Score one more for Sonyâs Steve Jobs biopic. The studio announced earlier this week that Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network) will be penning an adaptation of Walter Isaacsonâs biography Steve Jobsâgiving the project a major leg-up in contrast to the Ashton Kutcher-fronted indie biopic Jobsâand now the production has the involvement of a key Apple player. Moreover, Sorkin revealed that the film wonât be the standard biopic that some are expecting:
âI know so little about what I am going to write. I know what I am not going to write. It can't be a straight ahead biography because it's very difficult to shake the cradle-to-grave structure of a biography.â
Hit the jump for more, including the nature of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniakâs involvement on the project.
During a press conference for Sorkinâs new HBO series The Newsroom, the scribe talked briefly about the Jobs project with Reuters. His aforementioned statement about not knowing what he's going to write echoes comments he made when he was first brought on to write âa Facebook movie,â and we all know how that turned out. He elaborated on finding the right story to tell regarding Jobsâ life:
"Drama is tension versus obstacle. Someone wants something, something is standing in their way of getting it. They want the money, they want the girl, they want to get to Philadelphia - doesn't matter ... And I need to find that event and I will. I just don't know what it is."
Sorkin also revealed that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has been brought into the development phase to âtutorâ the scribe on all the technical aspects of computers and on Jobs himself. Wozniak was present for the key Apple moments in Jobsâ life, and kept in touch with the innovator up until his untimely death.
Sorkin said that heâll turn his full attention to the Jobs film in late June, after The Newsroom has premiered and his hands arenât full with press commitments. Iâm a big fan of the scribe and though some lamented the fact that Sorkin was tackling yet another techie movie, his varied filmography (Moneyball, The West Wing) and penchant for romantic yet prickly characters gives me much confidence in his ability to bring a truly engrossing film about Jobs to the screen. That said, I wouldnât exactly be opposed to a Sorkin/David Fincher reunion on the Jobs story.