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A while back I wrote a little post about a movie that I would never see, and plenty of folks lined up to tell me that it was impossible to make a decision about a movie through word of mouth or what I had read on the Internet. Of course, I disagreed, because frankly how else can I make a decision about where to spend my hard earned time and money? But if I had to blame anyone for keeping me away from the movie theater that day, I'm going to have to blame the Internet. Yup, it was thanks to those sneak peeks and early screenings described in detail online that helped me make my decision before those battling robots ever took the stage. People are talking about movies more now than ever before thanks to social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook, and a new study from New Line's Web guru Gordon Paddison has proven that when it comes to movie marketing, all the action really is on the web.

What the report seems to be saying is that you need to know your audience if you want to sell your movie. Now, there are some daunting statistics that prove the power of the Internet when it comes to going to the movies, and if you aren't buying the effect the net can have on a film's success, keep in mind that 94% of all moviegoers are online, and 73% of moviegoers surveyed have profiles on a social networking site -- and if people are talking, you want to make sure it's positive because as the old commercial goes, they tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and before you know it, you have a flop on your hands.

After the jump: so what does this all mean for movie marketers?

Prehistoric caveman or action hero? As our own Jenni Miller recently posted, David Fincher is in talks to direct The Social Network (AKA "The Facebook Movie"). Naturally enough, speculation has begun on who could play Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. CNET News was told by "an entertainment industry source" that Michael Cera and Shia LaBeouf are among the top choices.

But they're on the top of the list for just about any movie featuring a 20-something lead, aren't they? Would either one be suited for the role? The red hot LaBeouf would seem the more logical choice ... except that he's already set for Money Never Sleeps (AKA Wall Street 2) and has The Associate (based on John Grisham's latest best seller) in development. One's about the financial industry, the other takes place in the legal system; a third movie set in the business world in the next couple of years might prematurely age his star.

Cera might be the better choice. Even though Year One flopped, he was the second banana and doesn't seem to have suffered from the box office fallout. The upcoming Youth in Revolt and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World could cement his appeal, setting him up for a dramatic turn with a very talented director. I'm curious to see if he can expand beyond his usual shtick; at the same time, his comic chops could come in handy, depending on Aaron Sorkin's script.

Would you rather see Michael Cera or Shia LaBeouf as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg? If not them, then who?

[via The Playlist]

It's looking very likely that David Fincher will be joining a social network soon. Make that The Social Network, a movie based on a script written by The West Wing's Aaron Sorkin about Facebook.

Just like in those good old dot com days, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg hatched the site in his dorm room in 2004, which now boasts over 200 million users. The Social Network will follow the site from its, uh, humble Harvard beginnings to marketing buzzword. By the way, Zuckerberg's net worth is $1.5 billion, according to Forbes' list of the world's billionaires in 2008.

IMDb lists the project as on track for 2011, and Variety says the team is hoping "to begin production later this year."

The real questions are whether or not the project will tackle some of the issues looming over Facebook, such as your right to privacy and who owns the information you upload to Facebook, and if the idea and/or code was Zuckerberg's to begin with.

Next up: Scorsese will direct a film based on the Tweets of Courtney Love.

O great Cinematical readership, we call upon you to exercise your remarkable intellect, imagination, and wit, so you can help name a new social networking thriller. (Especially those of you who know that there's a difference between Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.) According to The Hollywood Reporter, none other than Dimension Films plans to make a teen thriller ripping off resembling Ten Little Indians, only "with a Web 2.0 twist."

Social networking may become a hot topic for movies. You might remember that plans were announced last year for Aaron Sorkin to write a movie about Facebook for producer Scott Rudin. The official Facebook group page for the project has logged more than 3,800 messages, and Sorkin has been responding with surprising frequency. In a post yesterday, for example, he appeared to indicate that the script has not been written yet.

So maybe Dimension Films can beat them to the punch. Dimension's Bob Weinstein is quoted by THR as saying: "Online social networking is a widespread phenomenon that interests me greatly. Combining it with a suspense thriller is a new and fresh way to explore this new trend." (By the way, his name was just claimed on Twitter with the message: "I just joined the 21st century," though it could be someone else.) Will they create a new, entirely fictional social network, or team up with one that already exists?

The flick is currently untitled, which is where you come in. What should the thriller be called? To get you started, James Rocchi suggested, via Twitter, the tagline: "You're Unfollowed!" followed by a pickaxe smash. Tell us your suggested titles in the comments section.

"The unexamined life is not worth living." -- Socrates

"Night City was like a deranged experiment in social Darwinism, designed by a bored researcher who kept one thumb permanently on the fast-forward button." -- William Gibson, Neuromancer (1986)

We Live in Public, the newest documentary from director Ondi Timoner (Dig!, Join Us), looks at internet technology and how it's changing us, prying into these larger issues through looking at the life and times of Josh Harris, who the press notes call "The greatest internet pioneer you've never heard of ..." Harris made a fortune from the internet before you ever heard of it with his consulting and analysis firm Jupiter Communications, then launched a revolutionary web-based set of video programs called Pseudo and then descended into a series of ornate and risky multimedia art projects: First was Quiet, a constantly-broadcast bunker and residence in 1999 New York that offered participants comforts and privileges in exchange for certain rights and concessions. Then came We Live in Public, where Harris and his girlfriend Tanya Corrin lived in a loft with a 24/7 web broadcast of everything they did, said and were to each other.

