Yesterday, The Hollywood Reporter, um, reported that the web site BoxOffice.com was on the verge of releasing an exclusive new study that would blow our minds. With Brad Pitt’s latest film, Moneyball, set to release tomorrow, BoxOffice.com was going to tell us late yesterday that the film is tracking nearly twice as well as The Social Network did.

Unfortunately, the exclusive study has still not been released, but you simply can’t deny the site’s rock solid statistics.

BoxOffice.com editor Phil Contrino tells me that the site has been tracking Facebook and Twitter activity since May 2010, and based its conclusions — which he says are statistically significant — on stats gathered from monitoring the two sites over the weekend before the films opened. On Facebook, The Social Network received 34,645 “likes” within that period, whereas Moneyball received 64,073. On Twitter, meanwhile, the former was the subject of 4,120 Tweets, whereas the latter was mentioned in 5,264.

Look, I’m no expert in movie tracking by any means, but it seems like predicting a movie’s success based on how many people liked it on Facebook or mentioned it on Twitter is like looking out a window and guessing the temperature. People mention all sorts of crazy sh*t on Twitter, and only 10% of it is spelled right. I’d be more concerned that people were trying to buy tickets for “Mun3bal.”

But if we really want to play the prediction game, I’d say a good indicator would be that 8 of Pitt’s last 13 movies have grossed more than $100 million and Moneyball is about baseball, stars Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, has been promoted religiously by Sony, and stars Brad Pitt. Predicting that it will be a success is too easy. Unless they change the name to Babel 2.

Despite being nearly universally-reviled as shrill, self-righteous, and kunty, lots of people, including myself, rely on Nikki Finke’s website for her obnoxious scoops and bitchy insight into industry trends, delivered with her trademark headline, “TOLDJA.” Well now Nikki is hoping she can turn that stockpile of resigned acceptance into a Facebook game in which people clamor to be immersed in a virtual world based on her website. It saddens me to report that it is not called “C*ntville.” Oh hey there, obvious joke, I was hoping you’d show up.

You can see the full press release after the jump, but here’s the condensed version:

True to Deadline.com’s mission to report on the inner workings of the entertainment business, this new Facebook game allows players to experience what it really takes to make it in Hollywood. The ‘Deadline Hollywood Game’ is designed for wannabes and showbiz moguls. It also becomes the first game of its kind to incorporate real-time breaking news that influences gameplay.

“True to our mission of reporting stuff, this is a computer game.”

The ‘Deadline Hollywood Game’ introduces the real Hollywood where power, relationships, and influence are as important as money (and sometimes more so). The game employs the same mixture of street smarts and dumb luck to make it in The Industry by allowing players to choose one of several career paths – actor, screenwriter, producer, director, agent, studio executive – leading to success or ruin.

Yep, they capitalized “The Industry.”  “Donald, don’t say ‘industry…’”

The ‘Deadline Hollywood Game’ will launch this summer with invitation-only play by select showbiz insiders. Facebook users can pre-register at http://www.deadline.com/deadline-hollywood-facebook-game/ to be among the first people to know when the game goes live and to be entered to win a Hollywood Mogul Swag Bag. Additionally, 40 runners-up will win a pair of movie tickets courtesy of Hollywood Movie Money.

Along the way, they’ll find that the ‘Deadline Hollywood Game’ utilizes the same pithy intel and snark about The Industry as the website, with quips like “If you want to make it in Hollywood, move to New York” and “If you want to get a screenplay made, write a novel.” [Deadline]

So… did anyone else just puke? Much like hanging with the characters in Entourage or listening to techno in the car, I can’t even imagine having to hang out with the kind of person who would want to play this game, let alone actually playing it.

