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.
