Aaron Sorkin’s upcoming film about late co-founder and CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, has been a hot topic for some time now. The Academy Award winning screenwriter first landed the job back in May of 2012, and over the last few weeks there have been several big changes that have brought the project into the spotlight.
David Fincher, who worked with Sorkin on The Social Network, jumped on board to helm the film back in February, then walked away from it this month when Sony reportedly refused to meet his demands. Earlier this week, word broke that Danny Boyle was in talks to direct, and that he had Leonardo DiCaprio in mind to star.
Sorkin himself was approached at the Tribeca Film Festival this week to weigh in on the project, and though he said that he “didn’t want to make news,” he did reveal that the film will not be “the story of Steve Jobs.”
“It’s very, very exciting. It’s not a biopic. It’s not the story of Steve Jobs. It’s something much different than that.”
He’s likely referring to the fact that he’s throwing all conventional film structure techniques out the window. For those who don’t know, Sorkin plans to tell the story in just three scenes, which take place in real time and are set backstage before the product launches of the Mac, NeXT and iPod. It’s certainly an interesting way to tell a story and will surely help set the film apart from traditional biopics.
Though some may be skeptical of the unconventional method, Sorkin seems excited and satisfied with the approach he’s taken, saying:
“[Steve Jobs was] a fascinating guy, surrounded by fascinating people, and he had very interesting relationships with the people in his life…
One of the things that really excites me about Steve Jobs is, it is one of the very few times I ended up writing what I set out to write when I began. Its an incredibly satisfying feeling.”
If Sorkin’s satisfied, then I’m satisfied. The man has written some great films and TV shows, and if anyone can take this unorthodox structure and make it work, it’s him. Now let’s just hope that the Steve Jobs film lands a director and star sooner rather than later so that we can see how this all plays out.