Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin Shares Some Thoughts About Steve Jobs Biopic, Woz Hired As Advisor

Norco said:
I'd be VERY surprised if he spanned this film over decades. I suspect he's looking for a singular product/fight/challenge in Steve's career that is a representation of Steve's life at large. As great as all the iProducts are, I bet he'll avoid them because there's no drama in products selling millions and millions and kicking everyone's butts.
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I think he'll cover key points in Steve Jobs' life, and the transformation from long hair hippies style founder to bearded mogul.

• founding Apple
• early success
• kicked out of his own company
• Dreamworks
• resuscitation of Apple
• while iGadgets are not interesting for the Apple computer fan, they'll feature for the "business/design for the masses" part.
• the iMac is the key idea, it opened Apple to the masses.
• The iPhonePadPod is just a very similar principle, so I think it'll show more Jobs, the business man than the inventive person (Sure, nobody thought the iPod will would sell - but it was just the digital version of the Walkman, a Sony invention. The iPadPodPhone will figure to show the change of our world from analog to digital.

and about his personality
* his leadership
* how he creates his ideas
* I hope the script will leave out his sickness.

generally

# I think it'll be about that all good work is done by individuals, not by committees or teams. An individualist movie, against the current crop of beliefs of "sharing" and "team" etc. (five Tim Cooks cooking a meal, as it's now).

I don't expect his family to be in there a lot.
 
MacRumors said:
Sorkin noted that "The Social Network" saw the Facebook story through the lens of an acrimonious lawsuit that pitted CEO Mark Zuckerberg against his Harvard friends over the creation of the social media network.
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That was the most boring part of the movie. I kept wondering how Sorkin and Fincher could have improved the lawsuit and scenes with the lawyers. But no, it couldn't be done unless the sex, violence, drugs, and rock-n-roll were cranked way up. And none of those seem to be in Zuckerberg's background.
 
taylortm said:
I'm with you on that one. Ditto for Sorkin being involved.

Sorkin creates characters that almost exclusively are only capable of using extremely condescending dialog and there was always something else that rubbed me the wrong way about every episode of West Wing (even though I watched almost all of them). But I couldn't put my finger on it until I just read this post.

Thanks to Aaron for pointing it out: he only knows one recipe for creating dramatic engagement. Very cookie cutter.

My expectations just got set to low(er). Definitely a "wait for DVD" film, for me.
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Sorkin is one of the greatest tv/movie writers of all time and west wing or social network don't even make the top five of his best work.

He is probably the strongest character writer that exists. That you can't understand that as a story teller he needs to tell a story and not just be a Wikipedia entry says something about you not him.

I agree with someone earlier who suggested the ouster the move to Pixar and next and the reinvention of apple could be an excellent "core". If they could stretch it all the way to the launch of the iPhone that would be great but perhaps not feasible.

Anyone expecting a movie to start when Steve is sixteen and end with his funeral will probably be disappointed.
 
I can see the movie beginning with him being outsted from Apple with a flash backs on how it got to that point and ending with the launch of the iphone.

Fact is - just because it's a movie about Jobs and based on the book - doesn't mean you have to tell his entire story. If you want the whole story - read the book. Movies are a different medium and there's far too many events/things to cover in 2-3 hours.
 
zoozx said:
Sorkin, another hollywood hack with connections and takes the credit for the little peoples work.

You don't know what to hang the movie, laughable.
Read the book, Jobs drive in business over every thing else.
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I read your post and I determine you are a forum hack. Sounds worse than a Hollywood hack.
 
A tragic angle to have in the film would be Steve's desire to fight the cancer his own way vs listening to his doctors carries a lot of emotional weight. His will and singular vision saved Apple but that same will & vision could have cost him his life.

Whatever Sorkin decides to do w/the story I'm sure it won't appease the 'Apple faithful' because a story designed for the mainstream will most likely make too many compromises for the hardcore fans that could recite all the milestones in Steve's life at the drop of a hat.


Lethal
 
blow45 said:
maybe we have different tastes and expectations from movies? :) I am not easy to please, I am at stage of too much been there done that, and seen this, read this in my life to be impressed so I try to chose wisely so I won't be disappointed.
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.....:confused: ok then...
 
Renzatic said:
They could do it as a trilogy. Start with "Steve", move on to "Steve 2", then end it with "The New Steve Film".
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Not sure if you're kidding or not. But as I mentioned earlier - there's no reason to do Steve's entire story. The movie doesn't have to cover everything. And I don't think a trilogy bio-epic would work. Maybe on TV - but not in theaters.
 
