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Sony Pictures acquires rights to Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs bio for major feature film

Friday, October 7, 2011 · 7:22 pm · 30 Comments

“I’ve just learned that Sony Pictures is making a hefty deal to acquire feature rights to Steve Jobs, the upcoming authorized biography by former CNN chairman and Time Magazine managing editor Walter Isaacson,” Mike Fleming reports for Deadline.

“I’m hearing the deal is $1 million against $3 million and that Mark Gordon will be the biopic’s producer,” Fleming reports. “But this will be an MG360 project, which is the movie production partnership between Gordon and Management 360. ICM reps both Isaacson and Gordon. Sony Pictures would not comment.”

Fleming reports, “The studio seems a good fit for the book, having boiled business books into compelling dramas with both the Oscar-nominated The Social Network and Moneyball.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: That’ll be one opening night we will not miss!

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Deus Ex Technica" for the heads up.]

Categories: News

Tags: Apple Inc., Mark Gordon, Movie Deal, Sony Pictures, steve jobs, Steve Jobs biography, Walter Isaacson

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Comment Feed

30 Comments

MacDude

Friday, October 7, 2011 - 7:26 pm · Reply

I know it’s been done before, but hopefully they’ll consider Noah Wylie (sp?) for the role of Jobs.
- KenC
  
  Friday, October 7, 2011 - 8:05 pm · Reply
  
  Much too soft to play Steve.
  - jim
    
    Friday, October 7, 2011 - 10:00 pm · Reply
    
    And who is playing woz
    - Pocketrash
      
      Saturday, October 8, 2011 - 12:25 am · Reply
      
      Chewbacca
  - auramac
    
    Friday, October 7, 2011 - 10:10 pm · Reply
    
    He played him before (“Pirates of Silicon Valley”), and did such a great job I became addicted to “ER” for the rest of its run.
R2

Friday, October 7, 2011 - 7:26 pm · Reply

Christian Bale would be a wonderful choice to play Jobs. I really can’t think of anyone else.
- MacDude
  
  Friday, October 7, 2011 - 7:43 pm · Reply
  
  Watch Pirates of Silicone Valley.
  - Bernard Flaptool III
    
    Friday, October 7, 2011 - 8:22 pm · Reply
    
    Uh, dude, Pirates of Silicone Valley was a drama about plastic surgeons who perform breast augmentation. You’re confusing that with Pirates of Silicon Valley, which of course was about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Two very different stories, each entertaining in its own way.
    - billyjackblack
      
      Friday, October 7, 2011 - 8:43 pm · Reply
      
      LMAO. Pirates of Silicone Valley was also XXX, like Oral Co.
      - qka
        
        Saturday, October 8, 2011 - 11:26 am · Reply
        
        Was there an XXX about Microsoft?
- KenC
  
  Friday, October 7, 2011 - 8:07 pm · Reply
  
  Agreed.
- billyjackblack
  
  Friday, October 7, 2011 - 8:46 pm · Reply
  
  Good choice. He’ll just have to get down to Machinist-like weight again to play Steve’s last days.
Jon1234

Friday, October 7, 2011 - 7:31 pm · Reply

Sucks that it’s Sony.
DMac

Friday, October 7, 2011 - 7:35 pm · Reply

Pixar should make it. Or a Disney live-action feature film. But I still think Pixar!!
- _Bill_
  
  Friday, October 7, 2011 - 9:35 pm · Reply
  
  That’s a really interesting idea, but I don’t know that people would take animation as a serious drama. Although, Up! and Toy Story had some parts that were meant to be serious, and that worked-out well. Final Fantasy was a serious / action movie.
  
  Let’s see Pixar’s take on Phil Schiller.
  - Pocketrash
    
    Saturday, October 8, 2011 - 12:43 am · Reply
    
    Ah yes, but Pixar is entering into the live action feature business as we speak. Rumor has it that “The Adventures of John Carter on Mars” will be live action. The script is by Andrew Staunton, who also wrote “Finding Nemo,” “Toy Story 2,” and “A Bug’s Life.”
    
