{"id":649105,"date":"2026-10-09T01:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T01:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/649105\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T01:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T01:34:10","slug":"the-social-reckoning-aaron-sorkin-wont-rule-out-a-zuckerberg-trilogy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/649105\/","title":{"rendered":"The Social Reckoning: Aaron Sorkin Won’t Rule Out a Zuckerberg Trilogy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAaron Sorkin<\/a> had no intention of returning to the world of Facebook.<\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, people tried to talk him into it. They\u2019d ask, \u201cWhat about Russia\u2019s interference in the 2016 election via Facebook? What about the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal? What about the platform\u2019s role in the Rohingya genocide?\u201d But the Oscar-winning writer of 2010\u2019s The Social Network<\/a> remained determined not to go back to that well.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen something happened that should terrify every current or aspiring writer \u2014 Sorkin suffered the longest stretch of writer\u2019s block he\u2019d ever experienced. Fortunately, in 2023, two books hit the shelves from former Facebook product manager-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen (The Power of One) and former WSJ tech reporter Jeff Horwitz (Broken Code), chronicling their efforts to expose Facebook\u2019s concerted prioritization of profit and engagement over public safety.<\/p>\n

\n\tFeeling inspired for the first time in over a year, Sorkin proceeded to meet with each of them to conduct further research. But he still didn\u2019t have a way into a potential Social Network companion movie until Haugen volunteered a personal anecdote.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI asked Frances a question, which was, \u2018One day you were a Facebook whistleblower. The day before that, you weren\u2019t. What happened?’\u201d Sorkin tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of The Social Reckoning<\/a>\u2019s Oct. 9 release. \u201cShe happened to mention casually, \u2018I had a friend who was radicalized by spending too much time on Facebook.\u2019 Suddenly, I got an idea for what is now the opening scene of the film, and it started to look like a movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWritten and directed by Sorkin, The Social Reckoning begins with a lengthy sequence involving a character named Kayleigh, who is standing outside her broken-down vehicle on the side of the highway. When a Black police officer and his Latina superior arrive later and suspect Kayleigh of driving under the influence, the interaction devolves into the kind of \u201cKaren\u201d meltdown video that often went viral during the pandemic. Mr. Robot fan favorite Portia Doubleday, as Kayleigh, plays the racially charged encounter with chilling intensity in her first acting role since 2020. Her inciting incident is eventually bookended in equally shocking fashion.<\/p>\n

\n\tOnce he had his table-setter for a Haugen and Horwitz-centered story, Sorkin would not let anything get in his way, even when he couldn\u2019t reunite with the director and lead actor of The Social Network, David Fincher<\/a> and Jesse Eisenberg<\/a>. Fincher informed him that his Netflix deal precluded him from returning to the director\u2019s chair. He was, however, the first person to read Sorkin\u2019s script, calling it \u201cnitroglycerin.\u201d Then, in an unexpected twist, Eisenberg declined the offer because he was unwilling to reaffiliate himself with the man behind his most signature role, Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg.<\/p>\n

\n\tUndaunted, Sorkin took on directing duties himself, casting Oscar winner Mikey Madison<\/a> as Haugen and Emmy winner Jeremy Allen White<\/a> as Horwitz, before recruiting his Molly\u2019s Game and The Trial of the Chicago 7 actor Jeremy Strong to fill the shoes of the controversial tech billionaire.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI went to Jeremy Strong, who I believe is our best American actor under 50 years old. He gives a thunderous performance in the film,\u201d Sorkin asserts. \u201cI was my second choice to direct. David Fincher is my first choice to direct everything, but David had an exclusive deal at Netflix. So he became an enthusiastic cheerleader.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for the future, Sorkin doesn\u2019t have any current plans to helm a Zuckerberg trilogy capper, but, as became the case with The Social Reckoning, he\u2019s certainly open to it if a compelling idea materializes organically. \u201cIf a good story comes along and it takes place at Facebook, sure,\u201d adds Sorkin.<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, during a conversation with THR, Sorkin also explains why he\u2019s both optimistic and pessimistic about the various AI-related issues that have emerged since Haugen blew the whistle in 2021.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAaron Sorkin on the set of The Social Reckoning with his Frances Haugen actor, Mikey Madison.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEverett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tOver the years, there\u2019s probably been no shortage of potential stories that could have constituted a Social Network follow-up: the 2016 election, Cambridge Analytica, Myanmar. Did you test-drive any of those ideas before Frances Haugen\u2019s story became undeniable?<\/p>\n

