Q&A with writer Aaron Sorkin, actor Josh Pence and casting director Laray Mayfield. Moderated by Jenelle Riley, Back Stage. January 26, 2011

Every age has its visionaries who leave, in the wake of their genius, a changed world -- but rarely without a battle over exactly what happened and who was there at the moment of creation. In THE SOCIAL NETWORK, director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin explore the moment at which Facebook, the most revolutionary social phenomenon of the new century, was invented -- through the warring perspectives of the super-smart young men who each claimed to be there at its inception. The result is a drama rife with both creation and destruction; one that audaciously avoids a singular POV, but instead, by tracking dueling narratives, mirrors the clashing truths and constantly morphing social relationships that define our time.

Drawn from multiple sources, the film moves from the halls of Harvard to the cubicles of Palo Alto as it captures the visceral thrill of the heady early days of a culture-changing phenomenon in the making -- and the way it both pulled a group of young revolutionaries together and then split them apart. In the midst of the chaos are Mark Zuckerberg (JESSE EISENBERG), the brilliant Harvard student who conceived a Web site that seemed to redefine our social fabric overnight; Eduardo Saverin (ANDREW GARFIELD), once Zuckerberg's close friend, who provided the seed money for the fledgling company; Napster founder Sean Parker (JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE) who brought Facebook to Silicon Valley's venture capitalists; and the Winklevoss twins (ARMIE HAMMER), the Harvard classmates who asserted that Zuckerberg stole their idea and then sued him for ownership of it. Each has his own narrative, his own version of the Facebook story -- but they add up to more than the sum of their parts in what becomes a multi-level portrait of 21st Century success -- both the youthful fantasy of it and its finite realities as well.