First Glance: JT In David Fincher’s Facebook Biopic ‘The Social Network’

The Daily Mail has the first set photo of Justin Timberlake in David Fincher’s The Social Network. The film tells the story of the creation of Facebook. In the film, Timberlake plays internet entrepreneur Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster), who began informally advising Mark Zuckerberg (played in the film by Jesse Eisenberg, the co-creator of Facebook, and later became its president when the company incorporated in 2004. Check out the full photo after the jump.

Columbia Pictures has given the film a rumored $47 million budget. Based on Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal, The Social Network tells the story of Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg, the founders of Facebook. The screenplay was written by Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, Charlie Wilson’s War) , and the 162-page first draft has been described as “Unpredictable, Funny, Touching and Sad.”

A couple things that should be noted about The Social Network:

1) The director of the this dramedy about the creators of Facebook is…DAVID FINCHER!!! The guy who brought us Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac and The CCO Benjamin Button. Needless to say, this is venturing into new territory for Fincher, that being his directorial debut of a non-dark thriller/fantasy movie. This is not bad in any way, in fact I’m sure he’ll knock it out of the park just like all of his previous films, it’s just interesting to note the change in tone and speculate on what his approach will be.

2) With this role, Justin Timberlake should solidify himself as a legitimate film actor. Even though he’s proved that he’s got talent with dramatic turns in films such as Black Snake Moan, and his brilliant comedic ability displayed on Saturday Night Live, a lot of people still can’t get over the fact that he was the face of N’Sync, thus won’t be able to take him seriously. But now he’s working with the best in the biz; a three-time Golden Globe-nominated writer (Sorkin) and an Academy Award-nominated director (Fincher). After this, I think the haters will be very quiet from now on.

What Do You Think? Discuss.