THE SOCIAL NETWORK Pre-Release Discussion

Of all the people who hunger to get laid, I guess that I would expect nerds to be high at the top of the list.

Sounds really interesting, Alan. I may have to pick up that book for myself. I have no idea what Sorkin and Fincher could possibly do with this story. I feel like I need some context-- Mezrich's book can, I assume, fix that. And I suppose that the general idea of making a "Facebook" movie is so bizarre that I'm intrigued right off the bat. The talent involved is, frankly, icing on the cake.

There better be some walking AND talking going on, is all I'm sayin'. Don't let me down Sorkin!

Heh. Sorkin's participation is the only factor that has me evenly remotely interested in this.

No love for Fincher? I think it's a great combination of talent. And the cast is pretty great too.
I'm really looking forward to it.

Yeah, I'm just gonna label Benjamin Button as "odd misfire". It's a bizarre idea for a film, but the talent that's been attracted is exactly what's interesting me.

Accidental Billionaires strikes me as a much better title than The Social Network.

I like Fincher, but it just seems like odd source material for him. I haven't seen all of his flicks, but I don't associate him with strong, likable characters like I do Sorkin (or like this story seems to call for). His style strikes me as a bit cold or removed.

Shrug. I remain mildly interested. We'll see.

As a title, THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES has more of an immediate, fun human hook to it, which is probably exactly why Fincher is opting for the more cold, aloof THE SOCIAL NETWORK.

I'm really not a huge Fincher fan. The guy made the absolutely brilliant Zodiac but everything else has been flawed. I just find his films impersonal and stilted.

Sorkin on the other hand has written some amazing stuff.

wut

Pretty much what it says. I dislike Alien 3. I think Fight Club while having some interesting things is cold and calculating*. The Game is interesting but again Fincher's style is so distancing that I had a tough time with the characters. Seven is a mess. Benjamin Button is far more cold and calculating than Fight Club despite having a premise that requires warmth for the characters. And I think Zodiac is one of the best movies of the last decade.

*I understand that part of the theme of Fight Club is helped by that distance but Fincher doesn't shake that style until Zodiac so I suspect it's more that his natural style matched theme rather than creating a style that matched the theme (if that makes sense).

What about PANIC ROOM? I don't think it's a particularly great movie but I wouldn't accuse it of the director distancing himself from the characters at the sake of style (though the movie did feel needlessly stylistic at times).

Gadz, I forgot about Panic Room. I only watched it on it's theatrical release so I may be forgetting things but the stylistic choices, while not distancing, certainly seemed out of place. It didn't build a tempo or a rhythm at all because of those choices.

Fincher is what makes me excited/interested about the film.

Agreed with Nordling. Seven is tight, and an exceptional film.

FWIW, the book was interesting, but extremely one-sided (Zuckerberg REALLY comes off badly), with some seriously overheated prose. I could easily imagine a film version improving on it. I agree that the title change seems odd to me, and wonder if there is some legal/contractual basis for it.

Accidential Billionaires was proven to be largely exagerated and embellshed, and I'm pretty sure Sorkin threw out the book and did his own homework. (Or his assistants did, he's a big proponent of reasearch assisstants.) I think the draft that I have doesn't cite the Billionares book. And since we know Fincher is insane about accuracy re: his real life stuff (see visiting the Zodiac sites, doing his own research independent of Graysmith, etc.), I'm betting we'll get something that may be unfair to Zuckerberg, but at least more honest than Billionares.

I have to disagree with both you AND Ryan. I think Seven is a very fun and slick thriller, but it's also very shallow and doesn't really say anything, unlike Fight Club. In fact, part of what I love about Zodiac is the way it playfully mocks some of the typical "themed serial killer" tropes that Seven deals in.

At any rate, this movie will be a good proving ground for Black Hole, to see if Finch can handle a teenage ensemble. Black Hole is the Fincher project I'm most interested in, and the one I have the most reservations about him being able to handle. If Black Hole is even going to happen.

See, I agree with all of this except the 'fun' part. It's dull and tonally inconsistent.

