Facebook, the Movie: Computer Geek as Arch-Villain

Updated

Leave it to Hollywood to portray a college-age computer geek as the second coming of Dr. Hannibal Lecter. But that seems to be the intended effect (maybe without the chianti and fava beans) of the newly released trailer for the upcoming movie, The Social Network, which tells the story of Mark Zuckerberg and his now ubiquitous website Facebook.

As ominous, melodramatic music plays in the background, a series of words flash on the screen: PUNK ... GENIUS ... PROPHET ... TRAITOR ... BILLIONAIRE.

Snippets of dialogue are heard -- "We don't know what it can be, we don't know what it will be. We know that it is cool." Then the screen resolves on the face of actor Jesse Eisenberg, who plays Zuckerberg.

Earlier this month at a tech conference, the Facebook CEO said, "I just wished that nobody made a movie of me while I was still alive."

The Social Network is directed by David Fincher (Fight Club). No word yet on who plays Agent Clarice Starling.

Advertisement