It’s been a bit of a rough road to get here, but Universal Pictures announced today that filming is formally underway on the biopic Steve Jobs, which is the film's official title.  The Aaron Sorkin-scripted project was in development at Sony as one of their high-priority projects for a couple of years, and after close-calls with everyone from David Fincher to Christian Bale to Leonardo DiCaprio, Sony finally set up the film with Danny Boyle directing and Michael Fassbender starring as the Apple innovator.  However, arguments over budget and the final casting led to Sony dropping the project, after which Universal swiftly picked it up and finally got this thing in gear.

We’ve known that filming was underway in San Francisco thanks to some set video that made its way online a couple of weeks ago, revealing that Boyle and Co. are filming in the exact same garage where Jobs and his friends built the first Apple computer.  In Universal’s press release, they unveiled the official logline for Sorkin’s unique take on Jobs’ life:

Set backstage at three iconic product launches and ending in 1998 with the unveiling of the iMac, the film takes us behind the scenes of the digital revolution to paint an intimate portrait of the brilliant man at its epicenter.

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In addition, Universal confirmed the full cast as follows:

  • Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs
  • Kate Winslet as Joanna Hoffman, former Macintosh marketing chief
  • Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder
  • Jeff Daniels as John Sculley, former Apple CEO
  • Katherine Waterston as Chrisann Brenna, Jobs’ ex-girlfriend and mother of his child
  • Michael Stuhlbarg as Andy Hertzfeld, an original Apple Macintosh development team member
  • Perla Haney-Jardine, Ripley Sobo, and Mackenzie Moss as Jobs’ daughter Lisa Brennan at various stages of her life
  • Sarah Snook as Andrea Cunningham, project leader of Apple Macintosh
  • Adam Shapiro as Avie Tevanian, Apple Computer Senior VP of Software Engineering

I may be a bit biased given my adoration for most things Aaron Sorkin, but this is one of my most anticipated projects currently in development.  I’m also incredibly curious to see how Boyle intends to visualize what’s essentially a play as a feature film, and of course Fassbender’s performance will be of great interest.

Universal hasn’t set an official release date for the Steve Jobs movie just yet, but I imagine they’ll take a look at what Boyle has assembled this summer and see if it’s possible to give the film an awards push later this year.

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Image via Fox Searchlight