Sony Pictures confirms Aaron Sorkin to write Steve Jobs biopic

16 May 2012

Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs

Sony Pictures has confirmed that The Social Network screenwriter and West Wing director Aaron Sorkin will write the screenplay for a movie telling the life story of Apple’s Steve Jobs. The film will be entitled simply Steve Jobs.

The movie, not to be confused with an indie movie about the former Apple CEO starring Ashton Kutcher, will be based on the best-selling biography by Walter Isaacsson.

It is understood Sony paid US$1m to option the rights to the biography and convert it into a screenplay.

It first emerged last November that Sony approached Oscar-winning Sorkin to write the movie.

He said at the time: “Sony has asked me to write the movie and it’s something I’m strongly considering.”

Entrepreneur, artist, thinker

Sorkin went on to describe Jobs as “a great entrepreneur, a great artist and a great thinker.”

Sorkin was actually a close friend of Jobs and Jobs was one of the chief backers of Pixar.

In a statement, Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal said: “There is no writer working in Hollywood today who is more capable of capturing such an extraordinary life for the screen than Aaron Sorkin; in his hands, we’re confident that the film will be everything that Jobs himself was: captivating, entertaining and polarising.”

The competing indie film starring Kutcher and directed by Joshua Michael Stern has already begun filming as Kutcher was spotted walking about in full Steve Jobs regalia – turtleneck, jeans and sneakers – in recent weeks.

The Stern/Kutcher film will focus on Jobs’ transition from hippie to technology maverick, whereas the film directed by Sorkin will most likely try and tell the entire story.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com