—

And here’s the full version. As commenter PattyBoots notes, it’s the press release equivalent of Heart of Darkness. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NIKKI FINKE’S DEADLINE.COM, PARAMOUNT DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT, AND LIQUID ENTERTAINMENT SET SUMMER 2011 RELEASE FOR ‘DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD GAME’ ON  FACEBOOK

THE NEXT GENERATION INNOVATION WILL PREMIERE WITH AN INVITATION-ONLY ONLINE LAUNCH

LOS ANGELES, CA (July 19, 2011) — Nikki Finke’s Deadline.com, Paramount Digital Entertainment, and Liquid Entertainment announce the upcoming release of the ‘Deadline Hollywood Game’ on Facebook this summer. True to Deadline.com’s mission to report on the inner workings of the entertainment business, this new Facebook game allows players to experience what it really takes to make it in Hollywood. The ‘Deadline Hollywood Game’ is designed for wannabes and showbiz moguls. It also becomes the first game of its kind to incorporate real-time breaking news that influences gameplay.

Just like the internationally known website filled with entertainment news and rare candor on which it is based, the ‘Deadline Hollywood Game’ introduces the real Hollywood where power, relationships, and influence are as important as money (and sometimes more so). The game employs the same mixture of street smarts and dumb luck to make it in The Industry by allowing players to choose one of several career paths – actor, screenwriter, producer, director, agent, studio executive – leading to success or ruin.

In the real Hollywood where information is major currency, the more you know about the business the better you can maneuver.  So the ‘Deadline Hollywood Game’ will usher in the next generation of Facebook play by incorporating Deadline.com’s real-time breaking headlines to influence actions and reputations – with the effect of making the game as unpredictable as filmmaking itself.

Thomas Lesinski, President of Paramount Digital Entertainment, said: “To capture the essence of the inner workings in Hollywood, this game incorporates actual entertainment news feeds as reported by Deadline.com which is an innovative next step for the Facebook game platform. There is nothing in the marketplace today that comes close to this level of authenticity.”

The ‘Deadline Hollywood Game’ will launch this summer with invitation-only play by select showbiz insiders. Facebook users can pre-register at http://www.deadline.com/deadline-hollywood-facebook-game/ to be among the first people to know when the game goes live and to be entered to win a Hollywood Mogul Swag Bag. Additionally, 40 runners-up will win a pair of movie tickets courtesy of Hollywood Movie Money.

Like every new ambitious arrival in Hollywood, players will begin on the bottom rung. “I started thinking about creating a realistic Hollywood game about three years ago, and I kept coming back to the many interviews that began, ‘I arrived in town with $50 bucks in my pocket and lived in my car while I looked for that first job,” said veteran journalist Nikki Finke, who is President, Founder, and Editor-in-Chief of Deadline.com. From there, players try to run the town before they’re run out of town. Driven by relentless ambition, some well-played moves and successful movies, plus a big set of cojones, game users can manipulate situations to catapult themselves from anonymity to celebrity readying an Oscar acceptance speech. Along the way, they’ll find that the ‘Deadline Hollywood Game’ utilizes the same pithy intel and snark about The Industry as the website, with quips like “If you want to make it in Hollywood, move to New York” and “If you want to get a screenplay made, write a novel.”

Noted Finke: “The ‘Deadline Hollywood Game’ will allow experienced gamers, real-life Hollywood players, movie fans, and casual users to truly experience the grit, intrigue, and rivalry of the Hollywood industry. And just like the real town, this game is not for every schmo — only the strongest will survive.”

Liquid Entertainment, an award winning development studio, worked with Nikki to develop the gamed based on her idea.  Paramount Digital Entertainment is publishing and distributing the ‘Deadline Hollywood Game’ this summer.  Paramount Digital Entertainment recently won four awards at the 2011 E3 for its upcoming multiplatform STAR TREK game in stores in 2012. [Deadline.com does not report on the digital gaming industry and does not cover Liquid or Paramount Digital.]

“Deadline Hollywood Game has been an exciting project for us,” said Holly Newman, Chief Executive Officer of Liquid Entertainment. “Being able to do live updates to the game’s content to incorporate the real headlines from Deadline.com means that players will be able to stay connected to the real Hollywood while trying to conquer the virtual one.”

“No media outlet is more plugged into the behind-the-scenes of Hollywood business than Deadline.com, which sets the agenda for news and opinion,” commented Jay Penske, CEO of Deadline.com’s parent company PMC. “With real time news updates, there is no better way to experience Hollywood than through a game based on the website.”

