After years of television mining Twitter accounts for inspiration and making programming decisions based on trending hashtags, it’s only inevitable that someone would get around to making a show about Twitter. That someone is Lionsgate, who announced today that it’s developing a series adaptation of Nick Bilton’s Hatching Twitter: A True Story Of Money, Power, Friendship and Betrayal, the tale of how four guys in Silicon Valley made sure that an entire generation poured its every creative thought into creating free content for their website, and enabled it to insult public figures from behind the safe anonymity of the Internet—and then, somehow, bad feelings developed.
Comparisons to The Social Network are expected and, in the announcement, openly acknowledged, with executive producer Allison Shearmur saying, “The Social Network was a perfect film, and this series will be different, providing a longer view of the work life changes, gamesmanship and personal sacrifices made by a group of individuals who are building a company that will change the way that people communicate.” And what better forum for a long, thoughtful look at interpersonal communication than Twitter? #smh #yaburnt #FINDJARULE