So, Aaron Sorkin, writer of such films as A Few Good Men, The American Presidentand Charlie Wilson’s War, and, of course, creator of TV’s The West Wing, is apparently now working on a movie about Facebook for Sony Pictures and producer Scott Rudin (No Country for Old Men). Yes, that’s right, a Facebook movie. News comes to us directly from the social networking site, as Sorkin himself announced the project by admitting that he has absolutely no clue what Facebook is. And I guess he’s looking for assistance or questions or something. Obviously he’s the perfect guy to be scripting a film about the founding of the site.
I’m drawing a blank right now as to whether or not any websites have officially spawned movies (does AOL count?), but I do recall an idea from 3 years ago to make an internet dating movie sponsored by Friendster, which was to be directed by Harold Ramis and star Topher Grace. I guess the fact that Friendster faded from popularity in favor of MySpace and then Facebook ruined those plans. But is it possible that this new project will fare any better? Social networking sites have a habit of falling out of fashion rather quickly. Oh well, if Facebook: The Movie doesn’t work out, Rudin and Sorkin are welcome to go with any of these other ideas:
10. Friendster- Just because the other Friendster project didn’t pan out doesn’t mean the site can’t still inspire another movie. This one would be all about how Friendster rose to the top quickly and lived the good life until attempts to get even higher went awry and its fans abandoned it. You know, the age old story of celebrity. Sorkin might be interested because of the way it could parallel his hit stage play (and upcoming film) The Farnsworth Invention.
Earlier this year, I thought that it was way too late for a Sex and the Citymovie. But then it made a ton of cash, so I guess I was wrong. Still, I’m going to continue similarly thinking it’s too late for another X-Filesmovie. And even if I’m proven wrong and the masses get out to theaters this weekend in search of the truth, I’ll keep on believing that X-Files: I Want to Believeis way past its time.
To celebrate Mulder and Scully’s tardiness, here are 10 other movies that came out too late:
The Godfather Part III(Released in: 1990; Should have been released in: 1976) - Never mind the fact that had this third installment been made years earlier, Sofia Coppola wouldn’t have been cast and therefore wouldn’t have given her terribly infamous performance. The more important matter is that sequels arriving more than a decade after the previous installment are almost always doomed. The longer the wait, the higher the expectations, and the greater the disappointment. Of course, not everyone agrees that it was also too late for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Live Free or Die Hard, Rambo, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, etc. …Read more
I had nearly forgotten about The Onion Movie. The sketch-comedy-formatted film spin-off of the brilliant newspaper satire was made about four years ago and then was abandoned by original distributor Fox Searchlight. According to Wikipedia, it performed badly with test audiences, and when it was shelved and then dropped by the studio, the filmmakers — co-directors Tom Kuntz and Mike Maguire and screenwriter Robert Siegel (formerly editor of The Onion) — also walked away from the project. It spent the next few years involved in attempted rescue operations by New Regency and actor-writer Scott Aukerman (Run Ronnie Run!). Now, finally this trailer has shown up on the DVD of Fox Searchlight’s The Darjeeling Limited, implying that the studio will be dumping it to DVD sometime this year.
As you can see, there was good reason for Fox to have initially distanced itself from the movie. It makes the similar-structured The Kentucky Fried Movielook like a masterpiece (I understand it’s considered a classic for some, but it’s by no means a masterpiece). And, well, it even makes the recent parody films like Epic Movieand Meet the Spartansseem like masterpieces. Considering that after 20 years in print and 12 years online, the actual newspaper is consistently intelligent, cutting-edge, relevant and, most of all, hilarious, it’s quite disappointing to see how stale are the gags in the film. While it may be funny to see the decapitation caused by a neckbelt, the concept as a whole is illogical and unimaginative. And the smoking ban joke? Maybe topical in 2004, but even then the gag would have been put to better use in a Tonight Show monologue.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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