The Social

We've been hearing a few sneaky tips from folks within earshot of the Boston, Mass., set of "The Social Network," the Columbia Pictures movie about the contested origins of Facebook. This week, the film crew has been on the Charles River working on scenes in which Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the identical twins who had a lawsuit against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, are depicted at a Harvard crew practice.

That Boston Globe report about the Harvard heavyweight crew team getting cast in the background? Not quite.

Ivy League athletic restrictions bar current athletes from being film extras, and filming has been an all-day operation while classes are still in session, so an open casting call was held at the new Community Rowing Inc. boathouse on the Charles River in Newton, Mass.--and former Harvard and Northeastern University rowers are among those in front of the cameras. The CRI boathouse, tipsters tell us, has also been the filming HQ for the crew scenes.

The rowers are serving as body doubles for the actors and extras, as well as the actual muscle to power the boats in team scenes. And a few of them indeed have their faces marked up for the CGI superimposing of actor Armie Hammer's visage--he's playing both of the Winklevoss twins.

One thing we've heard is that one of the characters in the scenes is Harry Parker, Harvard's longtime varsity heavyweight crew coach. He's not playing himself, nor does it appear that a well-known actor has been cast to play him (because this would be a great cameo role), but rather a lookalike actor has the role instead.

Most interestingly, a tipster also tells us that while filming of the crew scenes is expected to wrap up this week, that it'll be headed to the iconic Henley Royal Regatta in the U.K. this June. There is indeed a scene in the "Social Network" that takes place at Henley, and it sounds like they're hoping to film it on-site--though we haven't been able to confirm that the formal, buttoned-up annual regatta will allow a movie crew on the grounds.

Other confirmed filming locations for "The Social Network" are Los Angeles and Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, which will be standing in for Harvard's campus. Will the cast, which includes "Zombieland" star Jesse Eisenberg (as Mark Zuckerberg) and pop star Justin Timberlake, actually do any filming in Silicon Valley? No word on that yet.

"The Social Network," directed by David Fincher ("Fight Club"), is based on Ben Mezrich's recent book, "The Accidental Billionaires." Facebook has maintained a stance that it stretches the truth.

A boat rows on the Charles River in Boston in the fall of 2006.

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET)

Now, these are some guys you don't see at the average Silicon Valley hackathon: The Harvard heavyweight crew team is filming scenes for "The Social Network," according to a Boston Globe gossip column on Tuesday. Film crews have been on the Charles River in Boston recently, the column reports.

That's because two of the main characters in the juicy, David Fincher-directed tell-all about the origins of Facebook are Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, would-be social-network entrepreneurs who claimed that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stole the code and business plan for their project, ConnectU. The identical twin Winklevosses were also members of Harvard's crew team, they and ultimately wound up on the U.S. Olympic squad last summer in Beijing.

The Globe column also notes that one of the rowers had some red dots painted on his face so that ultimately, the face of an actor could be superimposed on it--which, though it sounds technologically complicated, is probably easier than trying to teach an actor how to row. Besides, "The Social Network" already has some smoke and mirrors to deal with: the Winklevoss twins are being played by a single actor, Armie Hammer.

(The Globe assumes that the face to be superimposed is that of pop star Justin Timberlake, who plays Napster co-founder Sean Parker in "The Social Network." But Parker, we're pretty sure, never rowed on Harvard's heavyweight crew team.)

Meanwhile, though the Charles River is apparently fair game, it looks like Harvard didn't let the film crew on campus: Johns Hopkins University in Maryland put out a release on Tuesday saying it will be standing in for Harvard, in some scenes shot in early November.

The crew of "The Social Network," the David Fincher-directed retelling of Facebook's earliest days, is headed to film in the Boston area soon with a widely reported start date of October 19.

Rumors on Web forums indicate that the Harvard Square neighborhood of Cambridge, Mass.--the eponymous university's epicenter--will be the backdrop for some scenes involving actor Jesse Eisenberg, who plays Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Eisenberg himself has been quoted as saying that the movie will actually be filming on Harvard's campus, something that the university would not confirm.

