A new television series is in development which will see The Crown star Claire Foy take on the role of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
The series, titled Doomsday Machine, is based on the book An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination by New York Times reporters Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang. The project will also draw material from the pair’s reporting for The Times in addition to The New Yorker‘s Andrew Marantz.
Marantz will serve as a consultant on the series which will be penned by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and author Ayad Akhtar.
According to the show’s synopsis, Doomsday Machine is “the riveting human drama chronicling the political and social minefields Facebook has navigated on its relentless quest for growth.”
It will track the past five years at the social media giant, beginning with disinformation surrounding the 2016 election and leading up to recent revelations in The Wall Street Journal and the Times about some users being allowed to skirt the platform’s rules and that the company was aware of mental health risks among younger users of Instagram.
The potential series will place viewers in the shoes of Sandberg (Foy) and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (yet to be cast) as they shape the way billions of people communicate and consume information.
The news of the series comes just days after former Facebook data scientist Frances Haugen testified at the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection that the social network harms children, fuels division in society, and that top executives are aware of the issues but value profit over public safety.
“Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy,” Haugen said.
“The company’s leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer but won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people.
“Congressional action is needed. They won’t solve this crisis without your help.”
For her part, Foy has won two Emmys for playing the young Queen Elizabeth in the first two seasons of Netflix’s The Crown.
She can next be seen opposite Paul Bettany in the second instalment of Amazon’s A Very English Scandal as well as in Sarah Polley’s feature Women Talking which is set for a 2022 release.
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