Aaron Sorkin Was His Own ‘Second Choice’ to Direct ‘The Social Reckoning’ – David Fincher Was His First

Sorkin on changing his mind about "not wanting to jump up and down" on Zuckerberg again, and why this is not a "Social Network" sequel.

“The Social Network” broke through in a way no one expected, becoming a bigger box office, critical, and awards success than anyone, including its screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, ever anticipated.

“It did surprise me,” said Sorkin on an upcoming episode of the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast. “But I had a great time making it, and I thought [director] David Fincher hit it out of the park.”

“The Social Network” left a lasting mark, becoming millennials’ “Citizen Kane,” the creation myth by which we’ve come to understand how a collection of unscrupulous young men gave birth to the modern social media platforms that have a vice grip on society today. The 2010 film’s success is often attributed to the chocolate-and-peanut butter-like pairing of Sorkin’s earnest optimism and Fincher’s clinical cynicism. For that reason, many, including Sorkin himself, were disappointed that Fincher would not return to direct his “The Social Reckoning” script, which picks up its behind-the-scenes examination of Facebook during the company’s tumultuous years between 2018 and 2021.

“I was my second choice to direct it,” said Sorkin. “I wanted David to direct it, but [he] couldn’t.”

Sorkin had largely accepted that while writing “The Social Reckoning,” but it didn’t stop him from making Fincher the first person he sent the script to when he was done.

“[Fincher] has [an] exclusive deal at Netflix and he was directing ‘The Further Misadventures of Cliff Booth,’ which is coming out later this year” explained Sorkin. “Even if he could have somehow gotten Netflix’s permission to go work at Sony, I didn’t want ‘The Social Reckoning’ to come out a year after the midterm elections. I didn’t think we were going to be in the mood anymore. I wanted it to come out now.”

Ironically, back in 2009, “The Social Network” almost became Sorkin’s directorial debut. According to Sorkin, producer Scott Rudin and then-Sony head Amy Pascal had been pressuring the writer to direct.

“I had never raised my hand and said, ‘Uh, could I try? I’ve never asked to direct anything. [Rudin and Pascal] had decided that I should direct it,” said Sorkin. “I got very nervous, and I said, ‘OK, listen, let’s just send the script to David Fincher, he’s going to pass, he passes on everything, and if he passes, I’ll direct it.’”

Sorkin said that within only hours of the script going out, he received an email from Fincher introducing himself, announcing he was going to direct the film, and asking if he could come over so they could get to work.

It’s a collaboration that would change the trajectory of both men’s careers and an experience Sorkin remembers fondly. While on the podcast, he recalled many of his favorite stories of working with Fincher, including filming the opening title sequence – a high-angle wide shot of Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) running through Cambridge on his way back to his Harvard dorm after being dumped by his girlfriend (Rooney Mara) in the film’s opening scene.

“We’ve got a camera set up on a rooftop in Cambridge, working a hot street — meaning we haven’t closed it off, those people walking through, the cars, they were all the real deal,” said Sorkin, who went on to explain that Fincher hadn’t been allowed to mount a light on the wall that surrounds Harvard Yard, and was frustrated there was not enough light spilling on a specific portion of the sidewalk Eisenberg was running down.

“So what he did, and this is another David thing, no one else would think of this, he hired a mime. He had seen a mime working who had this cart [with] all these lights on it, to stand there,” said Sorkin. “Why a mime? Because he knew none of the real people we were using as extras would stop and talk to the mime.”

It’s a story that highlights for Sorkin how he’ll never be Fincher, and there was only so much he could learn about directing by working alongside him during prep and production.

“There’s a limit to how much someone like me can learn from someone like David just by watching.  It would be like me watching Baryshnikov, and then being able to dance — just watching him isn’t going to do the trick. David has a magnificent eye for the frame; that’s something of David’s that I can’t imitate,” said Sorkin. “ What I can do is hire Jeff Cronenweth (Fincher’s ‘Social Network,’ and ‘Fight Club’ cinematographer). I try to create a director in the aggregate,  by bringing in the right DP, the right production designer, the right costume designer, et cetera.”

Replacing Fincher “in the aggregate” is how Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) talked about having to replace the team’s MVP first baseman Jason Giambi in the Sorkin-adapted screenplay of “Moneyball.” Finding another first baseman who could hit 40-plus home runs with a .450 on-base percentage was a fool’s errand; the key was making up for Giambi’s contribution across multiple positions.

In the Sorkin-penned films and TV series prior to “The Social Network,” the musical rhythms of his dialogue were captured by directors with a strong sense of movement; Fincher did it with precise framing and editing, something Sorkin wanted to emulate when he turned to Cronenweth for the “Being the Ricardos” and now “Reckoning,” relying on the Fincher alum to help him create a variety of different and dynamic framing options within his trademark dialogue-heavy scenes.

Sorkin and Fincher have remained close, and Sorkin has continued to rely on Fincher’s insight and encouragement.

“[He] was the first person to read the script for ‘Social Reckoning,’ and we met the next morning. He’s been a very enthusiastic support person, and he was talking about how it’s not going to be hard to do this movie, and the only person really who could bend us over a table is Jesse [Eisenberg], and we just all assumed Jesse was going [to play Zuckerberg again],” laughed Sorkin.

Zuckerberg would be the only character from “The Social Network” to reappear in “The Social Reckoning,” and Sorkin told IndieWire he wrote the script imagining the sharp-tongued Eisenberg saying the lines. Sorkin would quickly learn through extensive talks with Eisenberg that the actor no longer wanted to be associated with Zuckerberg, telling him about experiences that have haunted him, such as teenage boys coming up to him at baggage claim in an airport asking him to sign business cards that say, “I’m CEO bitch.”

Part of what made it easier for him to imagine Jeremy Strong replacing Eisenberg in front of the camera, and himself replacing Fincher behind it, was that he never imagined the two films as being especially connected.

“‘The Social Reckoning’ isn’t a sequel to ‘The Social Network,’” said Sorkin sharply. “It’s another movie about Facebook, written by the same writer who wrote ‘The Social Network,’ and one of the characters from ‘The Social Network’ is in this. It would be as if, Henry Hill [Ray Liotta’s character in ‘Goodfellas’] showed up in ‘Casino.’”

Like Eisenberg, Sorkin didn’t want to return to Zuckerberg and Facebook, but for very different reasons. Sorkin has still never, to this day, met Zuckerberg, but he recalled being impressed that the Facebook founder, while facing backlash as a result of “The Social Network,” donated $100 million ($200 million with matching funds) to the Newark, New Jersey school system.

“I felt like he’d been a good sport about it,” said Sorkin. “It wasn’t a matter of not wanting to be associated with him; I didn’t want to jump up and down on him again with another movie. I don’t feel that way anymore.”

Sorkin credits reading books by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen (played by Mikey Madison in the film), Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White), and former Zuckerberg consigliere Roger McNamee (who inspired Bill Burr’s fictional character in the film) with opening his eyes and changing his heart.

“This is really dangerous what’s going on,” said Sorkin. “What ‘The Social Reckoning’ is about is Facebook’s role in the rise of extremism and divisiveness and hyperpartisanship in this country.”

As Sorkin says this, it’s clear that his eyes being opened to the damage Zuckerberg has directly wrought has eliminated his instinct to see the best in the Facebook CEO; that part of Sorkin that strives to empathize with the reasoning and thought process of those on the opposite side of an argument is gone. To listen to him talk about Zuckerberg’s motivations and actions today, it’s almost Fincher-esque.