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A 'Google Movie' About its Founders is Now in the Works, Too

by Alex Billington
August 19, 2010
Source: Deadline

One might say the world changed forever in 1999 when Standford graduates Larry Page and Sergey Brin first launched a search engine on the internet called Google. While the Facebook success story is a big one, Google's is even bigger, as its become a part of our lives in more ways than one. With all the buzz that David Fincher's The Social Network is building, it was inevitable that we'd hear about other web start-up stories getting the big screen treatment, and Deadline reports that Google is next. Groundswell Prods and producer John Morris have acquired film rights to Ken Auletta's book Googled: The End of the World As We Know It.

Unlike Social Network, though, Page & Brin's story isn't full of legal battles and college parties. Google was formed by the duo while they were Stanford PhD students with the idea to make a better search engine. It was founded it on principles like: "You can make money without doing evil" and "you can be serious without a suit." The film will be focused on "how they tried to hang onto their idealism as Google became a global phenomenon," which sounds a lot more interesting than a Harvard drop-out battling over who came up with an idea. But the challenge is to find a "handle on a success story that makes for compelling screen drama."

Producer Michael London explained to Deadline: "It's about these two young guys who created a company that changed the world, and how the world in turn changed them. The heart of the movie is their wonderful edict, don't be evil. At a certain point in the evolution of a company so big and powerful, there are a million challenges to that mandate. Can you stay true to principles like that as you become as rich and powerful as that company has become? The intention is to be sympathetic to Sergey and Larry, and hopefully the film will be as interesting as the company they created."

I know there always seem to be an instant backlash to these tech start-up stories, but personally these are the exact kind of stories I like to see. I know there's not a lot of epic drama in them, especially compared to some incredible stories from history, but as a member of this modern internet generation, I'm fascinated by how these guys were able to come up with a great idea and turn it into the multi-billionaire dollar enterprise that it is today. Who knows how long it will take to come together, as they're just now finding a writer, and we could see other web start-up stories (or similar Google films) pop up in the meantime. So until we hear more, I'll be picking up a copy of the book. What do you think? Will this story make for a good movie?

Filed under Movie News, Opinions

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