The film should open with Jobs' Stanford commencement speech in 2005 (not the entire speech, of course), and then cut back to his return to Apple.

I really hope Sorkin doesn't use the same format as "The Social Network" for the Steve Jobs biopic. However, knowing Sorkin, he'll definitely come up with something truly original.

For director, David Fincher should direct. Who else better than Apple's biggest fan-boy director? He's a perfectionist just like Jobs himself.
 
edk99 said:
I lost interest in this movie when Ashton Kutcher was announced to play Steve.
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There's a 50/50 chance Ashton's movie may not be all that great. It could skip the theaters and head straight to video. Depending on the studio's decision.

Aaron's screenplay will guarantee that the movie will play in theaters because of his track records.
 
A Principle

blow45 said:
Haven't watched Ali, but I found Ray dead boring. Ali might have been better dunno, there are exceptions to the rule.

I 've not watched the social network, I m not really into bs. :)
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The social network may or may not be B.S., but since you haven't even seen it
you really have no idea.

“There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance - that principle is contempt prior to investigation”

Herbert Spencer
 
The Key to this movie....

Is to focus on a era....Steve Jobs return to Apple till his death.

• Steve's driving force....redemption from being ousted from Apple, a company he created because a board felt he didn't have the business sense, education and maturity to run Apple profitably. While away his every step prepares for his return. He comes back and proves with almost every decision and move that he doesn't just have the vision, he has everything the Board who fired him thought he didn't.

• Follow from him being hired as a consultant, then taking over to developing products that would change...everything.

• Follow Steve's human drama of forming his team from his people at NeXT, Pixar etc., his friendship with Larry Ellison and of course his family.

As to casting Steve Jobs - David Duchovny
 
Sorkin is not that good

Aaron Sorkin is looking for something to 'hang this movie on'???

Really?? Hey Aaron... how about a move about a dying man telling his life story in hopes that his children will know who he is?

Isn't that why Walter Isaacson was asked to write the book by Steve Jobs?

Hey Aaron... you start the movie as someone playing the part of the author, who is asked to come to the house of a frail and dying man. He pulls up a chair, and begins listening to Steve Jobs' story.
As the character of dying Steve Jobs begins to talk, we are transitioned back to that part of Jobs' past.

The movie ends when Steve Jobs dies and the author hands a copy of the book to his kids and says "Your father wanted me to give this to you". I know I'd be crying at the end of the movie!!

Aaron, get in touch with me on here if you want more ideas and we can talk in private. :D
 
I'm curious to see how these movies turn out. Steve Jobs wasn't the most likable guy. Everyone agrees that he changed the world, but he was kind of an *******, especially in the era covered in Pirates of Silicon Valley.

Will these movies be honest, or will they sugar coat it?
 
blow45 said:
I really don't think oneway or the other about facebook, I intensely disliked the fact that they are bypassing every privacy law in the book and making a buck off our data, but since facebook is here to stay I 've stopped caring and I hope the legislators do something about it. Just heard an interview of Zuckerburg (sp?) once and I though he was an effin moron -which he is- that had zero insight on the social implications and philosophical ramifications of what he had accidentally unleashed upon the world. Why would I want to see a movie made in hollywood (lowest common denominator oversimplified bs 99.9% of the time) about such a bozo?
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I thought I was a miserable c**t but ****** me you take the piss. I hate nearly everything in this world, but The Social Network is a genuinely fantastic incredible movie, one of very very few. You need to cheer the hell up and educate yourself and stop saying everything is "dead boring" you sound like a 13 year old.
 
vampyr said:
Aaron Sorkin is looking for something to 'hang this movie on'???

Really?? Hey Aaron... how about a move about a dying man telling his life story in hopes that his children will know who he is?

Isn't that why Walter Isaacson was asked to write the book by Steve Jobs?

Hey Aaron... you start the movie as someone playing the part of the author, who is asked to come to the house of a frail and dying man. He pulls up a chair, and begins listening to Steve Jobs' story.
As the character of dying Steve Jobs begins to talk, we are transitioned back to that part of Jobs' past.

The movie ends when Steve Jobs dies and the author hands a copy of the book to his kids and says "Your father wanted me to give this to you". I know I'd be crying at the end of the movie!!

Aaron, get in touch with me on here if you want more ideas and we can talk in private. :D
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That's exactly what Sorkin said he's staying away from, and your summary is exactly why 99% of biopics are terrible. We already know that story, and a movie about the life of a man is going to have to be extremely rushed. I actually had that problem with the Jobs book. Most of the moments you really cared about were shoved to the side in order to hit the mark on the next thing. It should have been volumes, each one a study in a moment. For this to be successful, like The Social Network, it has to be a study of "the moment." We didn't see how Mark became Mark, we didn't see what Facebook became after it succeeded, it was merely a single lightning moment.

