It appears that Leonardo DiCaprio and his The Beach director Danny Boyle won’t be reteaming after all.  It had looked like the duo might be working together again on Sony’s Steve Jobs biopic, as news broke earlier this year that DiCaprio was being eyed to star as Boyle entered the director’s chair.  The project has been a high priority for Sony since they received Aaron Sorkin’s script, and early on they entered preliminary conversations with David Fincher about taking the helm.  That prospect didn’t work out and Boyle subsequently signed on, and the hope was that this would be DiCaprio’s next project after he wraps The Revenant with director Alejandro González Iñárritu.  However, word comes today that DiCaprio has opted to bow out of the project altogether.  More after the jump.

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Image via Warner Bros.

Per THR, DiCaprio has decided against taking on the role of Steve Jobs in Sony’s untitled biopic, opting not to shoot this ambitious project directly after The Revenant, which is also an ambitious undertaking all its own as DiCaprio plays an 1820s frontiersman who seeks revenge with Iñárritu shooting the whole thing in sequence.  Instead, DiCaprio apparently plans to take a lengthy break from acting after The Revenant—though he just recently took about a year off after shooting The Great Gatsby, Django Unchained, and The Wolf of Wall Street back-to-back-to-back.

Sorkin’s script for the Jobs biopic is quite unusual, as the entire film is made up of only three scenes that take place in real time.  They are separately set before the launch of the Mac, before the launch of NeXT, and before the launch of the iPod, using these products as a unique way to break from the cradle-to-grave structure of most biopics.  Whoever signs on will have quite the challenge in capturing the essence of Jobs in just three 30-minute segments.

With DiCaprio out of the picture, Sony is aiming high for his replacement.  They’re still reportedly keen on Christian Bale, who was Fincher’s choice to lead the project, and their wish list also includes Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Bradley Cooper.  Affleck seems an unlikely choice as he just entered talks to star in The Accountant before he shoots his next directorial effort, Live by Night, but Damon and Cooper seem like viable options.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see what becomes of this Jobs biopic and though Boyle wouldn’t be my first choice to take on this kind of story, I’m a massive Aaron Sorkin fan so I have quite a bit of faith in the project.  We should hear more word on the casting front soon.

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Image via Fox

Steve Jobs Movie Leonardo DiCaprio Ben Affleck