Coming Soon: Every Tech Scandal Under the Sun
Silicon Valley has Hollywood’s full and undivided attention. The industry’s biggest scandals have unleashed a tidal wave of blockbusters, limited series and anthologies featuring A-list actors and directors.
Hollywood’s interest in real-life Silicon Valley stories is a tale of two Aaron Sorkin scripts. The best of times came in 2010 with “The Social Network,” which garnered eight Academy Award nominations and $225 million at the box office. The worst of times? That would be 2015’s “Steve Jobs” and its disappointing $34 million haul. Since then, Hollywood has more or less stuck to fictional representations of the industry (HBO’s “Silicon Valley,” FX’s “Devs,” “The Circle”).
But a shift is underway, with true-life corporate origin stories gaining new relevance both on the screen and in society. In 2022, several prestige projects, featuring A-list actors playing well-known and notorious tech founders, will shine spotlights on the culture of the Valley. Hulu will present Amanda Seyfried as Elizabeth Holmes in the limited series “The Dropout” next year, while Apple TV+ cast Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway as WeWork’s Adam and Rebekah Neumann for its limited series “WeCrashed.” There are also adaptations in the works focusing on Travis Kalanick (to be played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Sheryl Sandberg (Claire Foy).
Of course, the juiciness of these particular tales (and the meaty roles a Holmes or a Neumann provide for an actor) are certainly contributing factors to the influx. Additionally, tech has become a force in the daily cultural conversation that it wasn’t even just a few years ago. Today, the Theranos trial is covered as a full-fledged pop-culture event, and CEOs and founders are pictured regularly in the Daily Mail. These stories are no longer niche, but rather represent central social forces in culture.