Apple fans and movie fans alike were skeptical of the new Steve Jobs biopic when Ashton Kutcher was announced to be playing the title role in Jobs. Since that time, pictures from the set have reassured everyone that Kutcher can be made up to look like Jobs’ doppelganger. The “>first trailer for the flick last month also showed that Kutcher can capture Jobs’ famously abrasive personality.
This week, a second trailer for Jobs has been released. It’s a bit more fast-paced than the first one and shows off Kutcher’s angry side as Steve Jobs:
For those wondering: that music from the first portion of the video is Macklemore’s “Cant Hold Us.”
The movie was originally scheduled to be released in April, but was delayed at the last moment for “additional marketing.” The movie is now scheduled for a wide release in the U.S. on August 16.
At least that’s the target according to makers Five Star Feature Films. They’ve also announced a distribution partner.
Open Road Films, an independent distribution company founded in 2011, will get the honors of releasing the new film. Open Road is the product of a partnership between AMC Entertainment and Regal Entertainment Group. They’re the distributors behind The Grey, End of Watch, Silent Hill: Revelation 3D, Killer Elite, and the upcoming adaptation of The Host.
“We set out to find the perfect partners to present jOBS to audiences worldwide, and we feel we have found one with Open Road. They were as impressed as we were with Ashton Kutcher’s inspiring and unforgettable performance as Steve Jobs and are excited to distribute the picture in the U.S,” said Five Star Feature Films’ Mark Hulme.
Here’s what they have to say about the structure of the film:
jOBS details the major moments and defining characters that influenced Steve Jobs on a daily basis from 1971 through 2000. jOBS plunges into the depths of his character, creating an intense dialogue-driven story that is as much a sweeping epic as it is an immensely personal portrait of Steve Jobs’ life. The filmmakers were granted unprecedented access during shooting to the historic garage in Palo Alto, that served as the birthplace to Apple Inc.
jOBS stars Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs, as well as Dermot Mulroney, Josh Gad, Lukas Haas, J.K. Simmons and Matthew Modine. It’s helmed by Joshua Michael Stern, who brought you the 2008 political comedy Swing Vote. As you may know, there’s another Steve Jobs biopic in the pipeline. It’s a Sony production and is based on the Walter Isaacson bestseller Steve Jobs. Some guy named Aaron Sorkin is penning that screenplay.
Back in May we learned that Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing, The Newsroom and screenwriter of The Social Networkwould be the one to pen Sony Pictures’ Steve Jobs biopic, based (closely or loosely, we’re not sure) on Walter Isaacson’s bestseller Steve Jobs. And ever since, we’ve been filling in the puzzle with pieces directly from Sorkin himself, whenever he decides to speak about the upcoming project.
Today, we learn another interesting detail about the upcoming film. Speaking at Newsweek/The Daily Beast’s Hero Summit, Sorkin tipped the exact structure of the film. Apparently, it will be divided up into three 30-minute scenes, each taking place backstage before one of Apple’s famous product launches.
A couple of things: First, that would suggest that the film is only going to be about 90-minutes long. Second, it looks like we’re in for a flashback-heavy movie it appears that the film will take place in real time.
Sorkin has previously said that his film was going to stray from the traditional “cradle-to-grave” structure of most biopics and he was instead “going to identify the point of friction that appeals to [him] and dramatize that.”
He also knows that writing a biopic about a figure as iconic as Jobs has its pitfalls. He previously likened it to writing about The Beatles, saying that so many people already have strong opinions about Jobs, he has to be careful to navigate the “minefield of disappointment.”
On Monday, the much-anticipated Steve Jobs biography, the simply titled Steve Jobs, hit the bookshelves. As was expected, it’s been a hit so far and has rocketed up to the top spot on Amazon’s bestseller list. The interview with author Walter Isaacson that aired on 60 Minutes Sunday night grabbed impressive ratings, and the video of that interview was one of the most sought-after items on the web yesterday.
The point of all that is to say that people are incredibly interested in an in-depth, candid look at a man that led a life of relative privacy. And if you go by the early reviews (most of which are quite good), it looks like Isaacson delivers on that promise.
They say Sorkin is being courted by Sony to throw his pen behind the upcoming biopic, a move that is exciting if not completely unsurprising. Sorkin is one of Hollywood’s best writers, as is evidenced by his work on The West Wing, Sports Night, The American President and the recent Moneyball. And of course, he has a history writing movies about the tech world.
His Oscar-winning script for 2010’s The Social Network tackled Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, another highly complex giant of the industry.
But he did know Steve Jobs, which always complicates matters. And it’s entirely possible that he won’t want to dive into another Silicon Valley project. But considering the success of The Social Network, one can’t help wondering what Sorkin could do with the Steve Jobs character.
For a look at some of his best work, here’s a well-written scene from the all around well-written The Social Network:
What do you think? Would Sorkin be a good fit for the Steve Jobs biopic? Let us know in the comments.
