In an article from the New York Times, Facebook appears to have made its decision on how to handle The Social Network–ignore it.
“After fretting for months over how to respond, the company appears to have decided that its best bet is to largely ignore the movie and hope that audiences do the same — that “The Social Network” will be another failed attempt to bottle a generation, like Less Than Zero, and not culturally defining, as it aspires to be, in the way of Wall Street or The Big Chill‘.”
Zuckerberg has been very outspoken (relatively speaking) about the truth of the book. The Facebook founder, and billionaire by 26, has stated that the book is not the truth, but a work of fiction.
As the NYT states, “By his account, and that of many others, much in the film is simply not true. It is based on a fictionalized book once described by its publicist not as ‘reportage’ but as ‘big juicy fun’.”
Responding to the book the movie is based on, Chris Hughes (Facebook co-founder and member of the Obama presidential campaign) said to the Times, “It’s crazy because all of a sudden Mark becomes this person who created Facebook to get girls or to gain power. That’s not what was going on. It was a little more boring and quotidian than that.”
The real question is: How will Facebook execs respond to the movie. Well, according to the article, a few verdicts are already in. “Scott Rudin, a producer of “The Social Network,” said two top Facebook executives, Elliot Schrage, the vice president of communications, and Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer, “saw the movie a while ago, and they do not like it.”
Zuckerberg declined to be interviewed for the article, which surprised no one.
The Social Network opens October 1st, 2010.
Article written by Lee C. Jaster on GotchaMovies.com. Reposted with permission.