I was a die-hard Fincher loyalist for years. I saw through the flaws of ALIEN 3, a burn victim of a movie that I still saw beauty in. I had my ass handed to me by SEVEN, with its devastating power restrained by almost Kubrickian precision. I was fully intrigued by THE GAME, a curious and meticulously-designed puzzle for middle-brow adults. But then it was FIGHT CLUB that woke me up to Fincher's potential weaknesses as a director. Even though the film is a entertaining blast in its own right, Fincher was increasingly becoming more about the architecture and mechanics of his filmmaking rather about than the hearts and souls of his characters. Even on the FIGHT CLUB DVD, Fincher can be heard saying, "Now if I can only get rid of the actors...the fucking people..." I think that shows increasingly with most of the films that followed. PANIC ROOM is a lifeless technical exercise. BENJAMIN BUTTON is even worse...a lifeless technical exercise pretending to be a heartwarming human drama but really just an Oscar-pandering "For Your Consideration" ad. The only exception to Fincher's increasingly aloof filmmaking is the brilliant ZODIAC, a film I could easily watch two or three more hours of once the current cut ends. The Fincher precision is still in full effect but his ensemble cast is so amazing and his obvious love of the subject matter (San Francisco in the '70s; not the Zodiac Killer) that the film soars above the rest of his oeuvre.

Having said all that, my anticipation for THE SOCIAL NETWORK is decidedly in the "meh" zone. I'll still see it opening day, of course.

Tonally inconsistant, yes, but as a horror guy I find the gruesome deaths & makeup to be a lot of fun. The movie's also very well-paced until the end of the second act, where things get a little directionless. Upon a recent rewatch my biggest problem is that the detectives really don't do anything at all. Still think it's fun.

The script is really really really really really great.

And David Fincher is perfect for this film if you know the character of Mark Zuckerberg.

I'm actually excited for this because of Jesse Eisenberg, who was great in The Squid and the Whale, Adventureland, and Zombieland.

I'm excited if the Fincher of Zodiac is directing this movie. If it's Ben Button Fincher... mmm, not so much.

The full-length trailer is so tasty. I caught it before Inception and just now watched it a few more times on Yahoo. The choral version of "Creep" works really well and it's nice to see some footage. Visually, it looks a lot like Zodiac did. The teasers didn't really amp up my excitement, but this full trailer definitely has.

Seven lovers, Fight Club lovers and Fincher haters.

Can we come together and all agree that Panic Room and Benjamin Button kinda suck?

Really looking forward to this one, though. Love the trailer and it feels like Fincher is branching out, but in a natural direction (unlike Button, which felt forced coming from him).

I don't really think I could have said it better myself about Fincher. Its interesting Seven impressed me with its visuals but not much else and it was Fight Club where I felt how hollow Fincher had become.

The guy is so insanely talented and Zodiac is just really impressive. I found myself massively disappointed in Button (which I only saw about 6 months ago).

This movie looks interesting but Fincher should be doing bigger more epic pictures. After Zodiac I would have loved to have seen him take on the Eliot Ness serial killer flick.

Agreed about Panic Room that film gets weaker as it goes along its running time.

I agree... I was overwhelmed at first by Button's technical audacity, but it's such a schmaltzy, empty work.... more or less a series of curiosities, beautifully photographed.

To be fair to Fincher regarding him doing Button, he needed a hit after one of the best films he's ever likely to make tanked at the box office. Blame mainstream audiences for that empty exercise in oscar baiting.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON is nowhere near as bad as folks make it out to be. If any movie from recent years gets an undeserved beating, it's that one. It's not a masterpiece; it fails to explore the full potential of its central conceit, and most of its notions are truisms rather than profound notions. But nevertheless, it is far from a terrible film, and has many, many moments that work exceedingly well.

This is true... I guess he re-earned his bona fides on Button, showing that he's not the problematic curmudgeon marginalized into directing films about serial killers that he's made out to be.* So, yeah, I wouldn't blame the audiences, but hollywood for dumping "Zodiac" into theaters.

*I don't agree with that, but it was the popular sentiment pre-"Button" I think.

I blame the Forrest Gump writer. The story is crap you could get Kurosawa to do it and it'd still be crap. Fincher should have been nowhere near it.

Zodiac flopping is its own sad story but Button should not have been penance for it.

I'm not suggesting it was penance to the audience or people like us - it was one for the suits to prove he could still be a viable Hollywood commodity. Regardless of our thoughts on the final product, that point was proven to the money-men who unfortunately matter a lot more in the overall scheme of Finchers career than the actual creative quality of his output.

Fincher definitely needed a hit but it wasn't just a 'one for them' paycheque gig for him. He genuinely gave a crap about making a good movie.

ZODIAC was never going to be a huge hit. It's too long and slow paced for most people, and there's no resolution. Personally I found it gripping but the average person looking for fun on a Friday night wouldn't enjoy it.

Having said that, the release could have been a LOT better. Build awareness for it and release it in October or November, not fucking Feburary.

Viral campaign for Fincher

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-f...founded-2010-3
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/...pects-forgery/