Aaron Sorkin is going back into the world of Facebook. Sorkin and Sony Pictures are in development on “The Social Network Part II,” a follow-up film to the 2010 gem “The Social Network” about the founding of Facebook, an individual with knowledge of the project told IndieWire.
For now, the film is only in development, but Sorkin has already written the screenplay for the follow-up, and Sony has also tapped him to direct after David Fincher directed the first film.
Crucially, no cast is set on the project, and the film is being described as a follow-up rather than a sequel, so it’s unclear if Sorkin would look to again tap stars Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew Garfield, or others.
This time, Sorkin is working from the Wall Street Journal’s series of articles called “The Facebook Files” from 2021, which exposed the inner workings of the social media giant and the harm found to have been caused by the tech company. Among the findings, the paper reported that there were a handful of elite employees at the company exempt from its corporate rules, that it was aware of the toxic impact Instagram had on teenage girls, that it was aware Facebook’s algorithm change was emotionally damaging friends and family.
Todd Black, Peter Rice, Sorkin, and Stuart Besser are producing “The Social Network Part II.”
Zuckerberg himself has changed immensely in the public consciousness since Eisenberg’s indelible and precisely crafted performance as him in Fincher’s film. Eisenberg said earlier this year that he doesn’t want to be thought of “as someone associated with someone like that.”
“It’s like this guy is… doing things that are problematic, taking away fact-checking,” Eisenberg told BBC Radio 4’s “Today.” “[There are] safety concerns. Making people who are already threatened in the world more threatened.”
Sorkin, too, has been critical of Facebook since making the film, writing an open letter in 2019 chastising Facebook for “assaulting truth” after it allowed political candidates to run false ads.
Released in 2010 by Sony Pictures, “The Social Network” made $226 million globally at the box office and was nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture, and won three, including Aaron Sorkin winning Best Adapted Screenplay.
Sorkin, as a director, has been behind the camera for three films, most recently the Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz biopic “Being the Ricardos” in 2021. This would be his fourth film as a director after also directing and writing “Molly’s Game” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”
Deadline first reported the news.