Natalie Portman Passes on Aaron Sorkin's Steve Jobs Movie

[FieldingMellish]

Screen test. Sorkin: Okay, now. Say, "insanely great!"

 

[samcraig]

Seems like several people don't understand how casting works. "In talks" in meaningless. The director and producers could be talking to 8-10 people at any given time.

 

[Boomish69]

thanks goodness..I can't think of one film she's been good in

 

[GenesisST]

In call these "virgin nerds"... Had a bunch at my previous work

 

[ttss6]

There's gotta be a reason why it's being tossed around like a hot iPad 3 / potato

 

[sinsin07]

If you are familiar with Sorkins work, I would't be surprised if many actors/actresses wouldn't want to take on these roles.

The above apparently makes sense to you, however what would surprise or not suprise you is irrelevant.

 

[C DM]

This is how a good number of movies progress in the industry, it's a form of developmental hell (look it up). Actors sign on, some drop out, directors, sign on, some drop out. Studios change, budgets decrease, scripts get rewritten etc. A movie with this many changes is not uncommon at all. And my guess is it's being updated here relentlessly because MacRumor's editors don't have a clue about the film industry.

And that's basically exactly it. There's really nothing out of the ordinary with what's going on. Maybe there's something more to it, but so far nothing really points to that specifically. As for posting updates, it seems that any news about it just goes up, but the misinterpretation comes more from many of the readers/posters who don't realize that's how the film industry works.

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The amount of turn-downs by A-list actors is pretty staggering, because they love nothing more than playing a juicy dramatic role to reign in the the awards. So it really points to something being very wrong with the production.

There's gotta be a reason why it's being tossed around like a hot iPad 3 / potato

Nothing really points to anything out of the ordinary so far. There might be something to it, but so far all these things about talking to an actor and then talking to another and all that are fairly regular things (as mentioned above).

 

[Darrin Bell]

MacRumors is turning into TMZ.

You kind of have to do that when you're reporting on rumors about a company that only releases a handful of new products per year. There are only so many times you can report that somebody thinks there could possibly, maybe, perhaps, at some indeterminate point in the coming year, be a slightly larger iPad.

 

[kas23]

Jobs' beginnings weren't from some rich or tyrannical background. Not so sure about Facebook being more ubiquitous than Apple either.

Didn't matter how he started, Jobs cemented his legacy as an arrogant *******. Most of the time it's not how you start, but how you end. The reasoning behind why he agreed to his biography (so his kids would know why he wasn't there for them) tells all you ever need to know about him.

As for the FaceBook comment:

http://news.yahoo.com/number-active-users-facebook-over-230449748.html

Number of people with iPhones/iPod/iPad is small compared to active FB members (plus many iOS device owner are repeat buyers, so total number sold to date doesn't equal unique users). This is not a who makes a better product debate or who makes more profit, it's just a fact that FaceBook appeals to a much wider audience than Steve Jobs.

 

[C DM]

Didn't matter how he started, Jobs cemented his legacy as an arrogant *******. Most of the time it's not how you start, but how you end. The reasoning behind why he agreed to his biography (so his kids would know why he wasn't there for them) tells all you ever need to know about him.

As for the FaceBook comment:

http://news.yahoo.com/number-active-users-facebook-over-230449748.html

Number of people with iPhones/iPod/iPad is small compared to active FB members (plus many iOS device owner are repeat buyers, so total number sold to date doesn't equal unique users). This is not a who makes a better product debate or who makes more profit, it's just a fact that FaceBook appeals to a much wider audience than Steve Jobs.

The people who know about iPhones and Apple in general would be of a much larger number though. I'm not saying it's larger than that of Facebook or something like that, but I'd would say that Apple is a known enough brand throughout the world that even if Facebook is more known somehow Apple is still known well enough for it not to play that much of a difference when it comes to something like a movie.

Based on quite a few parts of The Social Network, Zuckerberg wasn't really painted in a positive light either. People still liked it. When it comes to stories and movies people like them about good characters just as people like them about bad characters and just like people like them about simply human and complex characters who have all kinds of sides to them.

