If you, like most of us, cringed through the Ashton Kutcher-starring Jobs, there’s hope. The second attempt, titled Steve Jobs, has Michael Fassbender in the role of the Apple genius, Danny Boyle calling the shots and Aaron Sorkin penning the screenplay. The official theatrical trailer is out. From the looks of it, you don’t have to associate Ashton Kutcher with Steve Jobs anymore.
The trailer plays like one long Sorkin-esque reproach of the demanding and arrogant Jobs, with criticism levied by colleagues (Steve Wozniak, played by Seth Rogen, and Joanna Hoffman, played by Kate Winslet), executives (John Sculley, played by Jeff Daniels) and his ex-girlfriend Chrisann Brennan (Katherine Waterston). Fassbender’s performance, particularly, gets you hooked from the beginning. The film is set during three key Apple product launches: the Macintosh in 1984, NeXT in 1988 and the tastiest computer known to man, the iMac, in 1998.
Though the film will be released two years after Jobs, Sony Pictures acquired the rights to the biography roughly a year before production began on the first film. But then Sony pulled out and Universal took over. Jobs, panned both by critics and fans, bombed, as it focused too much on Apple instead of Steve Jobs. Even Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak had criticised Kutcher’s portrayal of the late Apple founder and claimed that it contains inaccuracies.
Steve Jobs is based on Walter Isaacson’s biography. It also includes insights from Job’s estranged daughter Lisa Brennan-Jobs, who also worked on the screenplay. Sorkin describes her as ‘the heroine of the movie.’ He explained in an interview with The Independent that what drew him to the Jobs story was “the relationships he had – particularly with his daughter, Lisa”.
The movie is slated to release on October 9th.
