Aaron Sorkin is returning to the world of Facebook for The Social Network Part II. While the Oscar-winning screenwriter wants another crack at Meta, the star of The Social Network would prefer to leave it in the past.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jesse Eisenberg has passed on reprising the role of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Eisenberg earned an Academy Award nomination for playing the Facebook co-founder in The Social Network. It’s unknown if Eisenberg’s decision to pass is a negotiating tactic or not.
With Eisenberg out, Emmy winner Jeremy Strong is circling the role of Zuckerberg in The Social Network Part II. Strong’s potential casting comes one day after the news that Mikey Madison and Jeremy Strong are also considering roles in the sequel.
The sequel is based on The Facebook Files, a 2021 Wall Street Journal investigation conducted by Jeff Horowitz. White would play Horowitz, while Madison would star as Frances Haugen, the whistleblower who brought the information to the Wall Street Journal.
THR’s report indicates that no offers have been made to the actors, and the film remains in development. However, Sorkin’s sequel is a “top priority” for Sony.
Excl: JEREMY STRONG is the latest bold-faced name to circle Aaron Sorkin’s THE SOCIAL NETWORK PART II, and joins Mikey Madison & Jeremy Allen White on the hot list. The kicker: Is Strong going to be play Mark Zuckerberg and replace Jesse Eisenberg? https://t.co/b0OTEvMG0B
Sorkin will write and direct The Social Network Part II. The movie is not considered a direct sequel but rather a follow-up to 2010’s The Social Network, as it explores Facebook’s meteoric rise to become one of the world’s biggest social media platforms.
The WSJ report exposed the inner mechanics of Facebook and the negative role it played in the age of misinformation. While not billed as a “January 6” movie, Sorkin did tell Puck’s Matt Belloni last year that the sequel will explore Facebook’s role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Sorkin, Peter Rice, Todd Black, and Stuart Besser are producing the sequel.
Directed by David Fincher, The Social Network is widely viewed as one of the greatest movies of the century. The movie received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (Fincher), and Best Actor (Eisenberg). It won three: Best Adapted Screenplay (Sorkin), Best Film Editing (Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter), and Best Original Score (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross).
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.