Facebook was founded in a dorm at Harvard when Zuckerberg was a sophomore there; he later dropped out to run the site full-time. "The Social Network" script was based on writer Ben Mezrich's "The Accidental Billionaires," an unauthorized tale of Facebook's origins that doesn't portray Zuckerberg in the most positive manner.

Boston.com reported Thursday that a Somerville pub called the Thirsty Scholar has confirmed that it'll be used as a filming location, but couldn't confirm what everybody wants to know--whether pop star Justin Timberlake, who plays early Facebook exec Sean Parker, will be on-set.

Here's the catch. I've read the Aaron Sorkin-penned script for "The Social Network"--granted, it's a draft with a May 2009 date on it, so who knows what has changed--and Sean Parker doesn't even appear in any Boston scenes. Sorry, Boston.

Columbia Pictures' "The Social Network," the screen adaptation of Ben Mezrich's Facebook tell-all "The Accidental Billionaires," is likely to start filming in a matter of weeks. As you probably know already, "Fight Club" director David Fincher is at the helm, working with a screenplay by "West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin.

And it looks like they're hoping to capture some of the fall foliage in the Northeast: Lead actor Jesse Eisenberg, who has been cast as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, told MTV News that the movie will be filming on location at Harvard's campus, where Facebook was founded early in 2004, for three weeks in October. The rest of the movie will reportedly be shot in Los Angeles.

That's interesting because Harvard is pretty strict about not letting film crews on campus, something that Mezrich pointed out to CNET News in an interview this summer. (Only one feature film in the past three decades, 2007's "The Great Debaters," has had scenes shot on Harvard's campus.) Even more interestingly, a Harvard representative declined to confirm Eisenberg's assertion, but did not deny it either.

Either way, doing just about anything in Boston in October runs the risk of colliding with the annual Head of the Charles Regatta, a two-day rowing race that brings in athletes from around the world and has been known to clog the streets of Cambridge with all the extra traffic. This year it's on October 17 and 18. Considering a big chunk of the script for "The Social Network" deals with twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Zuckerberg legal rivals turned Olympic rowers, overlapping with the race might have been intentional.

A representative from the Head of the Charles organizing committee said that while no one from a film crew has contacted them yet about filming at the event, it would be neither surprising nor unprecedented, as "we've been a backdrop for a lot of movies in the past."

On that note, we still haven't heard who the casting directors have (or haven't) found to play the 6-foot-5-inch identical twins.

Jesse Eisenberg, pictured here with 'Adventureland' co-star Kristen Stewart, will be playing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in 'The Social Network.'

(Credit: Miramax Films)

"Adventureland" star Jesse Eisenberg will be playing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and singer Justin Timberlake will be playing Silicon Valley mainstay Sean Parker in "The Social Network," director David Fincher's cinematic adaptation of the company's early days.

(Well, it's the company's early days as depicted in Ben Mezrich's juicy and most-definitely-not-authorized "The Accidental Billionaires," which some have criticized for being factually liberal.)

The news was first reported by Variety, which added that actor Andrew Garfield will be playing Zuckerberg's Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin. Garfield is perhaps best known for his role in the 2007 Robert Redford film "Lions for Lambs."

Production for Columbia Pictures' "The Social Network," which was written by "The West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin, is reportedly going to begin in October in Boston.

We heard a few months back that the producers were looking at some bigger names to play Zuckerberg: perpetually typecast nerd Michael Cera and "Transformers" star Shia LaBeouf. But it looks like they're putting the real star power instead into the casting of Timberlake as Sean Parker.

Eisenberg, who turns 26 in a few weeks, is a decently big name himself: he's also been seen in "The Squid and the Whale" and "The Village." Timberlake's musical reputation needs no introduction (he got his start, after all, in boy band 'N Sync), but his best-known acting role might be the "Saturday Night Live" short "D*** in a Box."

UPDATE at 11:11 a.m. PT: It looks like the casting rumors were first reported earlier this month by the blog Scriptshadow, albeit in a far less concrete context than Variety--and the report's coincidence with the Labor Day holiday weekend likely kept it under the radar.

