Ben Mezrich

Mm-hmm.

This movie is adapted from Ben Mezrich's book, The Accidental Billionaires.

Uh, and Aaron Sorkin, the writer of this, and-

Mm-hmm

Uh, but, uh, he s- read an unfinished draft of that book and that's, uh, a lot of it draws research from Eduardo Saverin and, like, interviews with Eduardo Saverin.

Oh, wow.

And Eduardo Saverin stopped talking to Ben Mezrich, like, when the lawsuit stopped with Mark Zuckerberg.

Right.

Exactly.

Aaron Sorkin's script from 2010 based on Ben Mezrich's book.

Just a blistering biographical drama.

So right there you have three wildly different approaches to pacing, to dialogue, and to structure.

This is the truth behind Facebook and the film The Social Network.

Before we dive in, you can know that this narrative is grounded in facts from credible sources, from interviews, court documents, news reports, and Ben Mezrich's book, The Accidental Billionaires, the dramatized account that inspired the film.

In 2010, The Social Network swept into theaters with razor-sharp dialogue and an intense tale of friendship, betrayal, and the birth of Facebook.

It was a drama based on real events.

N- no one at Facebook was involved in the making of the movie.

I think S- uh, Eduardo Saverin was a consultant on Ben Mezrich's book, uh, from which this movie is adapted.

Mm-hmm.

Is, it's from the book.

I can't remember who the author is now.

Is it Ben Mezrich? That's who it is, who wrote, um, he...

So he writes about real events.

Uh, like he wrote the film, uh, well it became a film with the disgraced Kevin Spacey, I think.

The Accidental

Billionaires, which apparently Sorkin and Ben Mezrich wrote the book.

They were basically writing in parallel to each other.

And they'd occasionally touch base.

Oh, this is a perfect example.

Ben Mezrich's book, The Accidental Billionaires, is basically a brisk, highly gossipy piece of nonfiction.

It reads like a long Vanity magazine article about college fraternity parties and legal depositions.

The founder of Facebook comes off as a bit of a cartoon.

Yes.

Fincher had an incredible run in the 2010s, but his defining achievement was the 2010 adaptation of Ben Mezrich's book The Accidental Billionaires, which became The Social Network.

This movie is a psychological horror film, but the monster is an algorithm.

[laughs]

Yeah.

So I'm writing a piece right now on our substack that'll be out when this podcast comes out, so I'll tell you about what it's gonna be, and it's literally about bringing down the house in the movie "21." Mezrich wrote this book.

It was about the MIT professor and students that went out in Vegas and started counting cards in blackjack.

So when Bessent says he is the house, great.