A Facebook Biopic? David Fincher Likes This.

According to Variety, David Fincher is in advanced talks to direct Aaron Sorkin's script about the formation of Facebook, The Social Network. If it seems unlikely that Sorkin, the master of scenes where people walk and talk, could craft a film about people sitting and typing, Fincher seems to be even more of an unconventional choice. Still, Social Network reminds us of one film in particular that Fincher almost got off the ground (which may shed a little more light on where he plans to go with this one).

Back in 2003, Fincher came aboard another story about a small group of young dudes at the forefront of a cultural movement: Lords of Dogtown. However, after taking the reins of the film away from protege Fred Durst (and yes, let's all agree to forget that ever happened), Fincher insisted on an outsized budget that would involve spending $18 million alone on rebuilding the Pacific Ocean Park Pier, where the film's characters spent much of their time. When Sony turned him down, eventually Catherine Hardwicke was hired to direct and made Dogtown for a relatively thrifty amount.

Finding unconventional ways to experiment and embiggen the budget is part of a pattern for Fincher, who also took David Koepp's slim, down and dirty Panic Room script (whose title page read "This film is short. This film is fast.") and fleshed it out with a massive CG rendering of the house that the director could swoop and track through. It's almost as though Fincher thrives on the challenge of making a script visually stimulating in unexpected ways, in which case we expect that taking Facebook's "Which Real Housewife Are You?" quiz will suddenly become more thrilling onscreen than the best robot battles money can buy.

· Fincher circles Facebook movie [Variety]