David Fincher officially on board for Facebook film

'The Social Network' is based on Ben Mezrich book 'the Accidental Billionaires'
'The Social Network' is based on Ben Mezrich book 'the Accidental Billionaires'

An Aaron Sorkin penned movie based on the origins of the social-networking phenomenon Facebook has been given the greenlight, according to reports, with none other than David Fincher on board to direct.

The news – which was picked up by SlashFilm – means that, for once, the rumour mill was right with its predictions that Fincher, fresh from The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, will take on the story of Facebook founders Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin. A rumour that

TechRadar reported on

back in June

The script charts the pair's early days at Harvard, where they came up with the Facebook concept, all the way up to than less-than acrimonious split which saw Saverin frozen out of the business - only to be re-instated earlier this year.

Script gets positive reviews

Early reviews of the script have been positive, and while Fincher may not seem an obvious choice for the movie, you only have to look at Fight Club to see how well he works with volatile characters at odds with each other.

Not that we are expecting many punches to be thrown in the film, ala Fight Club, more likely their disputes will be dealt with through disparaging status updates.

Production begins in October on the $47m budgeted flick, which is adapted from the Ben Mezrich book 'the Accidental Billionaires'.

Via SlashFilm

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.