ABOUT DEADLINE.COM
Deadline.com was born out of veteran journalist Nikki Finke’s must-read 24/7 ‘Deadline Hollywood’ website which began in 2006 and became a uniquely candid and authoritative source for delivering news and commentary about entertainment. Always focused more on the “business” instead of the “show” of film and television, her website delivered the story behind the story, the truth beyond the press release, the details that the people in power didn’t want journalists to know. Finke’s website was purchased in 2009 by PMC digital media company CEO Jay Penske who renamed the website Deadline.com and staffed it with more deeply sourced top editors and writers and expanded its online reach to print and soon TV. Now Deadline.com is renown as an award-winning must-read for influencers and leaders in the global media business and regularly included on lists of top entertainment and news websites compiled by Time, Forbes, and Vanity Fair magazines, to name a few.

ABOUT PARAMOUNT DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT
Paramount Digital Entertainment (PDE) is a division of Paramount Pictures Corporation. PDE develops and distributes filmed entertainment across worldwide digital distribution platforms including online, mobile and portable devices, videogames, and emerging technologies.
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. The company’s labels include Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Digital Entertainment, Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., Paramount Studio Group and Paramount Television & Digital Distribution.

ABOUT LIQUID ENTERTAINMENT
Founded 12 years ago, Liquid Entertainment has dedicated itself to creating original IP and crafting unique experiences through video games. Our projects spawn all gaming environments – PC, consoles, web, social and mobile. Liquid is behind several PC and console classics including Rise of the Argonauts, the original Battle Realms and Dragonshard.

ABOUT PMC
Penske Media Corporation (formerly known as Mail.com Media Corporation) is a leading digital media and publishing company founded by Jay Penske in 2004. PMC owns and operates a unique portfolio of branded digital media properties that deliver the web’s best original content in categories including entertainment, tech, automotive, breaking news, finance gadgets, media, film, sports, beauty, and style. By leveraging its distribution and digital media platform, PMC engages with audiences across the web, television, mobile, print and social media — reaching more than 20 million consumers monthly. PMC’s expanding portfolio includes leading brands such as: BGR.com, Deadline.com, HollywoodLife.com, India.com, Movieline.com, TVLine.com, OnCars.com, Fan.com, and prominent award shows: The Style Awards (StyleAwards.com), Young Hollywood Awards (YHAwards.com), and Breakthrough of the Year Awards (BreakthroughAwards.com). 

For more information about PMC and its businesses, visit www.PMC.com. [Deadline]

Don’t think this means I’m going to start posting on weekends, but I thought this was funny. In fact, I thought it was REALLY funny. It was so funny, it was scary. (As Stephenie Meyer might say).  Okay, carry on. BRB TTYL lol kthanxbai. xoxoxo ({}) ~~~~~~~~

(that last emoticon was supposed to be a queef, in case that was unclear)

[via Lamebook]

They're decent rowers, but their best event is the bicycle built for two

In late 2003, twin Harvard rowers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (played by Armie Hammer in The Social Network) hired Mark Zuckerberg to create HarvardConnection, which was basically envisioned as a dating site for Harvard students.  Zuckerberg did some work for them, then basically blew them off to start TheFacebook in early 2004, and the rest is history.  Despite the fact that the idea of Facebook wasn’t any different than Friendster or Myspace and succeeded mainly because the design just worked better, and that Facebook was different than the Winklevoss Twins’ original idea for Harvard Connection, the Winklevoss Twins sued Zuckerberg. In 2008, they received a settlement that included $20 million in cash (hopefully in a briefcase handcuffed to someone’s wrist) and partial ownership of Facebook, now worth $140 million.  Because $160 million for doing essentially nothing wasn’t enough, they appealed the settlement, claiming they’d been misled about the value of the company, and that the settlement was worth less than they had agreed to.  Yesterday, a judge threw out their appeal, telling them to take their ill-begotten money and go row a boat.