Warning: Mild spoilers ahead about the plot and structure of "The Social Network."

I have my hands on a copy of "The Social Network," the screenplay that "West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin has adapted from "The Accidental Billionaires"--author Ben Mezrich's tawdry tale of Facebook's origins that was released last week. Though I'm not gushing over it the way script blogger Carson Reeves did when he read it, I think it's a decent screenplay. With a good cast and production team, this movie might be quite enjoyable.

This could be a concern for Facebook. I'm guessing the company is already far enough along so that it doesn't have to worry about negative onscreen portrayals of its founder hurting its chances of a successful IPO, but the screenplay is smart and nasty enough--more so than the book it's based on--that it could raise PR issues regardless.

"The Social Network" follows the plot of "Accidental Billionaires" pretty precisely, with the most notable deviation being that there is an increased focus on Zuckerberg himself--Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, who was Mezrich's main source for the book (he didn't talk to Zuckerberg), takes a bit of a back burner. But it's still the same narrative about Mark Zuckerberg founding Facebook as an undergraduate at Harvard, and then facing opposition both internally (from Saverin) and externally (from Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twin co-founders of would-be Facebook rival ConnectU).

The dialogue--remember, Mezrich's book is dialogue-light--is snappy and witty, with a fast-paced, back-and-forth feel to it that "West Wing" fans will recognize as very Sorkin-esque. On paper, though, it comes across as much more slick and polished than real-life dialogue would have been (and it's up to the skills of the actors to ensure that this doesn't translate to onscreen cheesiness). And it treats the founding of Facebook with more gravitas than "Accidental Billionaires" does: scenes of the social network's early days at Harvard are interspersed with snippets from later court depositions between Zuckerberg and Saverin, as well as Zuckerberg and the ConnectU founders.

But the most notable difference is that, perhaps because of the infusion of dialogue, Zuckerberg is a significantly more dislikeable character than he is in the book, where he's painted as simply enigmatic and a little detached. In the screenplay, he's far more class-conscious and his lines are typically weighted with snarky arrogance. The question of whether Zuckerberg was duping the ConnectU founders by working on Facebook while ostensibly in their employ is addressed much more decisively than in the book--and it's not favorable to Zuckerberg.

At the end, he's allowed a little bit of a denouement, and who knows what will happen in script revisions. But for now, I can see why an entertainment industry source said that the producers have been hoping to cast an audience-friendly young actor. The onscreen version of Zuckerberg could easily come across as utterly obnoxious.

Actually, to put it bluntly, none of the main characters are all that sympathetic. The Winklevoss twins come across as aggressive and vindictive; Saverin is neurotic and money-obsessed; onetime Facebook exec Sean Parker is a scheming lush; and then-Harvard president Larry Summers, who has a small role, is pretty much just a blowhard. That probably doesn't bode well for the producers' attempt to actually film parts of the movie on Harvard's campus, since I'm fairly sure that a prestigious university doesn't want to be depicted onscreen as a hub for serious douchebaggery.

When I read "The Accidental Billionaires," I predicted that it was safely fluffy enough that Facebook (and Zuckerberg) probably wouldn't have much of a problem with it. But the screenplay for "The Social Network" is edgier and meaner. At one point, during a fired-up moment for the ConnectU guys, Cameron Winklevoss says of Zuckerberg, "Let's f***ing gut that little nerd!" And when Zuckerberg is told by the Winklevosses' lawyer that the twins come from a family worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Zuckerberg retorts with, "Or roughly the amount I paid in income tax last year."

Oh, snap.

On a totally different note: Does "The Social Network" botch it when it comes to discussions of technology, venture capital, and Web development? Not really. I sent a few lines of dialogue depicting a Harvard computer science class to an engineer friend who said that it was fairly spot-on. Of course, the dialogue in the court deposition scenes is a little more exciting than it probably was in real life. But let's face it: this is Hollywood.

And the awesomest-slash-cheesiest line? In my opinion, the award goes to Tyler Winklevoss in yet another scene where he and Cameron are talking about how to get back at Zuckerberg: "I'm six-five, 220 pounds, and there are two of me."

