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‘The Social Network’ team links up for new movie

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EXCLUSIVE: ‘The Social Network’ has become one of the biggest hits of this film season. Now some of the key people behind it are coming together for a new movie.

Ben Mezrich, the writer on whose nonfiction book the movie is based, is teaming up with ‘Network’ producers for a new film called ‘Sex on the Moon.’

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The project is based on a book proposal by Mezrich, who wrote ‘The Accidental Billionaires,’ on which Aaron Sorkin based his script for ‘The Social Network’ and who previously penned the book that became the Kevin Spacey hit film ’21.’

Sony, which released both ‘The Social Network’ and ‘21,’ has optioned the rights to Mezrich’s proposal and will collaborate on ‘Sex on the Moon’ with ‘Social Network’ producers Scott Rudin, Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti as well as executive producer Spacey.

The new film tells the story of Thad Roberts, a once-promising young scientist working for NASA who back in 2004 hatched a crazy plan to steal highly prized moon rocks from his bosses at the Johnson Space Center and sell them on the Internet. The motivation: wanting to impress his girlfriend (i.e., ‘giving her the moon’).

Freelance writer Michael Goldstein tracked Roberts’ crazy exploits for the Los Angeles Times back in 2004.

‘Today it is still difficult to figure out what Roberts — by all accounts a bright young man — was thinking when he conceived the scheme that would destroy his dreams,’ Goldstein wrote. ‘Or what would make him think that he could get away with it. Or how he could talk two other NASA hopefuls into going along.’

— Nicole Sperling

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