Mark Harris Digs Down Deep with Sorkin and Fincher

New York Magazine’s Mark Harris writes a piece dense enough to satisfy this Social Network junkie’s needs. If you were at all curious about how the project came to be, whether or not Facebook participated (they did not), whether or not the film was based on the book (it wasn’t), and how well Sorkin and Fincher worked together, it is all here:

The two men were in full accord on The Social Network’s portrayal of Zuckerberg as misunderstood genius, nerd, creep, ambitious young postadolescent, misfit, or all of the above. And it might surprise Facebook’s CEO to know that he is viewed with intense sympathy by just about everyone behind this movie—all of whom, not incidentally, have been at some point in their professional lives on the receiving end of the word asshole. “I know what it’s like to be 21 years old and trying to direct and sitting in a room full of grown-ups who think you’re just so cute but aren’t about to give you control of anything,” says Fincher. “I know the anger that comes from when you just want to be allowed to do the things that you know you can do. So I feel it would be irresponsible to say this is the story of a guy who betrayed his friends.”