Black Swan writer Mark Heyman’s “Facebook thriller” XOXO gets picked up by Lionsgate

There’s a great film still waiting to be made about internet relationships, romantic or otherwise. Will XOXO be among the first?

Variety reports today that Lionsgate has purchased BLACK SWAN scribe Mark Heyman’s spec script titled XOXO, “an elevated genre tale set in the world of Facebook, where things aren’t always as they seem.” The story is described as a modern FATAL ATTRACTION. Here’s more:

“Story follows an on-the-rise exec who’s engaged to be married but enjoys flirting online. He meets an alluring woman on Facebook and the two begin a virtual relationship, but the [protagonist] soon discovers that his Internet romance is seeping into his actual life in a deadly way.”

The thing about making a film about internet relationships is that if you were to really show them transpire in a natural and realistic way, you’re posed with the challenge that using computers isn’t inherently cinematic. But it’s a challenge the filmmakers are ready to face as they’re hoping to make these online interactions – “streaming video and other social-media platforms” – more dynamic by visually stylizing them. I’m curious to see how they pull that off.