'Social Network' scribe signs on to adapt official Steve Jobs biography

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Aaron Sorkin, the award-winning writer who wrote the screenplay for The Social Network, has agreed to adapt Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Sony Pictures Entertainment announced on Tuesday that Sorkin had signed on to the project, as noted by /film.

?Steve Jobs? story is unique: he was one of the most revolutionary and influential men not just of our time but of all time," said Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal. "There is no writer working in Hollywood today who is more capable of capturing such an extraordinary life for the screen than Aaron Sorkin; in his hands, we?re confident that the film will be everything that Jobs himself was: captivating, entertaining, and polarizing.?

Sorkin won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his work on The Social Network, a movie about Mark Zuckerberg and the creation of Facebook. He is also famous for creating the television show The West Wing.

Last October, reports emerged that Sorkin was Sony's top choice for the biopic. The writer then responded that he was "strongly considering" the role. It was also reported last year that George Clooney and Noah Wyle were in contention for the role of Jobs in the film.

Steve Jobs biography


Isaacson's book, "Steve Jobs," was Amazon's best-selling book last year, despite having just weeks of availability. The biography was rushed to print after Jobs passed away last October at the age of 56. Sony reportedly signed a seven-figure deal for the book's movie rights just days after the death of the Apple co-founder.

Sony may find itself beat to screens by "Jobs: Get Inspired," an independent biopic about Jobs that could arrive as early as later this year. Actor Ashton Kutcher will take the title role, while "Book of Mormon" Broadway star Josh Gad is believed to play the role of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Mark Hulme, the film's producer, has said he is hoping for a fourth-quarter 2012 release.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 22
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member


    So that's both Steve Jobs movies ruined now, isn't it? The first by virtue of it being TMZ, this one by the director.


     


    How many scenes, total, do you think the Sony movie will have of Steve Jobs crying, being mean, and explicitly not giving other people credit for their work?


     


    I'll bet nine.

  • Reply 2 of 22
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member


    Sorkin better consult NeXT and PIXAR employees seeing as how my fellow alumni are incredibly disappointed in Isaacson and his fixation of filling the book up with early Mac days when Steve and Company from NeXT/PIXAR to Apple 2.0 actually accounted for far more time and innovation than the first stage.

     

  • Reply 3 of 22
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Sorkin is a great fit. He's consistently written many great scripts.
  • Reply 4 of 22
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer View Post

    Sorkin better consult NeXT and PIXAR employees seeing as how my fellow alumni are incredibly disappointed in Isaacson and his fixation of filling the book up with early Mac days when Steve and Company from NeXT/PIXAR to Apple 2.0 actually accounted for far more time and innovation than the first stage.




    Remember that the book is a "first draft" and that Isaacson will be writing another one in a few years. His words, not mine.


     


    Why he was allowed to release something he considered a "first draft" is beyond me. I'm rather upset at the weighting and scope (and lack thereof) of the biography, as well.


     


    Were you one of the "hundred" people he interviewed? You should be.


     


    Call him up and give him the truth. That way when he distorts it in the second book, you'll not only be able to say you put forth the truth but also be able to refute anything he changes.

  • Reply 5 of 22
    dennyldennyl Posts: 28member


    That's pretty bad news. The screenplay of The Social Network was pretty poor, and Sorkin's filmography is not inspiring.

     

  • Reply 6 of 22
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DennyL View Post


    That's pretty bad news. The screenplay of The Social Network was pretty poor, and Sorkin's filmography is not inspiring.

     



    I enjoyed the Social Network. Sorkin clearly knows dialogue and the source story itsellf was hardly dramatic. The real characters are not particularly interesting by all accounts. With that in mind explain why you thought the script was poor. I thought given the subject matter and material it was a good film. How well it will stand the test of time is another question ;-)


     


    This will be a 'Hollywood Production' and as such Sorkin is a good choice imo. 

  • Reply 7 of 22
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DennyL View Post


    That's pretty bad news. The screenplay of The Social Network was pretty poor, and Sorkin's filmography is not inspiring.

     



     


    Indeed.  He's a workaday writer who almost exclusively deals in biopics and the TV equivalent.  


    He's very successful and makes a lot of money for everyone concerned, but he is not in any way a "great writer."  


     


    It's really to be expected though.  People don't actually want to see a great movie about Steve Jobs, they just want the facts of his life presented in a pleasant and easily digestible way with most of the bad stuff glossed over so they can worship him and shed a little tear, which is pretty much what you can expect from Sorkin.  


     


    The "cool," exciting movie about Steve Jobs that actually has something to say and is written by some great talent, will no doubt show up years from now when we all have greater perspective and Mr. Jobs can be seen in a more historical context.  That's usually the way it works with these things.  


     


    Think about the stuff about Hitler, or Jack Kennedy (both books and movies).  The early stuff was gushing or vilifying at turns, mostly inaccurate, boring, and about as deep as a puddle.  It's only years later that anyone really does anything interesting with the material or alternatively, gets at the real truth.  

  • Reply 8 of 22
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post



    Sorkin is a great fit. He's consistently written many popular scripts.


