There are no specifics, but Deadline reports Sony has put the Aaron Sorkin-penned, untitled Steve Jobs biopic into turnaround with Universal expected to snatch it up. The pic had a somewhat rocky beginning with David Fincher attached to direct, but when his demands weren’t met he bounced, which is when current director Danny Boyle stepped into the director’s chair.
Then it was Christian Bale attached to star as the late Apple founder with Seth Rogen aboard to play co-founder Steve Wozniak. Shortly thereafter Bale fell off the project and the most recent report had Michael Fassbender contemplating the title role.
Sorkin has been everywhere talking about the film, most recently discussing his 181-page script with The Independent as he promotes the finale season of his HBO show “The Newsroom“. Interest in the pic is certainly high in the movie blogosphere, but I have no idea what the perception is elsewhere. Perhaps the project was getting too big for Sony and they weren’t ready to take a gamble as it clearly seems like a film that would have to be positioned as an end of year Oscar contender for a major studio to take a chance, especially if any kind of real money is going to be spent making it.
Of course, it seems reasonable to compare the film to another Sorkin screenplay, that being The Social Network, which came within a hair’s breath of winning Best Picture. Fincher shot that film for $40 million and it went on to make $224 million worldwide. Of course, those aren’t superhero numbers, but profit is profit… no?
Sorkin also commented on the Social Network comparison in that same Independent interview saying, “Both films are much more about the people than the technology they invented. With The Social Network, I was interested in the psychology of the world’s most successful social networking system being invented by the world’s most anti-social guy. And in the case of Steve Jobs, it’s the relationships he had – particularly with his daughter, Lisa – that drew me to it.”
Sorkin has previously said the film would basically be about three moments in Jobs’ life, that being the Mac, NeXT and iPod product launches. He previously told the Daily Beast:
“I hope I don’t get killed by the studio for giving too much away, but this entire movie is going to be three scenes, and three scenes only. That all take place in real time. Real time is when a half hour for you in the audience is the same as a half hour for the character on the screen, there will be no time cuts and each will take place before a product launch. Backstage before a product launch. The first one being the Mac, the second one being NeXT after he had left Apple and the third one being the iPod.”
It’s a film I really want to see and, while we’re at it, I do wish there was some way to get Fincher back on as director and Bale back as Jobs, but for now I guess the hope is merely getting the film made. We’ll see.