The twins had alleged they were misled about Facebook’s value when they agreed to settle their lawsuit that claimed Zuckerberg stole their idea to launch Facebook.
“At some point, litigation must come to an end,” federal appeals court chief justice Alex Kozinksi wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel “That point has now been reached.”
The twins alleged they were misled into believing the company was worth $35.90 a share because of an investment by Microsoft Corp. But they argued that the company later valued the company at $8.88 for tax purposes. The twins argue they would have demanded more stock in the company based on the lower valuation.
Kozinski said the twins were “sophisticated parties” when they agreed to the settlement during a mediation meeting.
“They brought half-a-dozen lawyers to the mediation,” Kozinksi wrote.
Facebook said Monday it was pleased by the ruling. Lawyers for the Winklevoss twins said they are reviewing the decision and have not decided on their next step. The twins could ask the Supreme Court to consider the case. [Yahoo]

Shouldn’t they also have to pay back the money for wasting everyone’s time?  If just having an idea without putting in the effort to actually execute it was worth money, every stoner I know would be a billionaire.  I hate these guys, and it’s not just because they went to Harvard, have a false sense of entitlement, row crew, wear those ugly Oakley glasses, are named “Winklevoss”, have stupid hair and vulgar nipples, and… sorry, I’m blind with rage, I forgot where I was going with this.  Is it just me, or do all crew rowers remind you of a Three Stooges bit without the sense of irony?  Jesus these guys are white. If they had played “Whitey” in a blacksploitation movie people would’ve called it over the top.

Before The Social Network came out, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had vowed never to see it, dismissing it as a work of fiction and even going so far as to remove The West Wing from his favorite TV shows after he heard it was Social Net screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s show.  But contrary to the movie, he’s not actually a super villain who lives in the penthouse of a clock tower with a hairless cat, he’s just a 20-something dude.  And what 20-something dude could resist seeing it if David Fincher made a movie out of his life?  Zuckerberg recently admitted to USWeekly that he’d taken his employees to a screening party, where they drank apple martinis like Justin Timberlake did in the movie.

Zuckerberg was asked about the difference between the movie and what he experienced while creating Facebook. “Where do you want to start?” he asked. Every shirt and fleece worn by the actor (Jesse Eisenberg) who played him was one he had actually worn, Zuckerberg said. The movie got a lot of stuff wrong and random details right, he said.
Reviewing the film thematically, Zuckerberg said it featured a girl who was not part of his real life. In the movie she dumped him, which, he joked, happened to him often. “They framed it as if I wanted to get girls or into some social institution,” Zuckerberg said. “I’ve been dating the same girl since before Facebook.” He concluded that the filmmakers “can’t wrap their head around the idea that someone might build something because they like building things.” [Yahoo]

I respect that Sorkin was able to write an entertaining movie about these dorks, but the fact that he still seems to think he was blowing the lid off a ring of woman-hating megalomaniacs makes him sound like a class-A Hollywood fart huffer.  Professor Appletini here is supposed to be a misogynist?  If I was Mark Zuckerberg, I’d be telling people “People can’t wrap their head around the idea that someone might build something because they like being KNEE-DEEP IN BUSTY TEENS!”  Then I’d flick my tongue at the interviewer like Gene Simmons and ride off on a high-speed cigarette boat, doing that “suck it” thing in between hip thrusts.  But fast cars and fast sluts are kind of my thing.

"That shirt's not cool. You know what's cool? A billion bong hits."

In the Social Network, Napster co-founder and Facebook founding president Sean Parker was played by Justin Timberlake.  Zuckerberg right-hand man Dustin Moskovitz was more of a background character, played by Joseph Mazzello (the kid from Jurassic Park and The Pacific).  Now, two weeks after Mark Zuckerberg gave the Newark public school system $100 million (try not to blow it on fake tanner and Affliction shirts), Fanning and Moskovitz are making headlines for big charity donations of their own.  (*takes huge bong load*)  What was it again?  (*coughs*) Crap, dude, I totally forgot.

