Facebook Inc. executives have sought to discredit a new film's unflattering portrayal of Chief Executive
Mark Zuckerberg, even as they worked behind the scenes to influence the movie.
Those efforts range from attempting to massage the script, according to one of the film's producers, to promoting an alternative corporate history.
Facebook appears to be in damage control mode over the portrayal of founder Mark Zuckerberg in a new movie about the company, trying to deflect attention to Zuckerberg's $100 million gift this week to Newark's schools. Julia Angwin discusses.
The movie, "The Social Network," depicts Mr. Zuckerberg as a socially awkward egomaniac who may have stolen the idea for his company from fellow students while he was an undergraduate at Harvard University.
The film—which premieres Friday night and will be widely released Oct. 1 by
Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures—takes as its narrative framework two lawsuits over the company's origins. Facebook later settled the cases.
On Friday, Mr. Zuckerberg will announce on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" that he is donating $100 million to the public schools in Newark, N.J.— his first major act of philanthropy.
According to a person familiar with the matter, Facebook didn't time Mr. Zuckerberg's gift for the film's premiere.
Mr. Zuckerberg, through a company spokesman, declined to be interviewed for this article.
Facebook's efforts to combat the film stretch back to the 2009 publication of Ben Mezrich's book, "The Accidental Billionaires," upon which the film is based. "Ben Mezrich clearly aspires to be the Jackie Collins or Danielle Steele of Silicon Valley," Facebook's top communication and strategy executive, Elliot Schrage, told several news outlets in a statement last summer.
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Mr. Mezrich defended his book Thursday, saying, "They haven't pointed out anything that isn't true."
The movie's producers made the film without attempting to secure rights to Mr. Zuckerberg's life story, because they felt they had enough research to back up the film without his cooperation.
The company didn't formally cooperate, either, but at least one executive engaged in detailed negotiations with the filmmakers over the script, an attempt to mitigate the damage the film could do.
Scott Rudin, one of the film's producers, said Facebook's Mr. Schrage read the film's script and gave guidance, some of which was incorporated into the final product. The company provided biographical background on Mr. Zuckerberg, helped the filmmakers portray the computer-programming and hacking processes and referred the filmmakers to speeches Mr. Zuckerberg gave that were online.
Damage Control History
'Citizen Kane' (1941) Newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst tried to prevent the film's release; then prohibited mention of the movie in any of his publications.
Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection
'Roger & Me' (1989) General Motors tried to counter the film quietly, warning its ad agencies to stay away from 'Donahue' episodes featuring the film and sending critical reviews to the 'Tonight Show.'
Samuel Goldwyn Films/Courtesy Everett Collection
'Super Size Me' (2004) McDonald's ran an ad campaign for its salads, milks and juices that year. Before the film's release, the company said it would stop offering its supersized fries and soft drinks.
A Facebook spokeswoman said Thursday, "We found working with Scott Rudin and his colleagues to be a terrific learning experience. They do a wonderful job of telling a good story."
Mr. Rudin said a Facebook executive expressed worry the movie could hurt an initial public offering the company is considering. Even though any stock offering is likely at least a year away, the executive worried that skepticism over the company's origins could lower its valuation, currently north of $20 billion.
"They were trying to figure out a way not to tie Mark's personal identity to the identity of the company," Mr. Rudin recalled. "Because they were and are talking about an inevitable IPO and clearly want the company to be bigger than Mark Zuckerberg."
Over the summer, Mr. Schrage and Facebook Chief Operating Officer
Sheryl Sandberg saw the movie and told Mr. Rudin they weren't happy about the way it portrayed their boss. Ms. Sandberg thought the depiction of Mr. Zuckerberg was not "sympathetic," said Mr. Rudin.
Other companies, including
General Motors Corp. and McDonald's Corp., have had to address bad publicity generated by films such as "Roger & Me" and "Super Size Me." But popular movies don't always have impact on the operations of the companies they portray.
In recent months, Facebook has been supporting a book that offers a more flattering view of the company's origins. The company gave veteran technology journalist David Kirkpatrick extensive access to Mr. Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives for "The Facebook Effect." The author gave a talk about the book on Facebook's campus on June 24. The company has referred journalists to Mr. Kirkpatrick as an expert on Facebook's founding.
"Don't treat the movie as the history of Facebook," said Mr. Kirkpatrick, who has read the film's script but has yet to watch the film.
Mr. Zuckerberg himself has recently given interviews in which he said little about the film, but highlighted Facebook's social impact as it reached 500 million users world-wide. In a July interview with ABC News, Mr. Zuckerberg described the movie about his company as "fiction," adding: "the real story is actually probably pretty boring."
Mr. Zuckerberg has said in interviews that he had no plan to see the film.
The film ends with a disclaimer that says some events were created. The filmmakers say that's a boilerplate message, and aren't ceding any ground.
"Facebook keeps saying the movie is fiction, but they never say what is fiction," said Mr. Rudin.
It's been a week of headaches for Facebook. On Wednesday, some people couldn't connect to the site because of a problem with a third-party network provider. Facebook fixed the problem, but on Thursday it had another temporary outage.
Write to Lauren A.E. Schuker at
lauren.schuker@wsj.com and Geoffrey A. Fowler at
geoffrey.fowler@wsj.com
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Lawrence Jackson for The New York Times
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