The studio has seen the success of mainstream movies about consumer products, such as Air (Jordans), Barbie, Blackberry, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, Tetris, and the new Pop Tart one. They also figure that The Social Network took home some Oscars, so what the hell… Now they’ve hired you to write and direct a movie about Reddit and the average Redditor. What is the story about? Who’s in it? How do you depict the cursed site?
Something to do with the Reddit founders, Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, as well as Aaron Swartz. Ohanian ended up leaving Reddit and marrying Serena Williams, Aaron got screwed over by everyone because he was a true believer and committed suicide, Huffman being a general weirdo and doomsday prepper. So there’s potential there for a decent narrative. Incorporate some stuff about redditors being loser basement dwelling nerds and controversial subreddits like the head moderator of r/jailbait getting an official Reddit award and being interviewed by Anderson Cooper, along with the contrast of Reddit trying to go mainstream, and there’s potential for a decent 7/10 narrative.
Yeah I was thinking something along those lines. The drama is there
You could even spin it with a positive ending. Create the narrative of Reddit going from a “free speech” hate filled corner of the internet used by dubious characters, to “the front page of the internet”, a website used by everyone which is socially progressive, with the ending cumulating with Ohanian leaving Reddit and demanding a black executive take his place after the George Floyd protests.
Of course, this narrative’s relationship with the truth is weak at best, but this never matters with these kind of movies.
The film is told from radical centrist Ohanian’s POV, with Swartz being the leftist idealist believing in free speech and Huffman being some technolibertarian fascist. Swartz commits suicide because Huffman was mean to him, and Reddit turns into a technolibertarian fascist cesspool as Huffman strongarms Ohanian into ignoring /r/jailbait and /r/The_Donald. Throughout the film, Ohanian constantly struggles with his nagging conscience and guilt of not preventing Swartz’s suicide, but after marrying Williams, he decides to finally face his inner demons and takes a stand by leaving Reddit during the George Floyd uprising.
With so many threads it would make a decent 6 part Hulu miniseries
you’re hired!
The title of the film needs to be called “We Did It Reddit!” Swartz’s suicide and the Boston Marathon bombing, both taking place in 2013, could either be the endpoint of the film or the midpoint of the film when Reddit goes horribly wrong.