HOLLYWOOD – Following from the critical success of The Social Network, screenwriter and director M Night Shamalyan has announced to Hollywood reporters that he is set to direct a feature film based on MySpace. Speaking in front of a 12-strong crowd of remaining MySpace members, he revealed that he had been working on the screenplay for ‘about three and a half weeks’ before deciding it was ready for production.
“I don’t use MySpace and I don’t know anyone that does, but tragedy is something we can all relate to,” he remarked.
Concerns had been raised over the quality of a film written in such a short space of time before it was pointed out this was probably the longest time he had spent on any script this side of the Sixth Sense.
Understood to be a disaster film, The Not So Social Network will chronicle the MySpace story from 2005 all the way up until people discovered Facebook. It will see the reunion of Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet, cast as early MySpace members with Ashton Kutcher playing the role of Tom. Di Caprio admitted the script about a new age marvel lumbering unsuspectingly towards absolute disaster reminded him so much of the 1997 classic ‘that it was scary”.
“It’ll be better than The Last Airbender”
Surprisingly, past critics actually hailed the project, noting that Shyamalan’s habit of following an ‘uncomfortable pattern’ of making fragile, sealed-off movies that fell apart when exposed to outside logic was a perfect fit for the story of MySpace, itself falling apart when exposed to outside competitors. Shamalyan also insisted there would be none of the gimmicky twists he has been known for, confirming that The Not So Social Network is ‘pretty much all downhill after the first 20 minutes.’
At the gathering, he was asked about his early talks to write the script for the fourth Indiana Jones film. This fell through once Spielberg released he didn’t need any help making a terrible Indiana Jones film, but the experience did not put off the director from searching for a train wreck of a story for his next project, and he believes that he has found just that with the heart-wrenching telling of the MySpace tragedy.
The film is set for release in early 2011.
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