The Social Reckoning focuses on the Facebook leak in 2021 by a Facebook engineer and a Wall Street Journal reporter. Ahead of the release, Sony Pictures chief Tom Rothman said he wasn’t worried about Meta’s legal threats over the film.
In his interview with Variety, Tom Rothman addressed Aaron Sorkin-directed The Social Reckoning facing legal threats from Meta, saying, “We weren’t worried.” The Sony Chief answered that they have a “very sophisticated company with a lot of smart lawyers.” He added that the film is “well within the established rights of the law,” so the team did not need to worry about that. However, Rothman did feel that it is “part of Hollywood’s job is to speak truth to power.”
On The New York Times podcast, Aaron Sorkin shared his thoughts as well. The director explained that getting the green light to make the film wasn’t an easy decision. “You also have this phenomenally powerful company with limitless resources who can sue you at the drop of a hat,” he stated. Sorkin continued, “It’s my understanding that Sony did get letters from Meta, and I do not think those letters said, ‘We’re wishing you all the luck in the world.” He revealed that Sony brought in an independent law firm to verify that every detail presented as fact in the film was accurate.
The 65-year-old said, “The things that I wasn’t able to say or do are agonizing.” He added, “The irony wasn’t lost on anybody that we were doing a thorough fact-check of a movie about a company unwilling to do the same thing.” Sorkin also shared that he differentiates between the real Mark Zuckerberg and the character in his film. He said he would do his research and learn about reality as much as he can. However, in the process of thinking about it and the writing process, things change. Thus, it becomes the same as a fictional character for him.