Aaron Sorkin is apparently in the weeds of a new screenplay thatโs being styled as a potential sequel to The Social Network, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Academy Award-winning scribe behind West Wing, Moneyball, and A Few Good Men broke the news himself during a recent appearance on The Town podcast. And it sounds far more politically charged than the first David Fincher-directed film starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, and Armie Hammer.
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โI blame Facebook for January 6,โ he explained when prompted about how the social media platform (and social media as a whole) has influenced democracy in the years since 2010.
When questioned about how specifically, Sorkin replied: โYouโre going to need to buy a movie ticket.โ
โFacebook has been, among other things, tuning its algorithm to promote the most divisive material possible. Because that is what will increase engagement. That is what will get you to โ what they call inside the hallways of Facebook โ โthe infinite scroll,โโ he continued.
โThereโs supposed to be a constant tension at Facebook between growth and integrity. There isnโt. Thereโs just growth.โ
โIf Mark Zuckerberg woke up tomorrow morning and realised there is nothing you can buy for $120 billion that you canโt buy for $119 billion dollars, โSo how about if I make a little bit less money? I will tune up integrity and tune down growth.โ Yes, you can do that by switching a one to a zero.โ
Aaron Sorkin has previously alluded to something being in development. However, he seems to have backflipped on his sole condition for taking on such a project: only writing if David Fincher returns to direct.
Back in 2021, he revealed legendary film producer Scott Rudin had repeatedly slid into his inbox, asking about whether it was time to give the people a long-awaited follow-up.
โIโve gotten more than one email from him with an article attached saying, โIsnโt it time for a sequel?โโ said Aaron Sorkin.
โFirst of all, I know a lot more about Facebook in 2005 than I do in 2018 โ but I know enough to know that there should be a sequel.โ
Elsewhere, during his appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Sorkin reiterated his desire to make The Social Network sequel.
โI do want to see it. And Scott [Rudin] wants to see it. People have been talking to me about it. What weโve discovered is the dark side of Facebookโฆ [former Facebook/Meta Platforms COO Sheryl] Sandberg and [Mark] Zuckerberg seem uninterested in doing anything about it,โ he said.
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Sorkin added: โThis all ends up with [Facebook investor Roger] McNamee in a Senate basement secure conference room briefing Senate Intelligence subcommittee members on how Facebook is bringing down democracy. โWe have a huge problem here and something needs to be done about it.โโ
At the time, Sorkin had been in discussion with McNamee to adapt the latterโs book Zucked โ an โintimate reckoningโ with the catastrophic failures of Facebook as a platform, the ensuing damage to democracy it has caused, and the โeven more unsettling realisation that Zuckerberg and Sandberg [were] unable or unwilling to share McNameeโs concerns.โ
Stay tuned for any relevant updates on The Social Network sequel.
