Two new productions about social media are headed our way as stories about both Facebook and Twitter are being adapted for the screen. Ineffable Pictures is making Fakebook, a film about the adventures of one ambitious Facebook user. Meanwhile, Lionsgate TV is bringing on Nick Bilton to adapt his book Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal for the small screen.
First, Fakebook. And yes, I’m sorry to break the news to all you Arrested Development fans, but that says Fakebook not Fakeblock, like my overly-optimistic mind first read. Still, while it won’t be as great as a feature film about George Michael developing apps, this Fakebook story does have potential.
The film will be based on Dave Cicirelli’s memoir Fakebook: A True Story Based on Actual Lies. It chronicles one man’s efforts at reinventing his life, or at least his online presence. Basically, he does a lot of lying on the internet, an activity which has been a very common pastime since the earliest days of keyboard anonymity. But instead of a pretending to be a teenage girl, Cicirelli acts as if he quit his job, moved west, and had a serious of crazy adventures including experiences with religious cults and a girlfriend named Amish Kate. It sounds like a hilarious story, and assuming Ineffable doesn’t do something ineffably stupid like try to turn it into a dark drama, it should make for a pretty entertaining flick. Maybe they’ll even be able to get Michael Cera to star.
Now onto the report about a Twitter television show (via Deadline). Naturally, many people are going to be all atwitter and crying out that Hatching Twitter is just a rip-off of The Social Network. While I’d like to say that those people are wrong and this show will be totally different, it looks like it probably won’t be. The series will depict the site’s founding in 2006 by four friends who would soon be fighting over money and power. Sounds about as fresh as a retweet to me, but who knows? Lionsgate could come up with some interesting spin to make the series memorable in its own way.
What do you think about these books receiving adaptations? In the spirit of these upcoming films, get social with it and head on down to the comments section to share your thoughts on Hatching Twitter and Fakebook.