Word is out that Columbia Pictures is entering “advanced talks” with David Fincher (”Se7en,” “Fight Club,” “Zodiac”) to direct a film revolving around the birth of Facebook, the immensely popular online social network created in 2004 by computer whiz turned-entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg.

Aaron Sorkin (”The West Wing”) is working on a script based on Ben Mezrich’s yet-to-be released book “The Accidental Billionaires,” which allegedly depicts the scandalous origins behind Zuckerberg’s Internet empire. Shia LaBeouf and Michael Cera have been tagged as strong candidates for the role of Zuckerberg, who left Harvard after Facebook’s meteoric rise and vaulted to the Forbes 400 last year as the world’s youngest billionaire.

Tentatively titled “The Social Network,” the film—set to begin production later this year—would imply a significant change in subject for Fincher (”The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”), whose success as a filmmaker is often attributed to his ability to handle a diverse array of film genres and narrative tropes. Should be interesting; stay tuned for further developments.

Image Source: Reuters

Elusive serial killers. 
Schizophrenic anarchists. 
A mother and daughter in peril. 
Humanity’s perpetual waltz with youth and death. 

The films of David Fincher are as uncompromising in their exploration of the human experience as they are superlative in their mastery of film language, creating worlds and personas that have entered the loftiest realms of our own imaginations. With the Christmas Day release of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” Fincher’s seventh feature film, it seems like a ripe occasion to celebrate the career of one of modern cinema’s great visionaries. (Click here to read more…)

Gus Van Sant’s biopic ‘Milk’ impressed critics nationwide this year.

Truth be told, I had my share of doubts about American cinema this year. Looking past the incredible promise of a certain batch of mainstream works, it was difficult to discern what could make 2008 an extra special one for cinephiles, especially with the onset of equally qualified films from Europe and Asia: Cannes Palme d’Or-winning “The Class”, Matteo Garrone’s neo-gangster epic “Gomorrah”, Wang Xiaoshuai’s shattering family drama “In Love We Trust”, et cetera. It appeared, early on, that American movies would once again be trumped on the international stage by their foreign counterparts.

My other chief worry was that this year would surely falter in the wake of last year’s uniquely North American excellence: After all, it would be difficult for any year to follow up what 2007 offered us. I was so impressed by Todd Haynes’ metaphysical tone poem “I’m Not There” that I placed it atop my year-end list, after a lengthy inner debate that veered between that film and David Cronenberg’s equally impressive “Eastern Promises”; but the good stuff didn’t stop there. P.T. Anderson’s elegiac vision and Daniel Day-Lewis’ barnstorming performance in “There Will Be Blood” left me reeling, and both David Fincher’s “Zodiac” and the Coen Brothers’ “No Country for Old Men” created lasting impressions and broke new ground in terms of depicting the elemental forces of fear and tension in modern society.

So what was the outcome of all this fearful, pessimistic theorizing on my part? That this season’s offerings would pale in comparison to those from last year’s American renaissance. That 2008 < 2007.

Or was it? (Click here to read more…)