"The Dropout" Stars Share FILMING SECRETS

Was anyone other benignant of unmoved backmost successful 2010 when they heard a movie was coming retired astir the feline who started Facebook?

Sure, you were on Facebook, to stay successful interaction with old friends, retrieve birthdays and stock what you were up to with what was possibly astatine archetypal a cautiously curated database of radical that yet turned into friends-of-friends and different algorithmically linked strangers.

But who cared how the sausage was made?

Well, arsenic it turned out, The Social Network—based connected Ben Mezrich's 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires—was arsenic gripping arsenic immoderate thriller, enhanced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' Oscar-winning score and anchored by Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal of Facebook laminitis Mark Zuckerberg as an ingenious but socially stunted visionary with an axe to grind for the miss who dumped him astatine Harvard. 

To beryllium fair, you don't make a world-changing product—or go a billionaire, for that matter—without possessing definite attributes, including a level of patience, perseverance, magnetism and confidence-brimming-on-mania that astir radical tapping distant astatine their keyboards conscionable don't have. And the fast-paced tech world, financed by deep-pocketed task capitalists and boasting a connection each its own (IPOs, angel investors, unicorns, SPACs, etc.) can't assistance but pull large personalities.

Or softly determined types, who person an thought and volition halt astatine thing to get it disconnected the ground.

We don't begrudge a years-in-the-making telling of a consequential story, but by the clip the Apple TV+-bound movie comes out, however overmuch much of Holmes volition audiences beryllium clamoring to unpack?

In fact, however overmuch much bash they consciousness the request to unpack now with The Dropout, whose communicative arc was derived from a deed ABC News podcast of the aforesaid sanction that was precise entertaining successful its ain right?

Holmes, who's facing a maximum of 20 years successful prison, was convicted successful January of 4 counts of defrauding her investors and recovered not blameworthy of 4 counts of diligent fraud, portion the assemblage deadlocked connected 3 different investor-related fraud counts. Her sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 26.

Balwani—who was facing the aforesaid twelve charges and similar Holmes pleaded not blameworthy crossed the board—was found blameworthy successful July of each 12 counts of ligament fraud and conspiracy. He remains escaped connected bail; sentencing is acceptable for Nov. 15.

"Lies, deceit, and transgression actions cannot regenerate innovation and success," FBI Special Agent Sean Ragan said successful a connection aft the verdict.

Holmes and Balwani's bond "doesn't marque consciousness from the region that we're each seeing it arsenic assemblage members of the documentary, of the podcast, of the book," Seyfried told E!. "When you ticker it from The Dropout's perspective, it makes truthful overmuch much sense. We're giving a batch of clarity and a batch of discourse to thing that was very, very, precise real."

Also precise real: Holmes' flagrant wrongdoing. 

Which, bid manager Michael Showalter told Collider, is where the twisted nuances of her communicative footwear in.

"The beginning, the archetypal mates episodes, benignant of get you rooting for her and feeling for her, and she's deserving of that," helium explained. "But past she conscionable makes immoderate terrible, unspeakable decisions, and those decisions are motivated, probably. It's successful knowing what motivates those unspeakable decisions that immoderate deeper, problematic facet of her quality comes out.

"It's analyzable because, astatine a definite point, the trauma oregon the symptom is nary longer a viable excuse for immoderate of the atrocious decisions that she's making. So you consciousness pulled successful aggregate directions due to the fact that you benignant of similar her, but past you're truthful huffy astatine her, and you commencement hating her due to the fact that she's truthful cruel. She tin beryllium truthful cruel and truthful reckless."

Debatable, but the royal we surely didn't assistance Travis Kalanick temper his high-flying aspirations.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the brash and likewise youthful-looking Uber co-founder successful the archetypal play of the Showtime anthology series Super Pumped, from Billions co-creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien (who program to tackle Facebook next). Unlike Holmes, Kalanick produced a work that some worked and altered the proscription scenery arsenic the satellite knew it, ushering in the epoch of the gig system successful the process.

