Big tech goes to Hollywood: is Silicon Valley ready for a silver-screen reckoning?

Its moguls are ripe subjects for drama, and there is huge anticipation for forthcoming features The Social Reckoning and Artificial. But other projects have failed as the film industry is increasingly colonised by IT empires

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‘I know there are easier enemies to make,” tech reporter Jeremy Allen White tells his colleague in a recent trailer for The Social Reckoning. “The mafia would be an easier enemy to make,” comes the reply. They’re talking about Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, but they might as well be discussing big tech as a whole. As The Social Reckoning promises to underline, it’s become clear that these people are not on our side – “us” being the whole of humanity except billionaire tech overlords and their mates. But for an industry that loves a clear-cut baddie, Hollywood has barely landed a blow on the tech industry. Now it finds itself in mortal danger of being absorbed by it. Is it too late to fight back?

The Social Reckoning’s predecessor, The Social Network , showed how this kind of thing is done. It was pacy, buzzy and full of weirder-than-life characters – not least the young Zuckerberg, portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg as an obnoxiously smart mogul-in-the-making, whose mission to connect the world stood in stark contrast to his own social deficiencies. Directed by David Fincher and co-written by Aaron Sorkin, it was also a commercial and critical hit, winning three Oscars. But a big part of what made The Social Network work, and makes its sequel such a threat, is that it was about the actual, real-world Silicon Valley, which is where a lot of recent entertainment has gone wrong.

In the years since, we’ve had a lot of underwhelming satire featuring fictionalised tech moguls. Jesse Armstrong’s Mountainhead , for example, with its quartet of broligarchs carving up the world from on high. Or the various bonkers tech titans in Don’t Look Up (Mark Rylance), Knives Out: Glass Onion (Ed Norton), Alien: Earth (Samuel Blenkin) or The Circle (Tom Hanks). These films obliquely caricatured real-life figures such as Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Steve Jobs, but why go for veiled satire when the real Silicon Valley is so full of drama, incident and deeply weird, often terrible, now globally notorious personalities?

The Social Reckoning certainly has a lot to work with: in the 16 years since the original, all manner of social, emotional and political harm has been laid at the doors of Meta/Facebook, while Zuckerberg himself has only become more weird/terrible/notorious – and therefore ripe for impersonation. Jeremy Strong, replacing Eisenberg, must fancy his awards chances. Written and directed by Sorkin, the sequel focuses on whistleblower Frances Haugen (Anora’s Mikey Madison), who leaked details of the company’s machinations to the press. Courtroom drama, verbal sparring, a bit of social justice grandstanding – it looks very much in Sorkin’s wheelhouse.

Another ripped-from-the-headlines drama holds similar promise, but also highlights the real-world perils of tackling big tech head-on.