Whoa! Blogger Carson Reeves of Scriptshadow got his hands on the screenplay for "The Social Network," the adaptation of Ben Mezrich's semi-salacious Facebook tell-all "The Accidental Billionaires," and he gives it a thumbs-up.

More specifically, he said that the 162-page script, penned by "West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin, "really resonated with me" and categorized it as "impressive." For those of us who have been following the development of the (unauthorized) Facebook tell-all, which hits bookstores on Tuesday, and its impending screen adaptation, this is a bit of a surprise.

I've read "The Accidental Billionaires." It is, more or less, a fluffy drunken romp around Harvard Yard and Silicon Valley--sort of like beach reading for dudes. But it's not dialogue-heavy, which means that Sorkin had some work cut out for him. If Reeves' review is any indication, the dialogue is good. With "Fight Club" director David Fincher reportedly close to signing on, and industry sources whispering that the roster of actors being considered for the role of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg includes hot young stars like Michael Cera and Shia LaBeouf, it's clear that Hollywood is putting muscle behind "The Social Network."

Should Facebook be worried? I'm not sure. Company representatives have been quick to make an analogy between Mezrich's "Accidental Billionaires" and Danielle Steele, and my impression of the book is that it is too silly and not damning enough to have any negative impact on Zuckerberg or Facebook. But if the movie adaptation turns out to be high-quality filmmaking, it won't be so easy for Facebook to wave off what it claims are untrue allegations about the social network's early days. In other words, audiences might be more likely to believe it.

From what it sounds like, Napster co-founder and early Facebook exec Sean Parker has an even bigger role in the screenplay than he does in the book. In "Accidental Billionaires," Parker is said to have a vendetta against Sequoia Capital investor Michael Moritz; it sounds like that's sticking around in the screenplay.

"I loved Sean Parker in this script," Reeves wrote. "Sorkin gives Parker this quirky little obsession with an old business associate who f***ed him over during his Napster days. Parker has a stalker-like obsession with getting back at him and brings up his revenge plans at every opportunity. Not only is it hilarious, but it reveals Parker's character."

That could get interesting.

(Credit: Doubleday)

David Fincher is in "advanced talks" to direct the Columbia Pictures movie about the origins of Facebook, according to Variety.

The movie, based on Ben Mezrich's upcoming "The Accidental Billionaires," was written by "The West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin. It's being produced, Variety reported Tuesday, by Scott Rudin and Michael De Luca along with Dana Brunetti and actor Kevin Spacey. Variety said the movie is called "The Social Network." We hear this is a very preliminary working title. (It, obviously, could also be called "Accidental Billionaires.")

Fincher's past directorial work includes "Fight Club," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," and "Panic Room."

An entertainment industry source tells CNET News that early casting searches are under way and that the list of young actors being eyeballed to play Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg includes both Michael Cera ("Superbad," "Arrested Development") and Shia LaBeouf ("Transformers"). They aren't the only ones, and it's not clear whether either of those two in-demand actors would want to take a turn away from comedies (Cera) or action movies (LaBeouf) to play Zuckerberg.

Cera is, according to the source, a top choice because audiences find him particularly likable. Rumors about the plot of the book "Accidental Billionaires" hint that Zuckerberg is going to be portrayed rather unfavorably--basically, as an obnoxious nerd--and obnoxious nerds are not the world's biggest box-office sell. Cera could make the part a little bit more sympathetic.

But in LaBeouf's favor, I saw "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" last night, and the guy really does sound a lot like Zuckerberg.

Meanwhile, Facebook itself reportedly isn't thrilled. The social network consistently hasn't commented publicly about "Accidental Billionaires" and is said to have warned employees not to talk to anyone affiliated with the movie.

(Credit: Paramount)

Please note: Friendly seas ahead! This is a spoiler-free review.

NEW YORK--When I walked into a theater at Viacom's midtown headquarters for an advance screening of the new J.J. Abrams-directed "Star Trek" prequel on Wednesday night, I felt like that kid who hadn't done her homework--for an entire semester.

