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Amazon.com Review
Amazon Exclusive: Kevin Spacey on The Accidental Billionaires

Kevin Spacey’s films include Superman Returns, Beyond the Sea, The Usual Suspects, American Beauty, Swimming with Sharks, Seven, L.A. Confidential, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Negotiator, Hurlyburly, K-Pax, and The Shipping News. He will next be seen in Men Who Stare at Goats opposite George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, and Jeff Bridges, as well as Nick Moran’s film Telstar opposite Colm O’Neil and Pam Ferris. Read his exclusive Amazon guest review of The Accidental Billionaires:

I first met Ben Mezrich when I produced and starred in 21, the film adaptation of his great bestseller Bringing Down the House. Ben has a gift for finding high-energy, strange-but-true tales and The Accidental Billionaires is no exception.

You may think you know the story of the Facebook phenomenon, but you haven’t heard the whole story and never like this. Recreating the unbelievable rise of the world’s biggest social network—not to mention the planet’s youngest billionaire, Mark Zuckerberg—Ben tells a captivating story of betrayal, vast amounts of cash, and two friends who revolutionized the way humans connect to one another—only to have an enormous falling out and never speak again.

Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg were two geeky, socially awkward Harvard undergrads who wanted nothing more than to be cool. While Eduardo chose the more straightforward path of trying to gain acceptance into one of the school’s ultra-posh, semi-secret Final Clubs, Mark used his computer skills by hacking into Harvard’s computers, pulling up all the pictures of every girl on campus to create a sort of “hot-or-not” site exclusive to Harvard. Though the prank nearly got Mark kicked out of college, he and Eduardo realized that they were on to something big. Thus, the initial concept of Facebook was born; what happened next, however, was right out of a Hollywood thriller.

The Accidental Billionaires is the perfect pairing of author and subject. It’s pure summer fun—a juicy, fast-paced, unputdownable Mezrich tale that adds to his canon of lad lit. And Hollywood has come calling again: I’m currently working with Dana Brunetti, Scott Rudin, Mike Deluca, and Aaron Sorkin on the movie adaptation of The Accidental Billionaires. If the book is any indication, the film is going to be a must see.—Kevin Spacey

Please come join the Accidental Billionaires Facebook fan page: http://tinyurl.com/bmdbfb

And if you’d like, you can pre-order the book at any of these fine retailers:

www.amazon.com
www.bn.com
www.borders.com
www.indiebound.org

The bestselling author of Bringing Down the House pens the incredible true story of the accidental creation of Facebook, and the even more amazing tale of what followed.

Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg were Harvard undergraduates and best friends-outsiders at a school filled with polished prep-school grads and longtime legacies. They shared both academic brilliance in math and a geeky awkwardness with the opposite sex. The two figured their ticket to social acceptance-and sexual success-was getting invited to join one of Harvard’s elite final clubs. But on their road to getting punched into the famous Phoenix Club, they found an even more valuable ticket to social stardom-one lonely night Mark Zuckerberg hacked into the university’s computer system, creating a ratable database of all the female students on campus, subsequently crashing the university’s servers, and nearly getting himself kicked out of school. In that moment, in his spartan Harvard dorm room, the barebones framework for Facebook was born.

What followed-a real-life adventure filled with unimaginable wealth, sex, exotic locales, six-foot-five identical-twin Olympic rowers, and betrayal-makes for one of the most entertaining and compelling books of the year. The great irony is that Facebook succeeded by bringing people together-while at the same time, it tore two best friends apart.

So we’re deep into the winter here in Boston, and I am nearly finished writing my big new book about the kids who founded Facebook in a dorm room at Harvard and went on to immense fortune. As you’ve maybe heard, this new one has already been sold to Hollywood, with Aaron Sorkin attached to do the screenplay, Kevin Spacey, Dana Brunetti, Scott Rudin, and Mike Deluca producing along with the great folks at Sony who made 21 such a success. I think anyone who liked BDTH is going to love this one. It will be out this Fall from Random House/Doubleday. If you like Facebook, you’ll have fun hearing how the site came to exist, because it’s a pretty amazing story.

Boston author Ben Mezrich pens tale of Facebook’s founders

By Frank Quaratiello  |   Sunday, December 14, 2008  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Technology Coverage

Photo: Angela Rowlings

Ben Mezrich, whose best-seller “Bringing Down the House” about MIT math geeks who outsmart Las Vegas casinos inspired the hit film “21,” is returning to the revenge-of-the-nerds genre with a vengeance.

“My next big book is about the kids who founded Facebook,” said Mezrich, who added that he’ll be working long hours through the holidays to get the book to his publisher, Doubleday, which is planning a big release next fall.

Facebook’s controversial beginnings in early 2004 at Harvard University - when several students were working on social networking sites simultaneously - have sparked news articles and a few lawsuits, but with Mezrich’s help the story may make it to the mainstream. Plus, veteran screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is already signed on to adapt the book into a movie, Mezrich confirmed.

Mezrich, who doesn’t want to give too much away, says his story will be “about entrepreneurship at Harvard and about Mark Zuckerberg,”the Facebook founder who so far won’t talk to him.

It will also be “about Harvard’s Final Clubs,” which are similar to secret societies or exclusive clubs at other Ivy League schools such as Princeton or Yale, “but more open and social,” according to Mezrich, a Harvard graduate.