    “1906″ is also a live action film by Brad Bird about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake which in development.
    
    So, yeah, I would love to see Pixar make the film as they would certainly capture the spirit of Steve. Truthfully, they are the only studio that consistently turns out movies with any heart.
R

Friday, October 7, 2011 - 7:37 pm · Reply

I think that we should all expect that Jobs is going to be elevated to something impossibly lofty over time, or after the shock fades into the distance, he will be reviled so that some of the current mediocrity can elbow in for some power.

If this movie is done within the fairly near future, it’ll try to show him as a person, I’d bet. But Steve was the stuff of legend. And so here’s the danger: a new reality distortion field where everyone suddenly claims to understand him because he thought just like they do. Yeah, right.

In some ways, we geeks are the keepers of the tale. Let it remain real.
Hegehog

Friday, October 7, 2011 - 7:41 pm · Reply

Most, if not all, biopics invent or exaggerate characters or situations for dramatic effect. I reckon the biography of Jobs could be made entirely without any of these inventions and based purely on fact, and would be utterly riveting from start to finish.
- derss
  
  Saturday, October 8, 2011 - 3:38 am · Reply
  
  Yes, I am afraid that Jobs would hate the loss of details or the changes for “dramatic effect”, which are inevitable when fitting something in the two-hour film.
  
  If this would be televisions series, then the details could be true, but this would not make statement as big as cinematic film.
rolf

Friday, October 7, 2011 - 8:01 pm · Reply

lord help us.
iSteve story by studio who did what? The Social Network & Moneyball?! 2 sucking films.

i still don’t get the FB film at all. bad acting. crap story @ an asocial egomaniac. oscar?! for what?

Disney/Pixar’s better choice. or someone serious with cojones as big as Steve, who fears not political correctness, but lives life by taking it by the ball.

nothing less is worthy of iGod.

please, Social Network?! puke.
Can't Wait!

Friday, October 7, 2011 - 8:06 pm · Reply

With Nicolas Cage as Steve!!! “BILL GATES!!! YOU STOLE MY OS!! TIME TO DIIEEEE!! (cut to a shocked Bill as Steve pounces him in slow motion and starts to beat his face, they struggle and roll down a Mac assembly line with explosions going off in the background…) Oh please god, please let Michael Bay direct!! I can’t wait!!
Jo

Friday, October 7, 2011 - 8:40 pm · Reply

I hope it’s artfully and tastefully done, Steve Jobs deserves no less.

As long as M. Night Shyamalan isn’t picked as director, I think it has a chance of being successful.
RC Copeland

Saturday, October 8, 2011 - 12:01 am · Reply

Vultures
Mr. Grumpy

Saturday, October 8, 2011 - 12:38 am · Reply

Ashton Krutcher looks the part for Steve Jobs. He has that 70s vibe for the character. He should be free after they cancel Two and Half Men.
HUYA™

Saturday, October 8, 2011 - 12:42 am · Reply

Pixar should do an animated feature! And in keeping with their tendency for one word titles just call it:
JOBS
Simon

Saturday, October 8, 2011 - 12:50 am · Reply

I hope it’s Stanley Tucci for the later years, great actor and even looks likes jobs in this photo from imdb.. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001804/
disposableidentity

Saturday, October 8, 2011 - 1:16 am · Reply

It would make a great film, picking up where Pirates left off. Although I suspect they’ want the full arc in this new film.