\n\tI was not looking to get back into the world of Facebook at all. Those moments that you mentioned, people would suggest to me, \u201cHey, you should write another movie about Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, Myanmar, et cetera.\u201d But I just didn\u2019t see where the good movie was. And then a few years ago I was experiencing an epic bout of writer\u2019s block. It lasted longer than a year. I was banging my head against the wall. I just couldn\u2019t. I didn\u2019t have any ideas of what to do next. It felt like I was never going to have another idea.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen I met Frances Haugen [after the release of her book The Power of One]. After really spending hours over a period of months talking to her and hours over a period of months talking to Jeff Horwitz, what I had was a lot of information. But it still wasn\u2019t in the shape of a movie until I asked Frances a question, which was, \u201cWhat was the inciting action? One day you were a Facebook whistleblower. The day before that, you weren\u2019t. What happened?\u201d And she happened to mention casually, \u201cI had a friend who was radicalized by spending too much time on Facebook.\u201d Suddenly, I got an idea for what is now the opening scene of the film, and it started to look like a movie.<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore a film can be anything else, before it can be relevant, before it can be thought provoking, it has to be good. It has to work as a movie. It has to work as something that you watch while you\u2019re eating popcorn. And that\u2019s what I found with Frances. Not only was this, as it happened, a very important story, but what I was immediately attracted to was, This is a good movie. It\u2019s a whistleblower movie. It\u2019s a newspaper movie in the vein of All the President\u2019s Men, The Insider and Spotlight.<\/p>\n

\n\tJesse Eisenberg didn\u2019t want to be further associated with Mark Zuckerberg, and David Fincher was confined to the high steel of Netflix. After those setbacks, did you ever waver about moving forward?<\/p>\n

\n\tI didn\u2019t. You\u2019re right that Jesse just didn\u2019t want to be conflated any longer with Mark Zuckerberg. So I went to Jeremy Strong, who I believe is our best American actor under 50 years old. He gives a thunderous performance in the film. You\u2019re right again that I was my second choice to direct it. David Fincher is my first choice to direct everything, but David had an exclusive deal at Netflix. So he became an enthusiastic cheerleader. He was the first person to read the script.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJeremy Strong, as Mark Zuckerberg, in Aaron Sorkin\u2019s The Social Reckoning.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSony Pictures<\/p>\n

\n\tSo many new problems have emerged since Frances Haugen testified to Congress in 2021. AI was force-fed into the mainstream the following year, opening an entirely new can of worms across social media and virtually every other walk of life. Is this all a losing battle at this point?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt feels that way, doesn\u2019t it? It feels like the horse has bolted the barn. But this film, in spite of the final sequence, actually ends on an optimistic note. Frances, in a David-versus-Goliath story, picks up a rock and hurls it at Goliath and hits. And there are two Davids, really, because print journalism is the other David. They also hit tech with a rock.<\/p>\n

\n\tYes, I very much appreciated the film\u2019s defense of actual journalists.<\/p>\n

\n\tI was asked the other day, \u201cWhat movies would I like to see Hollywood make?\u201d And my answer was more movies where print journalists are the heroes.<\/p>\n

\n\tHollywood loves the rule of three, so do you see yourself completing your Zuckerberg trilogy someday?<\/p>\n

\n\tI didn\u2019t think that there would be a second one. I wasn\u2019t eager to get back in this world. Whenever I\u2019m done with something, I\u2019m always like Sisyphus at the bottom of the mountain again. This movie opens Oct. 9. On Oct. 10, I\u2019m going to be at the bottom of the mountain, and I will have no idea. So if a good story comes along and it takes place at Facebook, sure.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis question was prompted by that recent image of Zuckerberg at the White House with the other AI bros. Does it make your blood boil to know that your life\u2019s work has been fed into their AI models in order to generate a poor imitation?<\/p>\n

\n\tYes, but what drives me crazier is the fact that we need laws passed, and it\u2019s not going to happen as long as those tech bros, the billionaire tech oligarchs, are financing the campaigns for the people who have to make the laws.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs far as film and television and AI go, I\u2019ll be called crazy for this, but I\u2019m optimistic because I think the audience is going to reject it. If you woke up tomorrow morning and found out that John Lennon\u2019s \u201cImagine\u201d was written by a machine, you would suddenly find the song kind of silly. We may not know the name of the person who wrote a song, the name of the person who directed a movie or the name of the person who wrote a movie, but we\u2019re going to find out that it matters to us that it was a person. Our relationship to art is illogical, and I think we\u2019re going to find out that the human element is important to us.<\/p>\n

\n\tI was optimistic a few weeks ago when a now-former Anthropic researcher [Jacob Coxon] sounded the alarm<\/a> about the threat level facing humanity. Other AI insiders and leaders then validated his warnings, and it seemed like we were finally heading in the right direction. But since then, the White House has done everything possible to downplay and minimize those concerns, essentially doing the Leslie Nielsen \u201cnothing to see here\u201d routine. So I want to share your optimism, but I\u2019m struggling to.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019re 100 percent right. I\u2019m not nuts. There is no reason for optimism until we\u2019ve changed out this set of leaders.<\/p>\n

\n\t***
The Social Reckoning opens in theaters on Oct. 9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aaron Sorkin had no intention of returning to the world of Facebook. Of course, people tried to talk…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[33444,321,24748,93,61,60,28305,24594,127122,33445,36089],"class_list":["post-649105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-aaron-sorkin","tag-celebrities","tag-david-fincher","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jeremy-allen-white","tag-jesse-eisenberg","tag-mikey-madison","tag-the-social-network","tag-the-social-reckoning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}