The winding saga of the Steve Jobs biopic continues ever on after Sony recently put the film into turnaround, which according to The Hollywood Reporter has led to Universal swiftly taking over the project with Danny Boyle remaining in the directors chair and Aaron Sorkin still scripting. Acclaimed actor Michael Fassbender is currently attached to play the enigmatic Apple CEO in a compressed story that has him dramatically interacting with figures such as co-founder Steve Wozniak and former CEO John Sculley.
This movie’s tortured saga has seen a much maligned rival project (2013’s JOBS) come and go from theaters while influential directors (David Fincher) and big movie stars (Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale) courted the film only to drop out, but Universal picking up the slack could be just the shot in the arm the beleaguered biopic needs. Universal has a history of picking up trouble projects from other studios, as they did when they snatched up recent hit Dumb and Dumber To after Warner Bros. passed on it.
When Christian Bale was still attached at Sony, funnyman Seth Rogen was in talks to play mischievous prankster computer genius Wozniak while Jessica Chastain–currently hot off of Interstellar and A Most Violent Year–was rumored for an unknown part as well. In his interview with Bloomberg (via Apple Insider), Sorkin indicated that both Apple’s original head of Mac marketing Joanna Hoffman and Steve Jobs’ daughter Lisa would play major roles in the story, either of which could be a rich role for Chastain.
Based on Walter Isaacson’s 2011 biography “Steve Jobs,” Universal’s currently untitled Jobs movie will be produced by Scott Rudin, Mark Gordon and Guymon Casady.
