Our generation’s The Two Jakes? That’s where the mind goes, but if David Fincher is (speaking creatively) something like the modern Polanski, I suspect Aaron Sorkin isn’t even as good a director as Jack Nicholson. Much as these comparisons were surely mulled over, Deadline reports the legendary screenwriter and not-quite-legendary director is poised to helm The Social Network Part II––less a direct sequel than curve, adapting the Wall Street Journal‘s The Facebook Files, a rather notable exposé of Mark Zuckerberg’s empire and its results (January 6, collective mental degeneration, body-image issues) in the years since its creation.
One presumes Scott Rudin and Kevin Spacey will not return to produce, and casting details are uncertain. All the same, a Social Network sequel that doesn’t feature Mark Zuckerberg is hard to imagine, and someone other than Jesse Eisenberg playing him is (in the Lost Highway sense) a fun idea, but perhaps unlikely. With Sony aboard to produce, one anticipates motion on this begins imminently.