I’m still waiting for The Aviator Part II.
SteveJobsBio.com

Saturday, October 8, 2011 - 4:17 am · Reply

It’s planned to be produced by Mark Gordon.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0330428/

Seen his track record….. it’s gonna be a piece of s**t
Jubei

Saturday, October 8, 2011 - 7:34 am · Reply

If they do this they better do it freaking right. No more giving credit to MS and the BS Apple copied XEROX. No more MS bailed out Apple crap. Do it right or don’t do it at all.
- rolf
  
  Saturday, October 8, 2011 - 10:16 am · Reply
  
  Jubei: you’re so right.
  
  so many people are angry that iSteve gets the credit when Apple never invented anything they say…
  
  they are just jealous! suffer from Stockholm Syndrome.
  all these screamers can shout all they want, but the simple answer remains: don’t bitch, do it better, then talk!
  
  the funny thing about Inventions:
  who the F’ cares who invents things 1st?!
  what matters is what you do with it!
  the irony @ Xerox Parc: they invented the Mouse/GUI/Laser etc. they started their R&D 1970. 1979 they chose to license their inventions. yes, as they were nerds with no clue as to what to do with their inventions. the reason Apple/Jobs is so successful, is simply because unlike any other firms, they always know how to make the most complex into the simplest & most ubiquitous. just like ancient Greek philosophers – it takes much time, thinking & talent to derive to perfected solutions.
  
  it is easy to invent, it’s much harder to be practical.
  
  it’s not just Xerox. Microsoft. the other f’n firm these people hail, invented nothing, at least of value, over 30 years. yet they hired for over 20 years, the world’s 100 smartest scientists, each with over $1M salary + bonus. they invented nothing practical!!
  
  it’s not the size, muscle, power, $…Apple was small when it invented most of its stuff. it’s a matter of detail, talent, creativity, naturalness, generosity, love, appreciation, respect, integration, synergy, craziness, determination, will, perfectionism, hard work, accomplishment etc – too many qualities for anyone else to compete!
  
  as for SmartPhones:
  moto/nokia/rimmjob were 1st. so what. until mid 2007 iPhone they were mere DumbPhones.
  
  as for MP3 players:
  they flopped till iPod 2001-010
  
  as for Windows:
  how could MacOS have copied Windoughs?!
  MacOS 1.0 was out 1984-01-24
  Win 1.0 1985-11-20) (21 months after later!)
  
  as for PDA:
  it was not Palm 1 Taxi! (1996). it was the Apple Newton (1994-04)
  
  as for AppleTV:
  yes, it came out 2007-01, after Tivo (1999-03) but Apple’s Bandai Pippin was out 4 years before (1995-03)
  
  as for USB:
  Apple did not invent it. it was invented by Wintel (1996-01) but Apple made it ubiquitous again! (starting with iMac 1 (1998-08); USB 2.0 arrived 2000-04
  
  screw USB: 2011-05 Apple/Intel created Thunderbolt! over 10x faster/more flexible
  
  one can go on & on: Apple/Jobs redefine. they never look back. they never cry over spilled milk. they Just Do It (Nike). they just Think Different (Apple). they just Lead, Don’t Follow (Audi). they don’t abuse the public who pay for shitty firms to exist, whilst Apple respects their clients and has the #1 support system worldwide.
  
  another thing.
  do those assholes who think Apple stinks, ever think?
  how is it possible, that Apple, with no experience in cellular tech, came so late into the game & ridiculed all the manufacturers & service providers?!
  if you think it’s just because of luck or packaging or plastics or that there’s nothing inside Apple’s iDevices, you’re quite delusional.
  
  again: Apple had “0″ experience in Retail. yet they’re #1 in $/sq ft profit in any retail branch!
  
  again: Apple had “0″ experience in Game Consoles. yet iPod Touch/iPad killed the veterans in the industry, from Nintendo to Sega to Sony PS to MS XBox etc.
  
  again: Apple had “0″ experience in TV, yet AppleTV, even as just hobby – who cares – just works and gives you much more than Tivo or PS or whatever other set-top-boxes, just like iPad gives you so much more than one-dimensional Kindle or eNook. wow: Kindle has no screen glare – they even make an ad out of that high-tech featurette!! buy an anti-glare sheet for iPad – solved! plus you benefit from so much more. anyway, don’t like it, shut up, just like tv channels you can switch or switch off; the fact is: iPad is the hottest selling electronics ever, and the new iPhone4S beat that!! in 1st 12 hours 200,000 units!
  
  so, if the cinema studio creates the Jobsian film, they better STFU & give credit where it counts!
  
  amen!