In May, the Web site Gawker.com reported a tip that Mezrich had “signed a million-dollar-plus book deal for his memoir about Mark Zuckerberg and the other Facebook founders.” It also published excerpts from a book proposal, titled “Face Off.” The proposal paints a picture of Facebook founders Zuckerberg and his roommate Eduardo Saverin as computer geeks trying to get into Harvard’s Final Clubs, meet hot women and get laid.

According to the proposal, Zuckerberg the hacker and Saverin the master of meteorological algorithms (not kidding) come up with a program called FaceSmash to rate Harvard women based on their “hotness.” (According to a Rolling Stone article published in June, Zuckerberg creates the program, Facemash, after being rejected by a girl. His idea is to hack into the Harvard computer system, download female students pictures and get online users to vote on whether they look more attractive than farm animals.)

According to the book proposal on Gawker, the program catches fire, venture capitalists start wooing the pair, hard partying with Victoria’s Secret models ensues and then friendships are destroyed by fights over money, etc.

Mezrich’s response: “What was in Gawker - that was not all truth. That’s not what the book is about.” “What is Gawker even doing writing something about me?” he says.

All the attention does still seem to come as a bit of a shock to Mezrich, who since meeting actor Kevin Spacey in 2002 has been living, as he put it, “a writer’s dream come true.”

The Facebook story will be Mezrichs 11th book, but Hollywood interest in his work didn’t really take off until Spacey read an article Mezrich had written for Wired magazine just prior to the release of “Bringing Down the House” in 2002. Spacey asked his business partner, Dana Brunetti, to contact the author.

“Two days later, I was meeting Kevin Spacey at the Beverly Hills Hotel,” said Mezrich, who adds that he was a big fan of Spacey’s work. “ ‘L.A. Confidential’ was my favorite book and movie for a while.”

The admiration appears to be mutual because Spacey’s Trigger Street Productions is attached to many of Mezrichs books, including the upcoming Facebook project.

In addition to “Bringing Down the House,” which became the filmed-in-Boston movie “21,” Mezrich has sold movie rights to his 2004 book “Ugly Americans” and an as-yet-unpublished manuscript “Q” to embattled Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban’s 2929 Entertainment. Mezrich has also sold the movie rights to his current best-seller “Rigged” to Summit Entertainment, which produced the hit teen vampire flick, “Twilight.”

Like Dennis Lehane, whose Hub-based books have led to big screen successes for Clint Eastwood (Mystic River) and Ben Affleck (Gone, Baby, Gone), Mezrich has found a powerful movie-star partner in Spacey.

“He’s very smart and it’s always good to hear from someone with an eye toward whether something would make a good movie,” Mezrich said. “I think about that early on. He’s one of my first readers, from a very early stage, even when I just have a book proposal.”

Hi everyone - sorry I’ve been MIA. I’ve been running around working on my next project and its keeping me pretty busy. Anyway, wanted to give you a heads-up that I’m giving  Twitter a try. If you’re on there and want to hit me up my screen name is benmezrich. I know…super original on my part. Anyway, rest assured it’s me.  I’ll try to update it as much as possible. Check it: http://twitter.com/benmezrich

In the meantime – have a great Thanksgiving.

From The Hollywood Reporter:

‘21′ aces do deal with 2929
Pair of Ben Mezrich books make way to big screen
By Borys Kit

April 29, 2008

2929 Prods. is doubling down with Dana Brunetti and Kevin Spacey of Trigger Street Prods. and author Ben Mezrich, picking up two projects from the team behind the gambling hit “21.”

First up is “Ugly Americans,” based on Mezrich’s 2004 nonfiction book. The story follows an American who takes a job in Hong Kong with an investment banker and realizes his boss is in cahoots with organized crime and is embezzling from the company — a situation even more precarious when he finds himself promoted to become his boss’s right hand man. Robert Schenkkan wrote the initial adaptation. 2929 picked up “Rules ” from DreamWorks in turnaround.

The second project, “Q,” is set in a near future where the U.S. government goes into lockdown when an epidemic breaks out. “Q” is based upon a book by Mezrich to be published in the fall. The novel is based on actual but little-known draconian quarantine laws.

Brunetti and Spacey are producing via Trigger Street. 2929 is financing.

“Ben writes page-turners for guys,” Brunetti said. “Guys that normally aren’t readers will dive into a Ben Mezrich story and read it quickly, and then pass it around to other guys. It’s chick lit for men.”

Brunetti said male readers relate to Mezrich’s rags-to-riches tales and ways to beat the system themes.

“21,” with a budget in the high-$30 million range, is based on Mezrich’s nonfiction tome “Bringing Down the House.” The Sony release has grossed more than $75 million domestically and more than $100 million worldwide.

Hi Everyone - ‘21′ held off Clooney’s ‘Leatherheads’ football comedy this weekend, topping the weekend charts with an estimated $15.1 million in ticket sales! This makes ‘21′ the #1 movie for two weeks in a row!

The film has now grossed $46.5 million! Thank you so much to all the viewers/readers who have made this possible.

Best,

Ben

Hey all,

The numbers are in and 21 is the #1 movie in the country thanks to all of you! We had a box office of about 24 million bucks- about 7 million more than top estimates! People are going nuts in hollywood, especially since the per theater average was around $9000…which is REALLY good. About 3.5 to 4 million people saw the film this weekend and probably about 7 million will have seen it by the end of next week.

Thanks to everyone who went and saw the film, it’s been an incredible weekend!

Best,

Ben