Jesse takes look at fatherhood and the future

Jesse Eisenberg didn’t set out to write science fiction or offer some grand political commentary.

But in a 317-minute audiobook, the New Jersey-raised actor and writer wound up sketching his vision of the year 2032, when nobody eats real meat, cars drive themselves and people flood into the social services sector for careers.

“I kind of wrote myself into a corner,” Eisenberg (inset) said of the portions of the book set in the future. “I was dreading writing it. But it’s the kind of thing that once you commit to it, you realize actually 15 years in the future is not going to look that different.”

The “Social Network” star’s drama, titled “When You Finish Saving the World,” landed Tuesday on Audible Originals for coronavirus bingeing.

The book tackles parenthood through the lens of a father, Nathan, who finds no connection with his newborn son but finds comfort in imagining the child at an older, more realized age.

A new father himself when he started the project, Eisenberg said he drew inspiration from a conversation with a friend who was afflicted by emotional emptiness when he had his child. The writer pictured what his character would go through.

“For him, the kid just represents a series of tasks,” Eisenberg told the Daily News. “All that stuff that you overlook because you love the child so much — the waking up at night, the constant need for attention — I imagine that kind of stuff would just be overwhelming to a person who didn’t have great affection for the kid.”

The drama also backtracks to 2002. Eisenberg said he brushed up on the post-9/11 years by reading old articles in The New York Times.

But much of the story still takes place in 2017, a time that also suddenly seems remote due to

COVID-19.

Eisenberg recorded his parts as Nathan in the winter. The pandemic pushed back production and put a dent in his plans to do live readings, but it also has flashed a spotlight on the book as people struggle to find freshly produced entertainment.

Eisenberg, whose writings have appeared on the stage of London’s West End and in the pages of The New Yorker, has kept busy during the pandemic.

He said he’s volunteering four days a week with a domestic abuse shelter in Bloomington, Ind., where he lives with his wife and son. And he’s appearing in benefit Zoom plays.

But “When You Finish Saving the World” has become a central project for the 36-yearold, and it’s the inspiration for an indie movie that he wrote and will direct. He said he hopes to begin shooting by October in Manitoba, Canada. Eisenberg estimates his screen adaptation, spun off from the character of the boy’s mother, shares about a quarter of the plot line with the audiobook. It won’t flash to a fantastic future.

Julianne Moore will star in the film as the boy’s mother, who runs a domestic abuse shelter and clashes with her son as he grows up and proves less progressive than mom.

Eisenberg said he doubted he ever would have thought to flip the story’s characters into a film if not for his regular job as an actor.

“I get exposed to different forms of writing that I wouldn’t otherwise get exposed to,” Eisenberg said, “because I’m surrounded by movie scripts all day.”

But in the marathon audiobook, he tried something new altogether, mixing in elements of music and flashing into the distant future over the course of some 70,000 words.

“I felt quite free to explore this kind of story because this medium is so new,” Eisenberg said. “There’s no canon really. No one thinks ever that they’re going to write the Great Audiobook.”