Producers Ask Jeeves If ‘Google’ Movie Will Become Trending Topic

By  · Published on August 20th, 2010

The Facebook movie, aka David Fincher’s The Social Network, isn’t even out yet but others in Hollywood are already itching to jump all over the trend. Movies based on board games are so Spring 2010… the next fad on the horizon appears to be taking websites and/or online properties and giving them the full theatrical makeover. The chances of a MySpace movie have already dwindled to nil, but what about a Wikipedia film filled with obscure and completely made up facts, or a suspense thriller about a really important Ebay auction, or maybe some kind of mash-up between Baidu and PornHub for those of us who like our Asians both knowledgeable and naked? Personally, I’m looking forward to the hard R-rated Craigslist movie…

Alas, it’s none of the above. Instead it seems the next web-based phenomenon to hit the silver screen is a little search engine named Google. And if that doesn’t get you excited and interested, well, that’s why we’ve included the picture to the right of the nice lady in a t-shirt.

Per Deadline Rochester, film rights have been acquired to Ken Auletta’s book Googled: The End Of the World As We Know It. The book tells the well known tale of Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page from their college days at Stanford to their status as wunderkind billionaires. The film would apparently focus on the company’s meteoric rise as balanced against their stated mandate to “do no evil.” Can a corporation the size and import of Google actually exist with such an idealistic mantra in today’s day and age? Depending on who you ask the answer may actually be no… <cough> Chinese citizens <cough> proponents of net neutrality <cough> But if the answer is yes then how interesting can the eventual film be?

Two problems come to mind in regard to this project. First, how interesting can it really be? The Facebook story is filled with backstabbing, accusations of theft, co-ed snogging, and mother-loving. These are the things that make conflict, and conflict is a necessary part of any worthwhile drama isn’t it? But, while Google’s climb to the top is impressive it doesn’t really seem all that interesting. We can all agree two smart guys developed a kick-ass search algorithm and turned it into a money making monster, but that doesn’t mean I want to watch how it all happened. Especially, and this is problem number two, the producers have already stated that “the intention is to be sympathetic to Sergey and Larry, and hopefully the film will be as interesting as the company they created.”

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz……..

And too those among you curious as to the status of the FSR movie, the project is still in the casting stages. The only actor locked down so far is Casper Van Dien in the role of Robert Fure.

Rob Hunter has been writing for Film School Rejects since before you were born, which is weird seeing as he's so damn young. He's our Chief Film Critic and Associate Editor and lists 'Broadcast News' as his favorite film of all time. Feel free to say hi if you see him on Twitter @FakeRobHunter.