The Social Network: Book vs. Movie
David Fincher’s The Social Network (2010) adapts Ben Mezrich’s 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires. The founding of Facebook brings Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin into disputes over friendship, ownership, and control.
From Books Adapted
How it was adapted
Sorkin started before the book was finished
The movie covers the Facebook founding story and disputes at the center of The Accidental Billionaires. But Aaron Sorkin did not begin by working through a completed book. He agreed to write the movie after reading Mezrich's 14-page proposal.
Mezrich wrote his book while Sorkin wrote the screenplay. Sorkin said he did not see the finished book until his script was nearly complete. Mezrich shared his research, and Sorkin also interviewed people involved and consulted Zuckerberg's college blog and the Harvard Crimson.
The depositions let the movie tell conflicting accounts
The movie repeatedly leaves the college years for two legal disputes: Eduardo Saverin's case and the case brought by the Winklevoss brothers and Divya Narendra. The people in those rooms challenge the stories the movie has just shown.
Sorkin said he developed that structure because his sources disagreed about what had happened. He chose to dramatize their competing accounts instead of selecting one as the definitive version. The book leans more toward Saverin's account; the movie makes the disagreements part of its structure.
About the book and the movie
- Author
- Ben Mezrich
- Year
- 2009
- Pages
- 273Buy book
- Audiobook length
- 7 hr 19 minGet audiobook
- Narrator
- Mike Chamberlain
At Harvard, Eduardo Saverin helps finance a website that his friend Mark Zuckerberg is building to connect students. Ben Mezrich follows their venture from campus into Silicon Valley, where rapid growth and new associates alter the balance between them. Disputes over money, ownership, and who should make decisions put the friendship behind Facebook under pressure.
- Director
- David Fincher
- Writer
- Aaron Sorkin
- Year
- 2010
- Runtime
- 2 hr 1 minWatch on Amazon
- Cast
- Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer
- Genre
- biographical, Drama, trial
- IMDb
- View on IMDb
Mark Zuckerberg launches a networking site for Harvard students with financial help from Eduardo Saverin, then draws the attention of entrepreneur Sean Parker as membership spreads. Arguments over how the company should grow become disputes over who belongs in it. Intercut with the launch are legal depositions in which former friends and fellow students challenge Mark’s version of Facebook’s beginnings.
How everyone voted
- Book or movie, which was better?
- 100% believe the book is better than the movie. 1 answer
- Do you recommend the book?
- 100% believe the book is worth reading. 1 answer
- Do you recommend the movie?
- 100% believe the movie is worth watching. 1 answer
No comments yet. Vote, then say why.