 

[kas23]

thanks goodness..I can't think of one film she's been good in

Guess you haven't heard of Garden State, or that she won a Golden Globe for Closer (plus nominated for an Academy Award , or won a Golden Globe and Academy Award for Black Swan...but, no, can't name anything good she's done.

 

[jozeppy26]

A big name actor turns down a role for two main reasons, money and schedule. When you are hot, you work every day you can to the most money offered for your time.

The average career for an actor on the A-list is less than ten years. Less than a hundred keep at it in that town long enough to see the next generation coming in on the car that rose themselves.

For me, I wouldn't be surprised that Sony is not offering enough on the table for her time. After Star Wars, she is a golden girl 'til she looses her looks.

IMO, this and the other Jobs movies out there should be done as a bus out for many unknowns working the audition circus in the Hollywood studios. Run it like the Aston Kutcher movie with only one big name in the cast with some knows and mostly unknowns in production.

A Jobs movie should not be star-studded cast. Personally, I love the bit part James Woods had with Ashton in the early part of the film.

After Star Wars? wtf? The girl won an Oscar for Black Swan, I'd start with that over the crap that is the new star wars movies.

 

[bozzykid]

What is it about this movie ?

The problem is sites like MR writing articles about topics they don't understand. Actors and actresses pass on projects all the time. There are many factors (schedule, contract disputes, other people that are involved, etc). But tech sites writing about it are making this out to be something that is usual in the world of movie making when it is actually par for the course.

 

[iososx]

thanks goodness..I can't think of one film she's been good in

Actually she's very accomplished with a number of top awards that others in her profession never attain. It's another loss for what may be a movie few if any top professionals like her, have any interest in.

Let's face it, this endeavor may be more like a B movie anyway. That's not bad, just how it may play out. A story about the CEO of a tech company isn't the basis for a legendary movie anyway. The public may have very little interest in a film like this.

 

[C DM]

Actually she's very accomplished with a number of top awards that others in her profession never attain. It's another loss for what may be a movie few if any top professionals like her, have any interest in.

Let's face it, this endeavor may be more like a B movie anyway. That's not bad, just how it may play out. A story about the CEO of a tech company isn't the basis for a legendary movie anyway. The public may have very little interest in a film like this.

The Social Network would disagree.

 

[CFreymarc]

After Star Wars? wtf? The girl won an Oscar for Black Swan, I'd start with that over the crap that is the new star wars movies.

Exactly. Natale used Star Wars as a bus out and has a Oscar on the mantel for it.

I'm sure Daisy Ridley is already getting work outside of Star Wars from the private viewings of the rough footage to industry insiders.

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Actually she's very accomplished with a number of top awards that others in her profession never attain. It's another loss for what may be a movie few if any top professionals like her, have any interest in.

Let's face it, this endeavor may be more like a B movie anyway. That's not bad, just how it may play out. A story about the CEO of a tech company isn't the basis for a legendary movie anyway. The public may have very little interest in a film like this.

What you are seeing is a genre of films in the business often called "industrialist movies" featuring the growth of a business and the drama involved. There have been movies about Edison, Westinghouse and Ford.

IMO, the definitive Apple movie has yet to be made and it's going to take a few people to retire for it to happen.

While the Jobs / Woz / garage / Scully / comeback movie has been done, the storyline is way to spit and polished.

I'm really surprised that no one has touched the John Draper / Captain Crunch storyline and his dealing with Apple back in the Apple ][ day. Last I heard about Crunch is he's still living in the Haight up in San Francisco and is doing something protesting all the rent increases from gentrification.

Then there are the Tesla movie scripts that no one wants to touch for whatever reason.

 

[Boomish69]

Guess you haven't heard of Garden State, or that she won a Golden Globe for Closer (plus nominated for an Academy Award , or won a Golden Globe and Academy Award for Black Swan...but, no, can't name anything good she's done.