     


    fixed it for you. :)

  • Reply 9 of 22


    Absolutely refuse to see the movie if they stick with the title "Jobs: Get Motivated".  It is the stupidest title I've heard since John Carter.

  • Reply 10 of 22


    I absolutely refuse to see the movie if they stick with the title "Jobs: Get Motivated".  It is the stupidest title I've heard since John Carter.

  • Reply 11 of 22


    "If you guys were the inventors of iPhone... you'd have invented The iPhone." image

  • Reply 12 of 22

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by bdkennedy View Post


    Absolutely refuse to see the movie if they stick with the title "Jobs: Get Motivated".  It is the stupidest title I've heard since John Carter.



     


    Agreed. Sounds like a bad weight loss/stop smoking self-help video.

  • Reply 13 of 22

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer View Post


    Sorkin better consult NeXT and PIXAR employees seeing as how my fellow alumni are incredibly disappointed in Isaacson and his fixation of filling the book up with early Mac days when Steve and Company from NeXT/PIXAR to Apple 2.0 actually accounted for far more time and innovation than the first stage.

     



     


    Perhaps, but Isaacson was anointed by His Steveness. For better or worse.

  • Reply 14 of 22

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post



    Sorkin is a great fit. He's consistently written many great scripts.


     


    People at Apple will be depicted as talking really fast while walking down long corridors...with a purpose! image

  • Reply 15 of 22
    joelsaltjoelsalt Posts: 827member


    It's most likely a working title.


     


    Also - Sorkin is a good writer.  Anyone claiming he's not has indie-band syndrome.  Not only did he write A Few Good Men and American President, he's script-doctored many amazing movies (uncredited).  His style of writing perfectly suits this type of movie - which will by necessity be character-dialogue driven.


     


    I guess a legitimate concern is that it will likely be not even close to factual

  • Reply 16 of 22
    bageljoeybageljoey Posts: 2,004member
    All this fuss is rather comical. You will save yourselves a great deal of angst if you realize one thing: Sorkin is not signing on to do a doccumentary. Yes, he will start with the "official biography" of Jobs. Yes, he is likely to do more independent research as well. Then he will pick out and massage the story lines that make make the most interesting story he can[B][/B]. If his goal was to present the facts and nothing more, he wouldn't be hired.

    I am reminded of one of the asteroid movies from year's back. They had a scientist on hand to advise the director on issues of scientific realism. The director would consult this guy and adjust things when convenient. However, many big things were left wrong because it was important to the movie. For example: the snow on an asteroid would not be white and fluffy, but the director decided that the movie would be much more fun to watch if it was. Also, an asteroid would not have anything like earth gravity but several key plot points depended on people running around on the (white, fluffy) surface.

    I know, it is different when you are not dealing with a fictional story but real people who some of you actually know or feel a close connection to, but the bottom line is the same--it is the bottom line. Sony is going to care much more about ROI than TRUTH...
  • Reply 17 of 22
    johnnyb0731johnnyb0731 Posts: 326member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DennyL View Post


    That's pretty bad news. The screenplay of The Social Network was pretty poor, and Sorkin's filmography is not inspiring.

     





    Why would you attribute the filmography to Sorkin when he isn't a director? I assume your beef with that would be with David Fincher who actually directed the thing.  Sorkin is a fine more than capable writer who should be able to write a decent movie

  • Reply 18 of 22
    applezillaapplezilla Posts: 941member


    Sorkin is a great choice.

  • Reply 19 of 22
    boredumbboredumb Posts: 1,418member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DennyL View Post


    That's pretty bad news. The screenplay of The Social Network was pretty poor, and Sorkin's filmography is not inspiring.

     



    Its not?  Thought I saw a few things in there I respected, even if Social Network wasn't one of them...


     


    Filmography


     


    [edit]

  • Reply 20 of 22
    pokepoke Posts: 506member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer View Post


    Sorkin better consult NeXT and PIXAR employees seeing as how my fellow alumni are incredibly disappointed in Isaacson and his fixation of filling the book up with early Mac days when Steve and Company from NeXT/PIXAR to Apple 2.0 actually accounted for far more time and innovation than the first stage.

     



     


    Personally, if I was writing the Jobs biopic, I'd start the movie with him being ousted from Apple. The first act would be him setting up NeXT and Pixar and watching Apple do everything wrong but having it be out of his control. The second act would be his return to Apple and how, using the lessons he'd learned at NeXT and Pixar, he led it to success. The final act, obviously, would be his health problems and eventual death. There'd be plenty of opportunities to have him reflect on his early days at Apple during the course of the movie. But it's really not the central story anymore.


     


    The way they'll probably do it is it'll start in the 70s (or, worse, it'll start with him being adopted) and they'll skip over NeXT and Pixar entirely and portray the period where he wasn't at Apple as a lost period of exile (I'm thinking: living in a hotel room, drinking heavily, cursing Sculley's name). The iPod, iPhone and iPad will be mentioned in passing. Final scenes will be him reconciling with Woz and members of the original Mac team. "I'm sorry I shouted at you guys," he'll say, "I realise now there's no 'I' in team."

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