The Social Network
You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.
The Social Network (2010)
Production
Budget
$40 000 000
Revenue
$224 920 315
Director
Scenario
Ben Mezrich
Author
Composer
Producer
Actors
Jesse Eisenberg
Mark Zuckerberg
Andrew Garfield
Eduardo Saverin
Armie Hammer
Cameron Winklevoss / Tyler Winklevoss
Justin Timberlake
Sean Parker
Rooney Mara
Erica Albright
Max Minghella
Divya Narendra
Brenda Song
Christy Ling
Josh Pence
Tyler Winklevoss (Body Double)
Short description
The Social Network dramatizes the founding of Facebook. At Harvard in 2003, undergraduate Mark Zuckerberg, a gifted programmer with little patience for ordinary social life, starts building something on his computer one evening after a personal humiliation. What begins as a campus project grows, with money and help from his friend Eduardo Saverin, into a company that reshapes how people communicate. Within a few years Zuckerberg is one of the youngest billionaires in history, but the rapid rise breeds conflict: the film frames the story through two lawsuits, one brought by former associates and one by a onetime friend.
David Fincher directed the eighth of the thirteen features he has made, arriving between The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay, and Scott Rudin, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin produced. Jesse Eisenberg plays Zuckerberg, with Andrew Garfield as Saverin, Armie Hammer as the Winklevoss twins, Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker, Rooney Mara as Erica Albright and Max Minghella as Divya Narendra.
The film cost about 40 million dollars and took roughly 225 million worldwide, a strong return. On IMDb it holds 7.8 from around 815,000 votes; on TMDB, 7.4 from about 13,500. A critics' rating of 9 from 335 reviews places it well above both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- No Facebook employees agreed to participate in the film.
- Shia LaBeouf, Michael Cera, and Andrew Garfield were initially considered for the role of Mark Zuckerberg.
- In the final frames of the film, a command line window is visible on Mark Zuckerberg's laptop, and it can be seen that he was 'pinging' localhost, i.e., himself.
- The opening scene featuring Jesse Eisenberg and Rooney Mara took up 8 pages of the script and required 99 takes to film.
- Despite his best efforts, director David Fincher was unable to find twin actors to play the roles of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Zuckerberg's Harvard classmates). He then cast two different actors for each brother – Armie Hammer (Cameron) and Joshua Pence (Tyler). Hammer bore the closest resemblance to the twins. Fincher's visual effects team then superimposed a CG model of Hammer's face, delivering Tyler's lines, onto Pence. Thus, Hammer played the roles of both brothers.
- In one scene, it is mentioned that after launching the social network, Mark Zuckerberg became “the most popular person, surpassing nineteen Nobel laureates, fifteen Pulitzer Prize winners, two future Olympians, and a movie star.” One of the lawyers asks, “Who was the movie star?” and receives the reply, “Does it matter?” That movie star was Natalie Portman, who attended Harvard from 1999 to 2003.
- Jesse Eisenberg's cousin worked at Facebook.
- During filming, the movie was predicted to receive an R rating due to the presence of profanity. However, harsh phrases were cut during final editing, or scenes were reshot with more “mild” expressions. As a result, the film received a PG-13 rating, which was due to the studio's desire to attract a wider audience.
- The original banner at the top of Facebook.com's homepage featured a stylized portrait of a young Al Pacino. Andrew McCollum, a friend of Mark Zuckerberg, came up with the banner design. However, in the film, the banner depicts Jesse Eisenberg, who played Mark.
- In the film, Jesse Eisenberg wears the exact same t-shirts as Mark Zuckerberg.
- Mark Zuckerberg didn't plan to watch the movie, but in the end, he watched it with his colleagues.
- 'The Social Network' is the second adaptation of Ben Mezrich's book produced by Trigger Street, Kevin Spacey's company. The first book adapted for the big screen was '21' (2008).
- Steven Soderbergh owned two of the four Red One cameras used during filming.
- David Fincher forbade the actors playing the main roles from meeting their real-life counterparts until filming was completed.
- While in university, Joshua Pence was on the rowing team and competed against the Winklevoss brothers.
- Aaron Sorkin (the film's screenwriter) played the head of an advertising company whom Mark and Eduardo meet in New York. According to Aaron, David Fincher insisted on the small role, and Aaron himself did not intend to act in the film.
- Rashida Jones, who played Marilyn Delpy, graduated from Harvard.
- During the 'Newsweek Roundtable: Oscars 2011,' Natalie Portman said she introduced Aaron Sorkin to her friends who graduated from Harvard. According to Natalie, she wanted Aaron to hear stories about life at Harvard from people who studied and lived there.
- Before filming began, Jesse Eisenberg registered on Facebook under the name Peter Sagal (the same name as the host of the radio show 'Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me!'). According to Jesse, he used the account to gather information while preparing for the role. The account was deleted after filming ended.
- According to Armie Hammer, during filming he deliberately ate a lot of fast food because he was losing weight too quickly during the rowing scenes.
- According to David Fincher, the Harvard administration was not in a hurry to assist filmmakers during shooting on university grounds. Filming at Harvard has been prohibited since the campus sustained considerable damage during the production of 'Love Story' (1970). Therefore, Harvard was "substituted" with various educational institutions, such as Johns Hopkins University and the University of Southern California.
