“The first movie about Apple’s legendary co-founder got a warm reception at its world premiere on Friday, just 15 months after Steve Jobs’ death,” Piya Sinha-Roy reports for Reuters. “‘jOBS,’ starring ‘Two and a Half Men’ actor Ashton Kutcher as the tech and computer entrepreneur who revolutionized the way people listen to music and built Apple Inc into an international powerhouse, got a red carpet roll-out at the Sundance Film Festival ahead of hitting U.S. theaters on April 19.”
Sinha-Roy reports, “Hours before the screening, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said the movie appeared to misrepresent aspects of both his own and Jobs’ personalities and their early vision for the company. Wozniak was commenting after seeing a brief clip of an early scene that was released online on Thursday. ‘Totally wrong… The ideas of computers affecting society did not come from Jobs,’ Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with Jobs and Ronald Wayne in a California garage in 1976, told technology blog Gizmodo.com… ‘Book of Mormon’ star Josh Gad, who plays Wozniak, told Reuters on Friday’s red carpet that the filmmakers had tried to reach out to him to get his input on “jOBS,” but that Wozniak was ‘participating in another project about Steve Jobs.’ Wozniak is tied to a movie based on Walter Isaacson’s official biography ‘Steve Jobs,’ being developed by screen writer Aaron Sorkin of ‘The West Wing’ and ‘The Social Network’ fame. No release date or casting has been announced.”
“The audience on Friday warmly applauded the film following the screening,” Sinha-Roy reports. “Kutcher said he hoped Wozniak would look more kindly on the movie when he had seen the whole two hours. ‘I hope that when he sees the film, he feels that he was portrayed accurately, that the film accurately represents who he was and how he was, and more importantly, inspires people to go and build things,’ he said.”
Read more in the full article here.
The Woz had nothing good to say about the film. I respect his opinion and historical critique more than Hollywood’s distorted and fallacious representation of Steve Jobs.
Ashton Kucher as Steve Jobs is the real reason the stock has dropped 40% since this project was announced!
+∞!
Many a young actor (e.g. Tom Hanks, Sean Penn) has done silly crap (Bosom Buddies, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, respectively) on their way to becoming respected actors and winning accolades (both have won 2 Oscars).
Maybe Ashton Kutcher thought this was his big break, and would get him away from winning Razzies and Kids’ Choice Awards.
Well, let’s see what we have here. Woz says he is working on another “Jobs” project and could offer no help. Woz saw a 2 minute clip and said it was “totally wrong”. So from this we get, the film is totally wrong. That Woz is the only source of information. That other people and books written about the situation have no value at all. And we may have a conflict of interest here between two movie projects. Keep in mind that Woz did not like the early years in the latest Steve Jobs book either and this came from Steve Jobs himself. The problem for us as the public is that we will never know. Let’s see what Woz’s other project is and what differences there are. There seems to be a little self promotion here and heaven forbid that Woz would do that.
In other words, if Woz is attached to the other project, it would be his obligation NOT to praise a competing offering. It is like working at Apple and saying Galaxy III is a great phone.
So, at the end of the day, we still don’t know anything about this film, other than what people who saw the WHOLE of it are saying.
Wrong.
When Woz comments, it’s an actual opinion. And he gets bashed for it. He praised the Windows phone (he got bashed). He said he doesn’t dislike Android (bashed again).
Woz loves technology. And he gives his opinion regardless… let’s say.. religion. A lot of Mac fans (and I’m a Mac fan) think an Apple member can’t say anything good about a competitor’s product. Well, not Woz. And nobody is more attached to Apple as Woz. He is the father of it. He has more attachment to Apple than any movie out there.
So, do you really think “being attached to another film” would have anything to do with Woz’s opinion?
I saw the first 2 minutes as well. What I saw was total crap. And I agree 100% with Woz.
I don’t think you are right.
If Woz has financial, as well as business (i.e. contractual) ties to the other film project, it is more than likely that he would be expected to talk about the competing project in a negative way. I doubt that specific language to that effect has been put in his contract, but anyone with just most basic business sense would likely do that; even Woz.
I don’t doubt that Woz doesn’t think much of the film. But being contractually tied to the other project makes his opinion extremely tainted and significantly less believable.
Hardly warm:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/jan/28/sundance-festival-jobs-first-look-review
I find it hard to respect Woz’s opinion much since he is “tied” to a competing film and plugs his book every chance he gets. Reeks more of marketing then genuine concern. To paraphrase Jobs – he has no class. Why bother saying anything? Let the film he is tied to or his book speak for themselves.