http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10292321-36.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1\
_3-0-20

'Social Network' script: A meaner take on Facebook
by Caroline McCarthy

I have my hands on a copy of "The Social Network," the screenplay that "West
Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin has adapted from "The Accidental
Billionaires"--author Ben Mezrich's tawdry tale of Facebook's origins that was
released last week. Though I'm not gushing over it the way script blogger Carson
Reeves did when he read it, I think it's a decent screenplay. With a good cast
and production team, this movie might be quite enjoyable.

This could be a concern for Facebook. I'm guessing the company is already far
enough along so that it doesn't have to worry about negative onscreen portrayals
of its founder hurting its chances of a successful IPO, but the screenplay is
smart and nasty enough--more so than the book it's based on--that it could raise
PR issues regardless.

"The Social Network" follows the plot of "Accidental Billionaires" pretty
precisely, with the most notable deviation being that there is an increased
focus on Zuckerberg himself--Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, who was
Mezrich's main source for the book (he didn't talk to Zuckerberg), takes a bit
of a back burner. But it's still the same narrative about Mark Zuckerberg
founding Facebook as an undergraduate at Harvard, and then facing opposition
both internally (from Saverin) and externally (from Cameron and Tyler
Winklevoss, the twin co-founders of would-be Facebook rival ConnectU).

The dialogue--remember, Mezrich's book is dialogue-light--is snappy and witty,
with a fast-paced, back-and-forth feel to it that "West Wing" fans will
recognize as very Sorkin-esque. On paper, though, it comes across as much more
slick and polished than real-life dialogue would have been (and it's up to the
skills of the actors to ensure that this doesn't translate to onscreen
cheesiness). And it treats the founding of Facebook with more gravitas than
"Accidental Billionaires" does: scenes of the social network's early days at
Harvard are interspersed with snippets from later court depositions between
Zuckerberg and Saverin, as well as Zuckerberg and the ConnectU founders.

But the most notable difference is that, perhaps because of the infusion of
dialogue, Zuckerberg is a significantly more dislikeable character than he is in
the book, where he's painted as simply enigmatic and a little detached. In the
screenplay, he's far more class-conscious and his lines are typically weighted
with snarky arrogance. The question of whether Zuckerberg was duping the
ConnectU founders by working on Facebook while ostensibly in their employ is
addressed much more decisively than in the book--and it's not favorable to
Zuckerberg.

At the end, he's allowed a little bit of a denouement, and who knows what will
happen in script revisions. But for now, I can see why an entertainment industry
source said that the producers have been hoping to cast an audience-friendly
young actor. The onscreen version of Zuckerberg could easily come across as
utterly obnoxious.

Actually, to put it bluntly, none of the main characters are all that
sympathetic. The Winklevoss twins come across as aggressive and vindictive;
Saverin is neurotic and money-obsessed; onetime Facebook exec Sean Parker is a
scheming lush; and then-Harvard president Larry Summers, who has a small role,
is pretty much just a blowhard. That probably doesn't bode well for the
producers' attempt to actually film parts of the movie on Harvard's campus,
since I'm fairly sure that a prestigious university doesn't want to be depicted
onscreen as a hub for serious douchebaggery.

When I read "The Accidental Billionaires," I predicted that it was safely fluffy
enough that Facebook (and Zuckerberg) probably wouldn't have much of a problem
with it. But the screenplay for "The Social Network" is edgier and meaner. At
one point, during a fired-up moment for the ConnectU guys, Cameron Winklevoss
says of Zuckerberg, "Let's f***ing gut that little nerd!" And when Zuckerberg is
told by the Winklevosses' lawyer that the twins come from a family worth
hundreds of millions of dollars, Zuckerberg retorts with, "Or roughly the amount
I paid in income tax last year."

Oh, snap.

On a totally different note: Does "The Social Network" botch it when it comes to
discussions of technology, venture capital, and Web development? Not really. I
sent a few lines of dialogue depicting a Harvard computer science class to an
engineer friend who said that it was fairly spot-on. Of course, the dialogue in
the court deposition scenes is a little more exciting than it probably was in
real life. But let's face it: this is Hollywood.

And the awesomest-slash-cheesiest line? In my opinion, the award goes to Tyler
Winklevoss in yet another scene where he and Cameron are talking about how to
get back at Zuckerberg: "I'm six-five, 220 pounds, and there are two of me."