- While preparing for his role, Armie Hammer studied Jeremy Irons' performance in 'Dead Ringers' (1988) to better understand how to portray twins.
- Aaron Sorkin directed the last shot filmed for the movie. Although the shot was not included in the final cut, it was Sorkin who announced the completion of filming.
- The total amount of footage shot was 268 hours and 35060 gigabytes, captured in 4K resolution and stored on 2192 SD cards with a capacity of 16 gigabytes each.
- According to the real Larry Summers, the scene in the film where he speaks with the Winklevoss twins is depicted with extreme accuracy.
- Alfred Molina was considered for the role of Larry Summers.
- To prepare for his role, Andrew Garfield bought the book "Economics for Dummies", and Jesse Eisenberg – "C++ for Dummies"; however, according to Jesse, they didn't get past the introduction.
- There is a Facebook page for Erika Albright, the character in the film played by Rooney Mara. The page features photos of Rooney, as well as information stating that the page owner graduated from "Boston University".
- The script included a scene where Mark and his friends jump into a pool from the roof of a house. However, during filming, the scene was rewritten, and in the film, Mark films a video of his friends jumping into the pool.
- Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects, and Adobe Premiere were used for film editing.
- According to screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, the film's creation was monitored by lawyers representing the interests of the real-life counterparts of the main characters. They insisted that nothing false or defamatory be included in the film: if the views of the real people on the circumstances of the network's creation differed, the film highlighted this discrepancy.
- Filming began in October 2009 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
- Fincher initially asked Trent Reznor to compose the film's music, but he declined due to having recently gotten married and finished a grueling tour. For several months, he felt he had let down an old friend. He finally decided to call Fincher and offer his services for future films. Fincher replied that he was still waiting for his agreement regarding 'The Social Network'.
- During the filming of the royal regatta scene on the Thames, a difficulty arose—the excessive weight of the cameras, which threatened to sink the lightweight rowing boats where they were to be placed. To solve this problem, a lightweight camera weighing less than three kilograms had to be developed. The tilt-shift effect, usually used when substituting a real landscape with miniature models, was used in the regatta scene. Fincher admits that the regatta scene feels like a foreign insertion into the fabric of the film, a kind of music video in the middle of the movie.
- In the film, Zuckerberg begins to construct an alternative social reality due to his desire to penetrate the elite circles of Harvard and his inability to form a relationship with the girl he likes. Zuckerberg himself states that he was not interested in Harvard clubs and that he met his wife, Priscilla, while still a sophomore in university.
- Fincher wanted to shoot almost all scenes in dim lighting. The most difficult part was realistically depicting the Harvard campus, as the university prohibited filming on its grounds. To film the scene at the beginning of the movie where the main character walks against the backdrop of a panoramic view of the Harvard campus, the filmmakers had to resort to tricks. As Zuckerberg walks towards the campus in twilight, the camera shoots him from the side and above, giving the scene an ominous tone, as if the viewer is secretly watching him. To avoid attracting attention, the filming was done at dusk with a minimal crew. They managed to negotiate with the city authorities of Cambridge to change the streetlights to softer halogen lighting, and a person disguised as a wandering mime provided background lighting from the university grounds.
- Another technically challenging scene is the nightclub where Parker preaches his vision of the future social network to Zuckerberg. It starts with a giant crane moving the camera from the second floor of the club to the first and then back to the second, rotating it 180 degrees there and creating a slight sense of dizziness for the viewer. In accordance with Parker's demonic character, the director wanted to give this scene a subtle touch of menace. To achieve this, LED screens were built directly into the table over which the heroes conspiratorially lean, barely hearing each other over the music, allowing them to broadcast multicolored films. The mysterious illumination of the heroes from below is intended to evoke a feeling of psychological discomfort in the viewer.
- At the end of the film, we are told that Facebook has 500 million registered users in 207 countries. At the time of the film's release, the network was used in 196 countries.
- Justin Timberlake was acquainted with Sean Parker even before filming began. Armie Hammer and Joshua Pence met the Winklevoss brothers after the film's premiere. Jesse Eisenberg and Mark Zuckerberg appeared together in one episode of SNL (Season 36, Episode 13).
- In October 2010, Sean Parker confirmed in an interview with Vanity Fair that he had met with Justin Timberlake, who wanted to learn more about his character. However, Parker assured Justin that the real Sean Parker had little in common with the Sean Parker from Aaron Sorkin's script.
- Aaron Sorkin's screenplay was based on Ben Mezrich’s book “The Accidental Billionaires: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal” (2009). Mezrich’s book did not aim for an accurate account of the circumstances surrounding the creation of the famous social network. Although his works are presented as non-fiction, the dialogues within them are fictional, and several real people may be combined into a single character. The author has repeatedly faced accusations of fictionalizing real events, so the book about Facebook was prefaced with a 285-word disclaimer stating that the chronology, details, and dialogues do not always correspond to reality.
- Justin Timberlake lost 15-17 pounds for his role in the film, believing that a lean physique would make him appear younger.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