But overmuch like Holmes, Kalanick was the larger-than-life look of his business—and, successful 2017, he resigned arsenic CEO of Uber amid allegations he'd been presiding implicit a toxic workplace and mishandled a intersexual harassment probe wrong the company. Board subordinate and task capitalist Bill Gurley (Kyle Chandler) helped pb the complaint to oust him.

"We ought to beryllium talking astir these stories," Gordon-Levitt told E! News of his involvement successful portraying the analyzable Kalanick, a Silicon Valley stone prima whose emergence and autumn the histrion compared to that of Freddie Mercury oregon Ray Charles (both of whom roseate again and stay posthumously revered; Kalanick is inactive a billionaire, truthful helium wasn't precisely ruined). 

Koppelman and Leviev, drafting from Mike Isaac's 2019 publication The Battle for Uber, "are large astatine making amusement that'll supply you the fireworks and volition beryllium amusive to watch," Gordon-Levitt said, "but besides inquire those questions astir what's truly going connected successful the world. This 1 asks a batch of questions astir what we reward, successful our system and successful our culture: Someone who's conscionable going to triumph astatine each costs and prioritize profits implicit everything."

Headquartered successful New York but Silicon Valley-reminiscent owed to Neumann's expansive imaginativeness of providing tricked-out shared workspace accommodations—a "physical societal network," helium called it—for tech employees and startups each implicit the world, WeWork was valued astatine $47 cardinal and connected the verge of going nationalist successful 2019. But its estimated worthy plummeted erstwhile reports surfaced of the CEO's questionable financials and alleged mistreatment of staff, and instead the institution ended up on the verge of bankruptcy.

Neumann resigned as main enforcement but sold his WeWork shares to capitalist SoftBank, arsenic good arsenic received a reported $185 cardinal consulting fee—all of which was besides chronicled successful the 2021 documentary WeWork: Or The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn, which is streaming connected Hulu. 

"I've had a batch of clip to think, and determination person been aggregate lessons, aggregate regrets," helium told Andrew Ross Sorkin astatine the New York Times DealBook conference last November. But astatine first, helium noted, the conception was "working retired phenomenally." (Incidentally, their speech is Emmy-nominated for Outstanding Live Interview astatine the 43rd Annual News & Documentary Awards, to beryllium presented Sept. 28-29.)

So successful this lawsuit we person a bid astir another rock prima benignant with a large idea, making large promises, surviving large and misfiring spectacularly but past walking distant inactive obscenely rich, adjacent aft the lawyers person been paid. (See: Gordon-Levitt's disapproval of the system.) And successful August, Neumann surfaced with quality of his latest venture, a real property start-up called Flow that has nary lesser purpose than to alteration the rental lodging market, and which has attracted a reported $350 cardinal successful backing from Silicon Valley task superior firm Andreessen Horowitz.

"What separates it from different things we've seen successful this genre is that we ticker the communicative done the prism of this couple," Eisenberg explained to EW. "We spot this cult of property wrong the concern story, and past travel location with them astatine night."

Moreover, helium said, "I deliberation it's a small spot of a cautionary tale. We arsenic a nine get swept up successful unicorns and this thought that you tin get affluent quick. I mean, Adam Neumann unironically said that helium wanted to beryllium a trillionaire. That's conscionable wild."

Rise oregon fall, the communicative of WeWork ever had the aerial of the cinematic. As reported successful a 2019 New York Times story about the improbable upward trajectory of WeWork's ex-leader while the still-chugging institution continued to hemorrhage cash:

"Famously, successful 2017, Mr. Neumann spent conscionable 12 minutes walking [SoftBank CEO] Mr. Son astir WeWork's headquarters, prompting an concern of $4.4 billion. Afterward, an elated Mr. Neumann zoomed uptown successful the backmost spot of his chauffeured achromatic Maybach, blaring rap, with an iPad unfastened to a rendering of the hasty integer spit-swear he'd conscionable made with Mr. Son."

It's astir arsenic if he knew people would beryllium watching.