Not to be outdone by Moskovitz, America’s youngest billionaire, who gave $70,000 to California’s Proposition 19, Parker has donated $100,000 to the ballot initiative that would make it legal to possess the drug for personal use.
The gift affirms the 30-year-old’s reputation for generosity [and for doing drugs -Ed.], and puts him in a small but select group of very wealthy donors to pro-marijuana causes, including Moskovitz and Progressive Corp. billionaire Peter Lewis. [Forbes]

Good for them.  It’s just too bad they couldn’t use some of that money to pay for a gubernatorial candidate anyone gives a sh*t about.  I mean, politicians, amirite?  Hey, and what’s the deal with airline food… Anyway, sometimes I like to imagine working at Forbes, where you spend all day writing about stocks and tax shelters and the world’s youngest billionaires, all while making forty grand a year.  Fun.

Also, I made this for some reason:

At their best, Aaron Sorkin scripts are driven by engaging, thought-provoking dialogue that still manages to sound natural. At their worst, they become rapid-fire word gauntlets where shrill actors talk-rape you with lines that communicate little more than “I was quite pleased with myself when I came up with this.”

This second teaser for David Fincher’s The Social Network (written by Sorkin, based on the Ben Mezrich book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal*) is closer to the latter.  Hard to know if it’s the movie’s fault or just the trailer editor, since it seems mostly like a tighter-edited version of an earlier, much less-annoying version.  Anyway, it stars Jesse Eisenberg, Scarfield (they say he won his Spider-Man role based on this performance), Justin Timberlake, Rashida Jones, and Joe Mazzello.  I can only hope the movie is less obnoxious than this teaser, because I had the overwhelming urge to punch someone even before they got to the “We’re gentlemen of Harvard,” line.  Drama!  Yelling!  Gravitas!  Timberlake! (*fart sound*)

*Jesus, what is it with ridiculous subtitles these days?  It’s like they’re trying to search engine optimize book titles now.  You only get one colon, dude, this isn’t Human Centipede.

RELATED ASYLUM POLL: Would you want to see a movie about Facebook?

The Social Network started out sounding like one of those Magic 8-Ball/Bazooka Joe movie concepts (Facebook is popular!  It should be a movie!).  But then when we heard it was based on a book about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and that David Fincher was directing a script by Aaron Sorkin, we realized it was serious.  But even knowing that, before this new teaser trailer hit the web, I didn’t realize it was Inception-trailer-bass-sound serious.

“We have an idea that we’d like to talk to you about.”

(*BRAAAAAAAAHM*)

“Who should we send it to first?”
“Just a couple of people.  The question is, who are they gonna send it to.”

(*BRAAAAAAAAHM*)

“The site got twenty-two hundred hits within two hours?”
“Thousand. Twenty-two thousand.”

(*BRAAAAAAAAHM*)

“A million dollars isn’t cool.  You know what’s cool?  A billion dollars.”

(*BRAAAAAAAAHM*)

Their braaaahm sound isn’t as bassy as the Inception braaaaahm sound, which I assume indicates less gravitas. Still, it sounds pretty serious. (*BRAAAAAAAAHM*) It’s like the movie trailer equivalent of David Caruso putting on his sunglasses.

[via Pajiba]

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.

Famous movie and TV writer guy Aaron Sorkin recently announced his plans to make a Facebook movie. It may sound like a crazy idea, but not to the billion people who’ve already uploaded videos on YouTube titled “Facebook: The Movie”. Sorkin, who last wrote Charlie Wilson’s War, released the statement via, what else, Facebook:

I’ve just agreed to write a movie for Sony and producer Scott Rudin about how Facebook was invented. I figured a good first step in my preparation would be finding out what Facebook is, so I’ve started this page. (Actually it was started by my researcher, Ian Reichbach, because my grandmother has more Internet savvy than I do and she’s been dead for 33 years.

And that joke’s been dead for 10.

I honestly don’t know how this works, which is why I’m here. If anyone has any questions I’d be happy to answer them as best I can. If anyone has any comments I’m glad to listen. And if anyone has any Facebook stories I think they might be helpful.

So there you have it, a Facebook movie. I guess the writing is on the wall! Get it? Writing on the wall? You know, because on Facebook… … Whatever, I was leaving anyway.