Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg Sells 'Lean In' Movie Rights Peter Foley / Bloomberg via Getty Images Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, her new book 'Lean In' on display at Barnes & Noble book store in New York, U.S., on Tuesday, March 12th, 2013 Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg has sold the film rights to her bestselling book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead to Sony Pictures, Deadline reports. Veteran TV writer and director Nell Scovell, who helped Sandberg write the book, will pen the script. The film will not be a biography of Sandberg. Instead, Scovell will create a narrative for the film based on the themes of the book. Hollywood pulled off a similar trick when it turned self-help book He's Just Not That Into You into a romantic comedy in 2009. In the book, Sandberg examines how women are treated differently in the workplace and often overlooked for leadership positions. The book encourages women to aggressively pursue their ambitions and, in doing so, change the conversation about gender inequality. Sandberg will donate the proceeds from the project to her foundation, which advocates for women's empowerment.