Christian Bale Hired for Steve Jobs Role in Sorkin Biopic Without Auditioning

[sviato]

I was reminded of the following exchange from Entourage after reading your post:

E: Tom Cruise is going to play Pablo Escobar? C’mon, the guy’s not even Hispanic.
Ari: Yeah, and Hilary Swank has a vagina, but she won an Oscar pretending she has a ****. That’s what actors do. They pretend.

Haha yes now that's a movie I can't wait for!

 

[icerabbit]

I really can't imagine a movie made up of only three sequences, with the lead character in every frame and talking for an hour and half ...

 

[Glassed Silver]

I guess this will be the only Sony movie without Sony product placement everywhere.

I'm looking forward to the movie.

Damn, have you seen all the Samsung products in Lucy?

That was one plastered movie, not even subtly.

They basically showed Samsung's entire product line up.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[steve333]

Great choice in Bale but the premise of the movie sounds bizarre.
Talk about not delving into his life

 

[batchtaster]

The thing is real life businessmen, even ones as epic as Jobs, are just not exciting enough for a 'weighty' drama. You need to fictionalise a la Gordon Gecko or make a more modest TV movie a la The Pirates of Silicon Valley or a drama like the BBC's brilliant, The Micro Men.

The drama on this board would suggest otherwise.

 

[C DM]

The thing is real life businessmen, even ones as epic as Jobs, are just not exciting enough for a 'weighty' drama. You need to fictionalise a la Gordon Gecko or make a more modest TV movie a la The Pirates of Silicon Valley or a drama like the BBC's brilliant, The Micro Men.

The Social Network found enough everyday type of stuff to make it all interesting and good.

 

[batchtaster]

Jobs: Half-Syrian. Bale: Not.

Just wait, someone will realize it and start complaining. I personally don't care, but some people will. Just look at the complaints when Khan in "Star Trek: Into Darkness" was played by a caucasian.

He's also not American and wasn't born in 1955, but he'll fake those too.

Not half-Syrian, not American, not 59 years old... will the lies never stop? You'd think he faked professionally, like, for a living and deliberately.

 

[NY Guitarist]

thought it was heroin that ruined Hoffmans career..

Ended his career, but didn't ruin it.

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Christian Bale looks nothing like Steve Jobs ..... fail !

Hair and makeup work magic in filmmaking

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Unlike many others I'll wait to see it before declaring it a success or failure.

But considering the caliber of talent working on this project I have high expectations for this film.

In the interim I'm certain I'll be highly entertained by the comments!

 

[SeaFox]

I guess this will be the only Sony movie without Sony product placement everywhere.

When they show older compact and beige Macs they'll have Sony floppy drives in them.

 

[FrankieTDouglas]

Hire one hot headed egomaniac to play another.

 

[Tobias Funke]

Wow, there's a lot of love on here for Bale!!

Personally I think he is a terrible actor!

 

[MentalFloss]

He's also not American and wasn't born in 1955, but he'll fake those too.

Not half-Syrian, not American, not 59 years old... will the lies never stop? You'd think he faked professionally, like, for a living and deliberately.

Problem is: Hardly anyone complains when a younger actor plays an older actor. Most people have accepted that Bridget Jones can be played by a Texan with a fake British accent. But there are things that people complain about.

Watch "Tropic Thunder" sometime.

 

[cmvsm]

Miles above the embarrassing Ashton Kutcher version. Bale should be able to pull this off, as he's a bit whacky himself.

 

[crossifixio]

Batman doesn't need to audition. He's Batman.

D.

Haha true

 

[itr81]

I guess this might be the reason he's not in the new Batman film but Ben is..

 

[jonnysods]

That guy in the video reminded me so much of Val Kilmer. Another passionate and excellent actor. Don't know what he is doing these days though.

 

[Thunderbird]

Liam Neeson



iPhone Scene

[Employee]: "I have the iPhone prototype. I will go to the press unless you pay me".

[Steve Jobs]: "I don't know who you are.... I don't know what you want.
If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money.
But what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.
If you return the iPhone prototype, I will not look for you.
If you don't.... I will look for you.....I will find you.
And I will kill you".

 

[Drewski]

Ok, so who is playing Bane.... er.... Jony?

Phil Collins?

 

[snebes]

They started filming already...

Looks like one of the story arcs is about Jobs going nuclear on Google

 

[StyxMaker]

I take it to mean that this film will be solid Bale. No scene without him in it as the main focus of the scene, and as a result, he'll have more dialogue than even stars in other movies have because he won't be sharing screen time with other actors or plot lines.



It kind of sounds interesting from the point of view that it'll show just how involved Jobs was, in every last facet of the company, and how he was understood as the very heart of Apple. Nothing happened without Jobs's say so or input. He *was* Apple... or so the overarching belief was among people.



OTOH, with that much focus, I'm worried it'll come off as more of a stand-up comedy routine or keynote or speech. I don't know how Sorkin will build an actual *plot* if the focus is so narrow. It'll be an interesting thing to see, even if only from a film making/screenwriting perspective. We all know there's no issue with the acting abilities. This is about if Sorkin can pull off a compelling story with a really tight focus seldom seen in movies.

Sorkin is famous for his 'walk and talk' scenes. This format fits nicely into Jobs preparing for three iconic product introductions.

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Reed Jobs, a son of Steve Jobs could take the role

Image

An actor being able to successfully portray a person has very little to do with looking like the person.