Sorkin says he has 'no visual sensibility' and was his 'second choice' to direct Social Reckoning

Left · 2Screenwriter and director Aaron Sorkin said in an interview on The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast that he was his own "second choice" to direct The Social Reckoning. 1 2 Left · 1He said he would have preferred David Fincher, who directed the 2010 film The Social Network, but that Fincher has an exclusive deal at Netflix while the new film was owned by Sony. 1 Left · 2Sorkin also said he worries that the parts of directing he is not good at are the ones that cannot be learned, and that he was surprised by how little of the "science of filmmaking" he had absorbed, adding: "I have no visual sensibility, it turns out." 1 2

Left · 1The comments came while he discussed whether screenwriting can be taught, saying some parts can be learned but others amount to "talent". 1 Left · 1The Independent reports that The Social Reckoning, released this month, has Jeremy Strong replacing Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg and follows Facebook engineer Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) and Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) as they blow the whistle on Facebook. 1 Left · 1The Independent notes Sorkin has directed Molly's Game, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Being the Ricardos, and has worked with directors including Rob Reiner, Mike Nichols and Danny Boyle, from whom he wants to keep learning. 1

Left · 1The A.V. Club says the film did not do well, that moviegoers "by and large, avoided" it, and that it is now mostly out of theatres; it casts the comments as part of a pattern in which Sorkin praises people he wanted for the project, including Eisenberg, who declined to return. 2 Left · 1The A.V. Club says the podcast was recorded at the Newport Beach Film Festival; no comment from Fincher appears in either report. 2