How Should Facebook Respond To The Social Network Movie?
from the tread-carefully dept
As you probably know by now, there's a movie coming out this fall, called Social Network, which is sorta, kinda, maybe an extremely fictionalized version of the story behind Facebook. It was based on a book by Ben Mezrich, which was already a fictionalized account of the founding of Facebook -- based on notes from a disgruntled co-founder, with Mezrich taking significant creative license to fill in lots of blanks. Then, famed writer Aaron Sorkin wrote the script, passing it through a second fictionalized filter. And, not surprisingly, the folks at Facebook are not at all pleased with the movie, which doesn't exactly portray Mark Zuckerberg or Facebook in a very nice light.Apparently Facebook execs are debating what to do about the movie, and it's almost surprising that they haven't tried to take legal action -- because that's almost what you'd expect these days. Of course, they probably realize that doing so will only get the movie more attention (though, it certainly looks like the movie is going to get plenty of attention already). Yet in an age where "publicity rights" lawsuits are becoming more common and many movie makers feel they need to secure the rights of anyone and any company that shows up in a film, it's actually somewhat surprising that this particular film actually was made.
But given that Facebook execs are trying to figure out what to do about the film and how to respond to it, I'm curious what folks here think. I think I would go with the simplest of all solutions: a single page that explains why the movie is a greatly fictionalized account, and not an accurate depiction of either the company or its employees, past or current, and then just stay quiet otherwise. What else would you suggest?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: aaron sorkin, facebook, mark zuckerberg, movies, social network
Companies: facebook
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Facebook the Movie
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Facebook the Movie
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Facebook the Movie
Or they can retaliate and put together a non-fictional movie about how corrupt Hollywood is and how they scam everyone.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Facebook the Movie
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Let's remember, this is Hollywood.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Do Nothing?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Scoop the movie
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Scoop the movie
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Really?
FB could try to get the movie out on the torrent sites before release just to wipe out any hope of the movie being successful - because Hollywood is always crying about the internet - they can't make any money because of all the pirates. Well of course the movie will do just fine but FB will have helped prove lots of points made frequently here on TD.
@Pierre - nice post - almost spit coffee on my screen reading it!
Honestly, they should just stay quiet and post a minimal response to the movie in a blog format emphasizing that the movie is a work of fiction and that of course we'd love to have you here on FB so you can see for yourself.
or
Make the movie work FOR you even if it's not scripted as such. Offer discount tickets to the movie by working on a promotional campaign with the studio. How ironic would that be to have FB offer the discount AND possibly pick up even more customers on a movie that makes fun of them - that is marketing genius right there!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Really?
I like your last point. No such thing as bad media. I would think that finding a way to capitalize on all the fresh attention... mock it slightly by playing up the bad guy while implying there is more to the story and ignoring any aspects that you don't want to address...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"All rise!"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Create a page
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Alors!
What? There's a Techdirt movie???
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"The Net"... or maybe you meant
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: "The Net"... or maybe you meant
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Learn from Nazi Moderator
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Learn from Nazi Moderator
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Brendan Behan
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
A single page somewhere on their website, along with a standard press release to say "hey, look at us, see how reasonable and tolerant we're being?", is probably their best bet.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I think it's a matter of the opinions from the critics. There are plenty of movies created every year and this movie seems to be one which will soon disappear from movie theaters to be sold in the discount section of any random DVD shop. It's not worth much attention and the publicity it generates isn't all bad...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
unless it illustrates the evils of DATA MINING
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Relish in it!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Script Writers Lament
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Why fight this?
Start with a frame that says something like "by some people's accounts, this may have actually happened..." and let them trash you all they want. Everyone will remember that this is a movie, and they will be highly impressed by you letting it happen or even helping it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Mexican Drug Lords
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Facebook and bias
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Facebook and bias
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ben Mezrich Speech at Cisco Live
Ben Mezrich was a guest speaker on the July 1st Keynote.
He talked about his book "The Accidental Billionaires" and the movie it was being made into. An interesting thing he mention there is that he asked Mark Zuckerberg for his side of the story. He ultimately didn't get any input from Mark and therefore he had only the other sides of the story to put together. He also went on to say that when he writes non-fiction he writes in the basic truth (in this case being some kids sort of accidentally developed a massive social networking website, and lots of people were/are being sued over it), but adds his own tone and flavour to make the book a better read. Hollywood of course then takes what it wants and makes it into it's own movie.
He also talked about the differences in the movie 21, and his book Bringing Down the House. To name one there isn't a big dude giving you the beat down if they catch you counting cards. But they will take you to a back room and take your pictures all in an attempt to scare you. They will eventually ban you.
Anyways the movie doesn't appeal to me at all.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]