Call me skeptical, but I'm willing to sustain myself entirely on a diet of my own words if writer Aaron Sorkin and producer Scott Rudin can actually manage to make something entertaining out of a film about the formation of social networking site Facebook and the success of its founders, as Variety reports they are working on over at Sony.

Honestly, what can an Oscar-winning producer and an oft-acclaimed scribe do with a rags-to-riches arc and the sight of two guys tapping away at computers and taking meetings? Sure, at least Sorkin and Rudin are two talented guys in their own right, but I'm really missing whatever inherent, original, exceedingly relevant drama they might see in this project. Killing time at work on Facebook is one thing; this is something else.

On the one hand, I'd like to see this fall through, and on the other, I'd only be rewarded with a good flick if proven wrong. Regardless, here's what appears to be the official Facebook group of the whole shebang, and if any of you guys get wind of a Fox-backed MySpace project with a title like Major Tom or something, be a pal and pass it on.

If you weren't in Austin for South by Southwest -- or even if you were, and your schedule, like mine, was so incredibly packed with films and parties, that you missed out on catching some of the many panels there, you're in luck. For your listening convenience, the SXSW website has podcasts of the panels up. There were panels on just about every topic imaginable at the fest, from "Animation and Digital Effects on a Budget," to "The Porn Police: Know the Rules" (that one featured the never-shy-about-baring-his-all Joe Swanberg), to journalist Sarah Lacy's "controversial" interview with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's, which just about descended into all-out chaos.

I've heard the entire interview, watched parts of it on YouTube, and read heaps of blog comments ripping Lacy to shreds, and I gotta say, I don't see what people were so riled up about in that room, or why the audience turned on her so harshly there toward the end. Yes, it was a conversational-style interview, not a hard-hitting smackdown.

Though the film Untraceable debuted in the states last month, it arrives in the UK this week and a new online marketing campaign was launched not long ago to help promote the overseas release. Great. Super. Not quite. Apparently, the interactive company Picture Production Company set up a Facebook page called "Kill With Me," and we're being told (via the Guardian) that said page "has been gradually revealing more and more of a visceral torture scene from the Untraceable movie to Facebook members." That's not all -- here's a copy of the text that was also featured on the page: "This guy is going to die. You want to see his stinking flesh burn and bleed and blacken? Until he's some twisted dead thing? This is what you want. And I've filmed it especially for you. The more fans I get, the more I'll show ..."

A similar marketing tactic for the same movie was used on the video community Seesmic, where "an actor planted on the service briefly disappeared, and was then filmed by a video camera being bound, gagged and seemingly executed." The dude in charge of PPC knew both pages would be pulled, but wanted to "push the boundaries of what is acceptable in an online community with the Untraceable marketing campaign." I don't know about you, but tricking people into believing they're watching someone being murdered is taking it a bit too far. I understand the need to consistently up the ante with regards to marketing campaigns (especially for horror/thriller flicks), but where do you draw the line.

If you came across a campaign like this, would it make you want to see the film? Or is this taking it too far? Additionally, where do you draw the line these days? Sound off below ...

I decided to write this because each and every week I have people sending me things that I simply HAVE to do, or see or look forward to. I'm sure it's the same for you; you'll be chatting with a friend online, and they'll throw something out and follow it up by saying: "Dude, you HAVE to do it!" I take it that's how Norbit made so much money at the box office. But anyway, here are a few things that are hip this week (in my life) and maybe yours too ...

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street -- The first critics screening is what did it, and since then -- in only a week or so -- the new Tim Burton flick has reached cult-like buzz status. Almost everyone I've spoken with is telling me to see it, even though they haven't seen it, which kinda doesn't make much sense. But the folks that have seen it are loving it, and so this week it's hip to want to see Sweeney Todd. Additionally, feel free to submit questions for Tim Burton and Johnny Depp for Moviefone's Unscripted session. (Actual quote: I've heard it's Burton's best film since Beetlejuice!")

Walk Hard Tour -- We posted about this earlier today, and already almost all the shows are sold out. In case you're wondering what I'm talking about: To promote his new film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, John C. Reilly is touring the country and performing tunes from the movie in local rock bars. I caught wind of this early yesterday, and since then a number of people have asked me how to get tickets to see him at The Knitting Factory in New York City. We're currently working on getting some of our readers tickets for this thing, so stay tuned and be excited. (Actual quote: If I meet John C. Reilly, do you think it would be weird if I geeked out a bit over Boogie Nights?")

Facebook -- This social networking site has been around for some time now, however I finally caved into the peer pressure and created a page yesterday. While browsing, I was amazed to discover just how many people I knew who were on this thing. At one point, I half expected my mother to show up. Cinematical is currently in the process of setting up our own Facebook page, but in the meantime feel free to look me up (by name or by searching Cinematical), share movie tips with me and read the latest stories on Cinematical. A bunch of us Cine writers are also on there (like Rocchi, Patty, Jessica and Snider), so be sure to say hello. This week, it's hip to have a Facebook page. (Actual quote: Dude, f*ck MySpace -- Facebook is where it's at!")

Speed Racer -- You might not think it's hot at the moment, but wait until later this week. We definitely have something special in store for you ...

What else is hip this week?