{"id":943922,"date":"2026-10-28T12:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T12:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/943922\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T12:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T12:20:11","slug":"aaron-sorkin-on-not-directing-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/943922\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Sorkin On Not Directing Well"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Sony Pictures<\/p>\n

\u201cThe West Wing\u201d creator and \u201cThe Social Network\u201d writer Aaron Sorkin has offered something you don\u2019t get a lot of in Hollywood \u2013 humility.<\/p>\n

In the wake of \u201cThe Social Reckoning\u201d bombing both critically and commercially, Sorkin has been surprisingly upfront about his own self-doubt about his talents as a director.<\/p>\n

Some filmmakers are truly great directors but not so great screenwriters, Sorkin is the opposite. The man has penned some legendary films from \u201cA Few Good Men\u201d and \u201cMoneyball,\u201d to \u201cThe American President,\u201d \u201cMalice\u201d and \u201cSteve Jobs\u201d as well as creating shows like \u201cThe Newsroom,\u201d \u201cSports Night\u201d and \u201cStudio 60 on the Sunset Strip\u201d,<\/p>\n

In 2017 he took his first foray into directing with the Jessica Chastain-led \u201cMolly\u2019s Game,\u201d followed by 2020\u2019s \u201cThe Trial of the Chicago 7,\u201d and \u201cBeing the Ricardos\u201d. All three received praise for the script and performances, but the direction was seen as something not at the same standard.<\/p>\n

Speaking with THR<\/a> at the Newport Beach Film Festival, he says working alongside genuine directing auteurs like David Fincher and Danny Boyle didn\u2019t rub off:<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised by how little of the science of filmmaking I\u2019d managed to absorb. I have no visual sensibility, it turns out\u2026 There\u2019s a big part of me that feels like I just got into the movie business a few minutes ago, and that there\u2019s so much I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

From time to time, I get to speak with screenwriting students, and I\u2019ll be asked, \u2018Is screenwriting something that can be taught?\u2019 And the answer is, \u2018There are parts of screenwriting \u2014 important parts \u2014 that can be taught and can be learned, but there are parts that can\u2019t be.<\/p>\n

And those parts that can\u2019t be? That\u2019s usually what we mean when we use the word \u2018talent.\u2019 I\u2019m very worried that the parts of directing that I\u2019m not good at are those parts that you can\u2019t learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds he would have \u201crather David Fincher directed it.. but David has an exclusive deal at Netflix, and this was owned by Sony.\u201d So he ended up helming the film which cost $40 million to make and has grossed just $15 million worldwide so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sony Pictures \u201cThe West Wing\u201d creator and \u201cThe Social Network\u201d writer Aaron Sorkin has offered something you don\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":943923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,142132,134],"class_list":["post-943922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bigslider","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=943922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/943923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}