’Net Losses

For the past three years, producers Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher, who were behind The Big Chill and Reality Bites, have been struggling to make a coming-of-age flick about young adults who use Internet sites to find love. In 2004 the Universal project was to be based on Friendster, and Topher Grace and Harold Ramis were attached to star, but then buzz cooled on the first big social-networking site. There were discussions about changing the focus to MySpace before Universal jettisoned the project and the stars moved on to other things. Now New Line is interested in the script under the title Missed Connections—a nod to a section of Craigslist where people search for hot strangers they see on the subway and at the mall. Shamberg says he and Sher may change the title yet again as the movie nears production, which is slated to begin in 2008. “We’ll pick something that’s on the rise, or we’ll go with a fictional name,” he says. “The worst thing you can do is pick yesterday’s thing.”

Computer mouses: Robert Mitra