Yep heard & seen, maybe you need to read before you comment, I didn't say what film has been good, I said what film has she been good in! her character is the same in every film! just good scripting make it successful , any actress could have player her part. Most of the time she drags the film down. Black Swan was great..she was average

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Actually she's very accomplished with a number of top awards that others in her profession never attain. It's another loss for what may be a movie few if any top professionals like her, have any interest in.

Let's face it, this endeavor may be more like a B movie anyway. That's not bad, just how it may play out. A story about the CEO of a tech company isn't the basis for a legendary movie anyway. The public may have very little interest in a film like this.

Awards often mean nothing I've found, she probably has a great manager, I've not seen one film good or bad where I've thought she added anything, characterless acting...now I can't bear to see her in anything, she a very odd choice IMHO..

Your right though, it's not a great basis , I find it funny the writer wanted Tom Cruise! yea like that was going to be believable..

 

[C DM]

Yep heard & seen, maybe you need to read before you comment, I didn't say what film has been good, I said what film has she been good in! her character is the same in every film! just good scripting make it successful , any actress could have player her part. Most of the time she drags the film down. Black Swan was great..she was average

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Awards often mean nothing I've found, she probably has a great manager, I've not seen one film good or bad where I've thought she added anything, characterless acting...now I can't bear to see her in anything, she a very odd choice IMHO..

Your right though, it's not a great basis , I find it funny the writer wanted Tom Cruise! yea like that was going to be believable..

And at the same time a lot of people would disagree and say they liked her various performances and would find Tom Cruise quite fitting for this role.

 

[kas23]

Yep heard & seen, maybe you need to read before you comment, I didn't say what film has been good, I said what film has she been good in! her character is the same in every film! just good scripting make it successful , any actress could have player her part. Most of the time she drags the film down. Black Swan was great..she was average

I do find it ironic you mention reading comprehension when I clearly listed the individual accolades she won. To spell it out to you, that means she was excellent in these films and says nothing about how good the movie was. It also points out that your opinion is less than meaningless.

 

[Technarchy]

Why does Sorkin need these overpaid celebrities anyways?

Good Question.

Who was in "The Social Network"?

Jesse Eisenberg
Andrew Garfield
Justin Timberlake
Armie Hammer
Max Minghella
Brenda Song

It made $224.9 million on a $40 million budget.

 

[Boomish69]

I do find it ironic you mention reading comprehension when I clearly listed the individual accolades she won. To spell it out to you, that means she was excellent in these films and says nothing about how good the movie was. It also points out that your opinion is less than meaningless.

Ignorance is a skill you know and you seem to excel at that! that fact an perfromer wins an accolade means they must be a great actor is of course.. why I can't think of one actor or actress that has won an award whilst being disliked by millions.. (thats irony BTW)
Taking of opinions well you know what they say, “You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.”

 

[Dontazemebro]

I lost 99% of any interest I had in this when they decided it would focus on 3 big product launches from Apple.

If there's any aspect of Apple that we all know and could recite in our sleep, it's the history of its biggest achievements.

Heck, even people who live under rocks could probably tell you Apple hit it big with the original Macintosh back in 1984 (Superbowl commercial and all that), and again with the iPod music player. Why pay high ticket prices to see a movie that recites the obvious?

About the *only* story I think is really left to tell about Jobs is the one people seem to shy away from telling .... an in-depth story of how he interacted with his family and relatives throughout his career, and more insight into WHY he made the decisions he made in his interactions with other people. (I think there are plenty of pieces of evidence to make some assumptions about this stuff, but the general public never followed Jobs-related news items closely enough to know all the tales of how, say, he acted rudely to a blogger at a MacWorld expo, or his rationale for parking his car in handicapped spaces, or how he went from not acknowledging his own child to acceptance.)

This is the ONLY storyline I would be willing to even torrent.

 

[Solomani]

And what role was she to play in the movie? Princess Amidala, Steve's 5th girlfriend??

 

[C DM]

And what role was she to play in the movie? Princess Amidala, Steve's 5th girlfriend??

It seems that there are 3 fairly significant female characters in the film, so it likely would have been one of those.