Aaron Sorkin may direct Steve Jobs biopic

23 Nov 2011

The screen-play writer of the Oscar award-winning movie The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin, is reading Walter Isacsson’s biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs with a view to bringing the story to the big screen.

It is understood that Sony last month paid US$1m to option the biography for a potential movie.

According to E! Online, Sorkin is thinking about it in stages. “It’s going to be a really big movie and it’s going to be a great movie, no matter who writes it.”

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

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.

Until now, the only film that has attempted Jobs’ story in film was the 1999 made-for-TV film Pirates of Silicon Valley, starring Noah Wyle, which told the story as far as 1997, when Jobs returned to Apple and Microsoft made an investment in Apple.

A debate raged last week as to whether Wyle would reprise the role for a movie version or whether actor George Clooney would portray Jobs well.

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

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