While the making of Facebook got a movie, the birth of Twitter might be turned into a television series. Lionsgate Television said today that it is developing Hatching Twitter, based on Nick Bilton’s book about the creation of the micro-blogging social network.
The studio said that Bilton has signed on to executive produce and write for the project, with Allison Shearmur as executive producer, reports Variety. The book has been out since Nov. 5 and already reached the New York Times Best Sellers list.
“Nick’s book has all the elements of a great drama with its complex characters, high-stakes power struggles and betrayed friendships, and we’re extremely fortunate to have Alli Shearmur onboard as executive producer,” Kevin Beggs, Chairman of the Lionsgate Television Group, said in a statement.
According to Techcrunch, it was first reported in October, before the book was published, that Hollywood might be interested in adapting it. The site notes that details in the book include reasons why Twitter’s creators decided not to sell their site to Facebook and just what chairman Jack Dorsey does.
The series based on Hatching Twitter will likely be compared to David Fincher’s The Social Network, which Aaron Sorkin won an Oscar for his adapted screenplay based on The Accidental Billionaires. However, that was a two-hour movie and it looks like Lionsgate is looking to get much more hours of television out of Twitter’s birth than that.