TRENT REZNOR + DAVID FINCHER + AARON SORKIN = A MOVIE WORTH GETTING EXCITED ABOUT

A lot of people think that the work of Aaron Sorkin is too treacly and stylized, and while I certainly understand that complaint, I tend think that, overrall, he’s one of the most entertaining (and certainly one of the most distinctive) writers out there these days. Everyone and their mother can quote A Few Good Men, Sports Night was one of the best series ever to get prematurely cancelled by a stupid network, and The West Wing won a shit ton of accolades for a reason. Sure, Studio 60 and Charlie Wilson’s War were a little on the meh side, but his 2007 Broadway play, The Farnsworth Invention, was engrossing and educational.

The Social Network, Sorkin’s script about the creation of Facebook, made The Blacklist (a Hollywood compilation of the most-read and most-enjoyed unproduced screenplays) a couple of years back, and the announcement that David Fincher — he of Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac, and Benjamin Button fame (to name but a few) — was going to direct the film was certainly reason to get excited about it.

More reason to get excited: Trent Reznor has announced that he’s been hired to score the film. From the official NIN website:

I was planning on taking some time off after the continual waves of touring that ended last fall and spend this year experimenting around with what would become How To Destroy Angels and some new NIN. Well, that plan didn’t work out so well. David Fincher started inquiring about my interest in scoring his upcoming film, The Social Network. Yeah, the movie about the founding of Facebook. I’ve always loved David’s work but quite honestly I wondered what would draw him to tell that story. When I actually read the script and realized what he was up to, I said goodbye to that free time I had planned. Atticus Ross and I have been on a creative roll so I asked him if he wanted to work on this with me and we signed on.

Months later, I’m happy to tell you we’re nearing the completion of this and I couldn’t be happier with how it’s turned out. The level of excellence that David operates on is inspiring and the entire process has been challenging and truly enjoyable.

As Atticus and I near the end of the scoring process, we’re looking forward to the next phase – distilling the large amount of music we’ve written for this down to a satisfying record (or two). The film opens Oct 1 in the US with the record likely available a couple of weeks ahead of that.

Speaking of the film… it’s really fucking good. And dark!

So, yeah, I’m really excited about this. It’s been a totally fucking abysmal year for movies, even movies I was initially excited about (I caught a screening of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World last night… if you’re stoked to see the movie, don’t be.), so anything that can stack the deck in a flick’s favor is a-okay in my book.

(And by the way, saying a David Fincher film is “dark” is like saying a NIN album is “dark.” It’s a given. This is the man who put Gwyneth Paltrow’s head in a box, for fuck’s sake; “dark” is his bread and butter.)

Fincher and Reznor have, of course, collaborated before. Here’s the Fincher-directed video for NIN’s “Only,” which I happen to think is pretty fucking cool:

And here’s the teaser trailer for The Social Network:

-AR

Thanks to Hetal Bhatt.