According to E.W., Fight Club/Benjamin Button director David Fincher is “in talks” to direct a Facebook movie. But don’t worry, it’s not “Facebook: The Movie,” it’s not about looking up girls who rejected you in high school and being happy they got fat, it’s about how Facebook was created.
Sources tell EW that producers are very high on securing the acclaimed director’s involvement on the project, which centers on the drama behind the Harvard dorm room creation of Facebook by founder Mark Zuckerberg and his roommates. Producers Scott Rudin, Mike DeLuca, and Kevin Spacey are hoping to get the film into production this year or first thing next year.
The script is still top secret, but it was written by Aaron Sorkin, who’s basically your parents’ Joss Whedon. If you don’t know what that means, just trust me that the explanation would be really boring. Anyway, I hope the Facebook movie is as good as DW Griffith’s 1926 classic, Radio (which was later reimagined as a retarded Cuba Gooding Jr. vehicle).
UPDATE: /Film now reports that the film is actually based on the book (set for release next month)
The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal, by Ben Mezrich, the guy who also wrote the book upon which 21 was based.
Heavy Metal was a 1981 film founded on the idea that the only thing better than tits is tits, fire, and aliens. Such timeless themes are bound to come back, which is why it had a sequel in 2000, and now there’s a new version in the works. The surprising thing is the amount of talent rumored to be involved. Heavy Metal magazine editor Kevin Eastman recently said in an interview with FilmSchoolRejects…
I’ve got breaking news that David Fincher and James Cameron are going to be Co-Executive Producers on the film. Fincher will direct one. Cameron will direct one. Zack Snyder is going to direct one and Gore Verbinski is going to. [Kung Fu Panda director] Mark Osborne and Jack Black from Tenacious D are going to do a comedy segment for the film. Three other directors have agreed but we haven’t signed them, but they’re equally as jaw-dropping. So we’re on cloud nine to be working with such an amazing amount of talent.”
It just goes to show, everyone will show up when you’ve got chicks sword fighting with their boobs out. It’s something I try to remember every time I throw a house party, bris, or quinceñera.
The LA Times recently published an article about how even 13 Oscar nominations might not be enough for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (trailer, review) to earn back its budget.
Not only did Paramount and co-financing partner Warner Bros. spend $150 million to make it, but the companies will also be laying out an additional $135 million to market and distribute the picture worldwide, according to a person familiar with the situation. Since the movie opened Dec. 25, Paramount has spent lavishly, particularly on its Oscar campaign, which some industry executives estimate could exceed $10 million.
To date, “Button” has grossed $104 million at the U.S. box office and generated an additional $16.2 million in Australia and a handful of markets overseas.
Even with its forthcoming international take and eventual DVD sales, “Button” could struggle to earn a significant profit — or even a modest one.
Benjamin Button wasn’t the best movie ever made, but it’d be a shame if studio execs see this and interpret it as high-minded, big budget movies with name directors being a bad bet. And you know they will because studio execs are idiots, look at Fox. The problem wasn’t the big budget, the problem was that every studio put out their “awards” film at the same time, all banking on the same poorly defined phenomenon like they always do. Hey, I have an idea, why not release Button in January or March, when it’s going up against Underworld 12 and Martin Lawrence in a Fat Suit 7? My guess is it would split less audience with those than with Gran Torino, The Wrestler, Milk, Slumdog, Frost/Nixon and every other award movie they put it up against. But hey, what do I know, I’m just a muscular supergenius.
Like Forrest Gump Butt Better (Mostly)
It’s not surprising that the critics love The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The vast majority of critics are writers, part-time writers, failed writers, or wannabe writers. And Ben Button is a shameless glorification of the act of writing, a sort of a parable about the power of storytelling. At their heart, stories are a tradition of contrived bullshit that we spew to make ourselves feel better. The strength of Button is that it lays its most obvious contrivances (a man who lives his life backwards, love at first sight, etc.) on the table from the start, so that the focus becomes not the bullshit itself, but what it is about said bullshit that makes it so universally compelling, and why it is that we can know it’s bullshit and still be compelled by it.
Button begins roughly in the present, like its closest analog, Forrest Gump, with Cate Blanchett’s character on her deathbed prompting her daughter (Julia Ormond) to read her/us the story of Benjamin Button from his diary as her final wish. The action that occurs in the present is actually my biggest caveat in recommending this movie, but I’ll get to that later.
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When we first heard about David Fincher’s Chef, starring Keanu Reeves, not much was known about the project other than that it was a great opportunity for “There is no spoon” jokes. MTV recently spoke to the director and if nothing he else, he deserves the award for cryptic nonsense statements.
What can we expect from “Chef”?
“It’s good and chewy,” says Fincher, using terminology that could just as well be applied to delicious meal [thanks for explaining that to us, MTV-writer-guy]. “It’s like a celibate sex comedy if that means anything.” [Nope, not really]
Ultimately, Fincher’s interest in exploring the culinary world comes down to his immense respect for the artistry and craft of top chefs.
“It’s really about the creative process,” the filmmaker explained. “It’s truly an aromatic art-form, making food [you should've seen Jackson Pollack shit his pants]. I love that idea. And I love Keanu’s passion for that world.”
Yes, yes, Keanu is intensely passionate, especially about food. Why, just the other day someone made him a sandwich. “Whoa,” said Keanu. He was simply dumbfounded.
