Update: Slashfilm and CHUD Still Divided on Facebook: The Movie, Remain Buds
Posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 by Hunter Stephenson
Update: No loving bitch slaps were ultimately exchanged. We can all sleep soundly. However, Devin did make an LOLCats: The Movie joke on air. FYI: “Andrew Stanton from Pixar is directing.”
Peter leaves for an epic film festival triathlon and suddenly Slashfilm is vulnerable to attack? No way, dudes. Our readers will easily guess who the first sneaky culprit is. Yep, one Devin Faraci from Chud.com, known here as the guy who labeled Wall-E a would-be date rapist on the /Filmcast. Today, Devin threatened via Twitter to “lovingly bitchslap” Slashfilm (more specifically: me) this evening on G4‘s magnificent Attack of the Show.
The reason? Well, Faraci has quickly anointed himself as the web’s chortling spokesman for Facebook: The Movie, and he’ll be defending it on G4 tonight as such. Yesterday, FB:TM was announced by writer Aaron Sorkin on, duh, Facebook, only to be immediately and unanimously meh’d by /Film and its readers. Devin then responded by comparing the reception here to “bitching about email,” in reference to both the film and the site/company. He’s playing up Sorkin’s involvement (accomplished, talented, agreed) and presumes the rather typical controversy surrounding the company’s start will be the basis for a really good film.
Well, let’s say Sorkin was writing Wal-Mart: The Movie or Match.com: The Movie instead: would he choose to first announce the film on those respective companies’ websites, especially if he plans to deal fairly with controversy? Moreover, Faraci calls me “ignorant” and “snobbish” for not aligning with his view that Facebook isn’t much different “from email,” the phone book or Verizon. His Scrabulous-referencing headline aside, Faraci completely overlooks how sites like Facebook forever impact(ed) personal identity, relationships, consumerism, privacy, conformity, expression, for good and bad and who knows. I’m not championing or “rebelling” against the site or being a hippity hipster. Unlike Devin, I simply don’t think people hold Facebook dear enough to see a feature about it this soon, like they might, say, Atari or Nintendo, hence my comparison yesterday to The Wizard. Whatever.
And not to be disrespectful or ageist, but is the 47-year-old Sorkin of walk-and-talk fame—who admits to knowing nada about social networking and the site—the guy for a high profile film on this subject? And if so, who’s the audience? Grandpa meet Devin? Fun.
Good luck with that bitch slap, Devin!1111. FAIL. <3 Attack of the Show airs tonight at 7 and 10 p.m. EST.