And yet that was crucial to my assignment: to see if it was possible for someone completely new to the "Star Trek" universe to understand, process, and more importantly enjoy this new film.

Here's my background. I had never seen any of the prior "Star Trek" films or television series. I knew little more than the fact that it's all about a bunch of people flying a spaceship called the Enterprise, that Leonard Nimoy played an extraterrestrial named Spock who had funny ears and liked to say "Live long and prosper," and that the Klingon language has such a rabid following that the Bible has been translated into it.

Technically, the closest I'd come to seeing anything related to "Star Trek" was the 1998 parody "Galaxy Quest," in which the actors from a washed-up Trek-like TV show are enlisted by benevolent aliens who think they're the real thing (Little-known fact: That was the first movie role for Justin "I'm a Mac" Long). But I'm also a huge fan of Abrams' hit series "Lost," so I suppose I had a leg up there.

So here is my verdict: This movie is awesome.

The new "Star Trek" film is less an homage to a legendary science fiction franchise than to storytelling in general, back through decades of cinema and television and beyond. A deep respect for literature, pop culture, and epic storytelling is something that Abrams has proven time and again to fans, from the litany of film-rooted "Sawyer nicknames" on "Lost" to the tradition of Japanese monster movies that powered last year's "Cloverfield." This is a movie that will probably be well-regarded by anyone with an appreciation for epic adventure and drama, not to mention fast-paced and often witty dialogue.

And that's what the "Star Trek" prequel needed, considering the hand-wringing that surrounded it from even before it was officially greenlit.

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman was on hand before the screening to greet the audience and explain a bit about the film's origins: that Paramount, the Viacom-owned studio that is releasing the new film, was well aware of the complications and potential pratfalls of adapting "Star Trek, especially in a prequel form, and especially with the goal of reaching out to both "Trekkies" (or "Trekkers," as I hear there is a difference?) and potential new fans. He said that cinema luminaries, including Steven Spielberg, had warned Abrams that undertaking a project with such a history and legacy of loyal fans could be risky.

But the director went ahead, a second Abrams-helmed "Star Trek" picture was greenlit almost immediately, and his contract with Paramount was extended another five years. Obviously, this is a franchise in which the studio has some real faith.

Pretty early on, you can tell that this isn't the "Star Trek" of the '60s, even though I admittedly don't really know what that is. The first 20 minutes contain not only ear-splitting action sequences, but brand-drops of both Nokia and Budweiser (as well as 'Slusho,' a fictional brand from "Cloverfield"), one very Abrams-esque "gotcha" character reveal that will take most newbies like me by surprise, and the oddly effective use of the Beastie Boys' 1994 song "Sabotage."

There is a pivotal bar fight, which I first took as a nod to "Star Wars," but on second thought, the cinematic barroom confrontation really goes back much further than the Mos Eisley Cantina. (I need to brush up on my knowledge of Westerns.) Again, this is a movie deeply rooted in generations of storytelling both onscreen and off.

I can see why some hardcore "Star Trek" fans may have been nervous about the casting decisions: the Internet Movie Database informs me that Chris Pine, the young actor cast as Captain Kirk, was starring opposite Lindsay Lohan in some tepid romantic comedy a few years ago, and Sulu is played by John Cho, best known for playing Harold in the spliffed-up "Harold and Kumar" movies. I must say that Cho wields a retractable sword just as well as he does a joint, and Pine's Kirk keeps the frat-boy attitude to a relative minimum.

But more importantly, "Star Trek" is just plain fun. And I came to appreciate the fact that I was sitting in that theater without prejudice. I was concerned less about whether the cast would live up to the actors who originated their roles, and more about holy whoa, that spaceship just blew up!. There is, however, a flip side to the universality of the new "Star Trek" that Paramount might not love: The fact that it stands so well on its own might mean that it doesn't mint a new generation of Trekkies.

Like me, for one. As much as I enjoyed the prequel, I can't see myself Netflixing all the DVDs of the past "Star Trek" TV series and movies. I've already got "Lost" to deal with, and one fictional universe and canon is enough for me, thank you very much. Seriously--what does lie in the shadow of the statue? Losties, can you help me out here?