In the works: Aaron Sorkin and Facebook are now friends.

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Written by Alison Willmore, the all-seeing Indie Eye blog reads the news so you don't have to. (Well, maybe just the A & E section).

Alison Willmore

is the editor of IFC.com's film coverage and one of the site's video hosts. Follow her at twitter.com/indie_eye

Email: ifcblog (at) ifc dot com

By Alison Willmore on 08/27/2008

Filed under: In the works

Aaron Sorkin has a Facebook page. It says that Aaron Sorkin is writing a Facebook movie:

Welcome. I'm Aaron Sorkin. I understand there are a few other people using Facebook pages under my name--which I find more flattering than creepy--but this is me. I don't know how I can prove that but feel free to test me.
I've just agreed to write a movie for Sony and producer Scott Rudin about how Facebook was invented. I figured a good first step in my preparation would be finding out what Facebook is, so I've started this page. (Actually it was started by my researcher, Ian Reichbach, because my grandmother has more Internet savvy than I do and she's been dead for 33 years.)

Rudin has confirmed this with Dan Kois at New York's Vulture blog, shaking my world view with regard to people claiming to be celebrities on the internet. What if that really was Gore Vidal trying to get me to sign up for a $50 Macy's gift card on MySpace?

Sorkin's last produced screenplay was "Charlie Wilson's War"; he also scripted "The Trial of The Chicago 7," loosely based on Brett Morgen's doc "Chicago 10," a project still in search of a director. [New York]

Signs that we are an empire in decline: After years of tepid Hollywood remakes of little-seen Asian films, China is about to see their first remake of a (relatively) little-seen Hollywood film -- "Cellular," that Kim Basinger/Chris Evans/mobile phone thriller, has been remade as "Connected," with Benny Chan directing and pumping up the juice: "In my movie, I added many elements that Hong Kong action movies do best -- human combat, action, flying cars," The film opens in China September 25th. [Hollywood Reporter]

Audrey Tautou will play Coco Chanel in biopic "Coco Avant Chanel," with Anne Fontaine directing. The film's slated for release next year -- until then, you can always catch Shirley MacLaine playing the fashion icon in the Lifetime Original Movie. [Variety]

Austin Chick, whose pre-9/11, post- dot-com bubble drama "August" vanished almost immediately from theaters earlier this summer, will next direct a Hamptons-set thriller about pretty 20-somethings fighting over illicit cash. "I'd like to continue doing more specialty movies in the future, but with the business hitting such hard times I wanted to try something a little different," he says. [Hollywood Reporter]

Acquired: Sony Picture Classics has snagged the rights to "Paris 36," a period film from "The Chorus" director Christophe Barratier. No release date yet, but the film will premiere at Toronto. [Variety]

And here! Films has picked up Olaf de Fleur's "The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela," a docudrama about a Filipino transsexual that won the Teddy Award for Best Feature at Berlin this year. The film opens in New York and L.A. on September 26th. [indieWIRE]

[Photo: Aaron Sorkin, courtesy of Facebook]

+ CONFIRMED: Aaron Sorkin Creates Facebook Page, Writing Facebook Movie (New York)
+ 'Cellular' gets a return call in China (Hollywood Reporter)
+ Warner Bros. dons 'Chanel' biopic (Variety)
+ Screen Gems, Austin Chick in scream team (Hollywood Reporter)
+ Sony to distribute 'Paris 36' (Variety)
+ here! Takes "Queen" (indieWIRE)