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Ben Mezrich on The Accidental Billionaires Becoming The Social Network
Posted
July 20, 2026
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July 20, 2026
335
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3:58Now PlayingBen Mezrich on The Accidental Billionaires: "I wrote a 14 page book proposal, which I called Face Off, which was a horrible title. It was already a movie with John Travolta, if you remember. So I sent that book proposal to my agent and it leaked onto the internet. If you remember the website Gawker, Gawker published my entire book proposal. I'd never seen that done before. And that day, a whole bunch of crazy things happened. Aaron Sorkin saw it and said, I want to write this as my next movie, which was incredible. Facebook settled with Eduardo to try and stop the book from happening for the tune of $5 billion and the top of the settlement agreement I've seen. It says you may never speak to Ben Mezrich again...But as I said, Aaron Sorkin read it online and said, I want to write this. David Fincher saw it online the same day, said, I want to direct this, but as my next movie, because who knows if Facebook be around in a year."
SUNDAYAmerica's Book Club with Ben Mezrich 6pm ET on CSPAN
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