As for where I think the movie should go: I say it centers around Pixar. A lot of people have said that at Pixar, Jobs finally saw the perfect balance between art and technology and it was where he was happiest. At Pixar, he was able to find calmness and to be with a group of people who understood his love of art and technology during the worst period of his life and a very volatile one with his emotions.

I would set it in Pixar and let the "obstacle" be all the outside stuff trying to break him away from his new-found safety bubble: The constant idea that NeXt would fail, the constant feeling that Pixar would go bankrupt any day, the constant stress of seeing his baby, Apple, mutilated slowly, the constant stress of his family vs work, etc.

The movie ends when Jobs trades away that zen life to return to Apple and save his true love. It's like an abusive relationship. For everything Apple is and was, it abused Jobs, but he always came back. And once he finds the perfect girl (Pixar/NeXt), he pushes it aside to go back to the drug - Apple. And it's that last sacrifice, his return to Apple, that ends his life. But the irony is that end also reincarnated him into a "messiah" of sorts. It's a death and rebirth story where the characters are a man and his companies. It's a love story about never letting go of that thing you love even if it hurts you.

That, or concentrate on the creation of the Macintosh. There's enough there and enough room for witty dialogue to create a trilogy. And it was a revolution. Knowing Sorkin's style, I'd be he concentrates there. It would also explain why Woz, who missed out on the rebirth of Apple, was brought on to act as a consultant.
 
samcraig said:
Not sure if you're kidding or not. But as I mentioned earlier - there's no reason to do Steve's entire story. The movie doesn't have to cover everything. And I don't think a trilogy bio-epic would work. Maybe on TV - but not in theaters.
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I'm kidding. I saw an opportunity to make a lame iPad naming scheme joke, and I took it.
 
I'm just finishing the book, fascinating. He seemed so much bigger than life that it's hard to envision what he was really like.
I was most struck with his negotiating abilities, the power deals and the power players he many times kinda screwed over. They funny part, is most of them would return to work with him again, some gleefully, just to get bested again.
I'm sure the screenwriter will focus on a psychological need he had and how it effected his artistic and business success. Being adopted effected him some, yet how he could almost betray his first daughter when she was young, and be somewhat uninvolved with his 2 other daughters later in life was sad. And that he had to have a book written so his kids could know him, as he states is sad.
The strain of running both Pixar and Apple effected his health, which he somewhat neglected, esp with his unusual food habits.
Jobs didn't like the Pirates of Sil Valley movie. I just watched it, kinda cartoonish portrayal of the characters I thought. I hope this new movie can capture his brilliance.
It's sad that he is gone.
 
marksman said:
Suit and tie type? Do you even know who Sorkin is?
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I do, and I find his writing uninspired at best. He's what I call a "tab-in-slot" type of writer--someone who thinks stories can only be well-written if every motivation and character action is explained and logically presented which I find pedantic and boring. Give me some sloppy artistry in my storytelling. Give me David Lynch. Give me Chuck Palahniuk. Give me William Faulkner. Give me something sloppy and irrational and sometimes doesn't make sense that looks and sounds and breathes like real life. Reading about Sorkin's quest for the one perfect thing to hinge Steve Jobs' life story on is excruciating and boringly academic sounding. Be a f_____g artist, Mr. Sorkin. It's not Tinkertoys. Each stick doesn't all have to fit neatly into each slot.

So, yeah, suit and tie type, all the way. Wrong guy to write about Steve Jobs.
 
inkswamp said:
I do, and I find his writing uninspired at best. He's what I call a "tab-in-slot" type of writer--someone who thinks stories can only be well-written if every motivation and character action is explained and logically presented which I find pedantic and boring. Give me some sloppy artistry in my storytelling. Give me David Lynch. Give me Chuck Palahniuk. Give me William Faulkner. Give me something sloppy and irrational and sometimes doesn't make sense that looks and sounds and breathes like real life. Reading about Sorkin's quest for the one perfect thing to hinge Steve Jobs' life story on is excruciating and boringly academic sounding. Be a f_____g artist, Mr. Sorkin. It's not Tinkertoys. Each stick doesn't all have to fit neatly into each slot.

So, yeah, suit and tie type, all the way. Wrong guy to write about Steve Jobs.
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There is so much nonsense in this post. All I can say is watch The Social Network again. Or Moneyball. Or The West Wing.
 
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