Thank you Richard Kelly. No, we never thought we’d say that either.
The “Donnie Darko”/”Southland Tales,” director tweeted yesterday, “Just read that one actor (Armie Hammer) will play the Winklevoss twins in [David Fincher’s] ‘THE SOCIAL NETWORK.’ Cool!” So we went digging and discovered ala Aaron Sorkin’s Facebook page that several young actors have joined the cast including the aforementioned Hammer (from “Gossip Girl”), Max Minghella (“Agora” and “Artschool Confidential”), Rooney Mara (young sister of Kate Mara), Dakota Johnson (daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith), Disney Channel actress Brenda Song, and model Josh Pence.
Sorkin writes (quoted by a user, that would never bother making up names so obscure) that “20 others” are set to join though it’s doubtful they’ll be bigger names than the film’s three leads Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake (who has the smallest role of the three leads) or the ones already mentioned.
Shooting began yesterday, Oct. 19th in Cambridge, MA. Justin Timberlake hasn’t been spotted in Cambridge yet, but that’s because his scenes all take place in Los Angeles (he plays Napster co-founder Sean Parker) and a Boston location manager recently confirmed that Timberlake indeed won’t be appearing in MA at all. The pop star is apparently growing out his hair as well so he can pull off Parker’s curls.
Rumored to be around $40 million in budget, it’s nice to see some limitations that forces directors to have to reach out to interesting actors that won’t inflate the budget skyward. Though to be fair, Fincher would have probably chosen these guys anyhow, but as evinced by what happened to Joe Wright’s “Indian Summer,” yesterday (put on the backburner due to cost), you’re going to see a lot of dramas these days hit a budget ceiling of around $30-40 million until the economy picks up. That means that ambitious and expensive dramas like ‘Benjamin Button’ should be happy they were made before the recession.
Who are all these women going to play in the movie. I read the book it's based on, and about 99% of the women are Asian co-eds who date the stars.
Seriously, who are all these people? There's one crazy Asian chick who sets things on fire, that could be Brenda Song. What about the Indian guy? And one guy playing twins? Well, if Lindsay Lohan could do it…
Well it looks like Max Minghella will be playing Divya Narendra. If true then it's a shame as he's not not Indian and doesn't look it either! But he is a talented actor, maybe he'll bring something new to the table in place of the authenticity they've disregarded. I think it's Hollywood at it's saddest state when they cast a half-white/half-chinese guy to play an Indian man!
I fully agree, as an Indian, I find it almost offensive. The character is Indian, the real person is Indian, the actor….is not….nor does he look it!
Are there any black characters? Hmm, why don't we just put some blackface makeup on a couple of white teens. That will work just as well, right Mr.Fincher?!
Yeah, I'm not happy with that casting choice either. If it was a fictional character then fine, but it's not. Divya Narendra is a real person, the film is meant to be somewhat embellished for film purposes but is otherwise meant to be an accurate portrayal of the origins of Facebook. So they've hired a half-white, half-chinese guy to play an Indian person. If he at least looked Indian that would be understandable, but he doesn't. It would be like doing a biographical movie on Muhammed Ali and having Tom Cruise play him!
Hollywood continues to place barriers for Asian actors. Well done David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin.