Aaron Sorkin has admitted he was his own “second choice” to direct The Social Reckoning, confessing he fears he lacks the natural talent needed to become a great filmmaker.
The American screenwriter, 65, returned with the follow-up to his Oscar-winning 2010 movie The Social Network, which was directed by David Fincher, this month.
The Social Reckoning sees Jeremy Strong (Succession) take over the role of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg from Jesse Eisenberg, who portrayed him in the first film. It follows Facebook engineer Frances Haugen (played by Mikey Madison) and The Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) as they blow the whistle on the social network’s most guarded secrets.
In a new interview on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, Sorkin confessed he wanted Fincher to return for a second stint behind the camera, but he was tied up by a deal with streaming giant Netflix.
“I was my second choice to direct it,” he admitted.
“I would have rather David Fincher directed it – I would rather David Fincher direct everything – but David has an exclusive deal at Netflix, and this was owned by Sony.”
Sorkin is one of Hollywood's most successful screenwriters and he’s stepped into directing over the last decade, taking charge of films including Molly’s Game, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Being the Ricardos, but he fears he still has a lot to learn about the business.
He said: “There’s a big part of me that feels like I just got into the movie business a few minutes ago, and that there’s so much I don’t know.
“From time to time, I get to speak with screenwriting students, and I’ll be asked: ‘Is screenwriting something that can be taught?’
“And the answer is: ‘There are parts of screenwriting – important parts – that can be taught and can be learned, but there are parts that can’t be. And those parts that can’t be? That’s usually what we mean when we use the word ‘talent’.
“I’m very worried that the parts of directing that I’m not good at are those parts that you can’t learn.”
Sorkin has worked with directors including Rob Reiner, Mike Nichols and Danny Boyle on past projects and he wants to continue learning from the greats.
He added: “I’m not done wanting to work with great directors, but when you work with the lineup of directors that you just read, you’d really have to not be paying attention to not learn anything ...
“I was surprised by how little of the science of filmmaking I’d managed to absorb. I have no visual sensibility, it turns out.”
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