Globe Awards,^[47] as well as the 2011 Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Marketing[edit]

Poster[edit]

The first theatrical poster, designed by Neil Kellerhouse, was released on June 18, 2010.^[48] As Kellerhouse previously designed posters for the films of Steven Soderbergh, director David Fincher's friend, he was contacted by Ceán Chaffin in late 2009 to work on the key art for The Social Network, which had to make sole use of one approved photograph, that of Eisenberg's head.^[49] As he wanted to highlight the tremendous drama that went with Mark Zuckerberg's success, Kellerhouse thought of the tagline "You don't get to 300 million friends without making a few enemies"; he would later adjust the line to "500 million friends" in anticipation of Facebook reaching 500 million users by the film's release date.^[49] Kellerhouse's poster has been praised for its unique and "striking" design, and alongside his work for the film I'm Still Here, has since become influential in film marketing; posters for The King's Speech and The Armstrong Lie strongly evoked the poster's design format.^[50][51]

Trailers[edit]

The film's first teaser trailer was released on June 25, 2010.^[52] The second teaser was released on July 8.^[53] The full length theatrical trailer debuted on July 16, 2010, which plays an edited version of the song "Creep", originally by Radiohead, covered by the Belgian choir group Scala & Kolacny Brothers.^[54][55] The trailer was then shown in theaters, prior to the films Inception, Dinner for Schmucks, Salt, Easy A, The Virginity Hit, and The Other Guys. The theatrical trailer, put together by Mark Woollen & Associates, won the Grand Key Art award at the 2011 Key Art Awards,^[56] sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter, and was also featured on The Film Informant's Perfect 10 Trailers in 2010.^[57]

Release