Producer John Morris and Michael London's Groundswell Productions have acquired the feature rights to Ken Auletta's book "Googled: The End of the World As We Know It," according to Deadline.
The film will shine the spotlight on Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page — both radically different moguls than Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, whose rise to power will be chronicled in David Fincher's upcoming "The Social Network."
Brin and Page formed Google while they were Ph.D students at Stanford who believed they could create a better search engine. They watched as their venture grew into a business behemoth that took in more than $20 billion in ad revenue last year.
The project is expected to be sympathetic to the Google founders, who stayed true to their noble principles despite being surrounded by the temptations that come with wealth and power.
London told Deadline that the movie will focus on how the duo tried to hang onto their idealism as Google became a global phenomenon that changed the world … and themselves.
While the Google story may not be as filled with lies, greed and deceit like Zuckerberg's ascent, it's nonetheless a fairly compelling story that will serves as a fascinating depiction of two people realizing their vision to change the world and how its inhabitants find and consume information.
Penguin published Auletta's book last fall, and the producers will begin searching for writers to shape the success story shortly.
ICM brokered the deal with London and Morris, who will fund development together.
Groundswell recently attached Anne Hathaway to star in Daryl Wein's romantic comedy "Lola Versus." The company's next release will be Andrew Jarecki's thriller "All Good Things," while Tom McCarthy's "Win Win" is currently in post-production.
