“Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak has given his first in-depth interview about the forthcoming Steve Jobs movie. Woz – as he’s commonly known – acted as a consultant to Danny Boyle’s film after refusing to be involved in an earlier biopic,” Leo Kelion reports for BBC News. “The movie is already being tipped for awards glory after a rough cut was shown to the public last weekend, ahead of its official premiere in October. The movie’s scriptwriter is Aaron Sorkin.”
“Some wondered what Woz would make of the new film after he expressed mixed feelings about the way its trailer showed him angrily challenging Steve Jobs to his face in its trailer,” Kelion reports. “But, as he told the BBC, he is more than satisfied with the outcome.”
I’ve actually seen two rough cuts. My impression was I was shocked and amazed at how good it was in the sense of professional filmmaking. I usually go to a movie not looking for “do I like the story” as much as: “What is the quality that came out of the heads of the people that made it?” In this case the filmmakers have done an award-winning job. The acting was just so realistic. In some prior movies, I saw [the actors] simulating Steve Jobs, but they didn’t really make me feel like I was in his head understanding what was going on inside of him – his personality. This movie absolutely accomplishes that, and it’s due to great acting, which obviously comes from great directing. — Appel co-founder Steve Wozniak
Tons more in the full interview here.
MacDailyNews Take: Best Picture.
Regarding Sorkin’s “stolen GUI” line:
For more than a decade now, I’ve listened to the debate about where the Macintosh user interface came from. Most people assume it came directly from Xerox, after Steve Jobs went to visit Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center). This “fact” is reported over and over, by people who don’t know better (and also by people who should!). Unfortunately, it just isn’t true – there are some similarities between the Apple interface and the various interfaces on Xerox systems, but the differences are substantial. — Bruce Horn, a member of the original Apple Macintosh design team and the creator of the Macintosh Finder
Read more in the full article, “On Xerox, Apple and Progress,” here.
SEE ALSO:
Woz praises ‘Steve Jobs’ accuracy: ‘I felt like I was actually watching him’ – September 8, 2015
‘Steve Jobs’ review: Michael Fassbender is stunning in breathtaking, relentless biopic – September 7, 2015
‘Steve Jobs’ biopic makers shooting for ‘a portrait rather than a photograph’ – August 28, 2015
Kate Winslet on ‘Steve Jobs’ biopic: ‘Sorkin makes it almost not about Steve Jobs at all’ – August 26, 2015
Watch Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs in new official trailer – July 1, 2015
See Michael Fassbender as ‘Steve Jobs’ in first movie trailer – May 18, 2015
Universal Pictures announces full cast of ‘Steve Jobs’ as biopic begins shooting – January 28, 2015
Filming for Steve Jobs biopic underway at Apple co-founder’s childhood home – January 17, 2015
Perla Haney-Jardine to play Lisa Jobs in Universal’s ‘Steve Jobs’ biopic – January 6, 2015
Kate Winslet eyed for female lead in ‘Steve Jobs’ biopic – December 22, 2014
Jeff Daniels eyed to play former Apple CEO John Sculley in ‘Steve Jobs’ biopic – December 9, 2014
John Sculley: Forcing Steve Jobs out of Apple was a mistake – April 18, 2014
John Sculley: I wish I told Steve Jobs ‘This is your company, let’s figure out how you can come back and be CEO’ – Septemeber 13, 2011
John Sculley: Apple’s big mistake was hiring me as CEO – October 14, 2010
Sculley: Uh, maybe I shouldn’t have fired Steve Jobs – June 7, 2010
re: MDN’s Take –
True, Apple didn’t steal from Xerox. They borrowed, tweaked, made it work, and brought it to the masses. Xerox wasn’t going to do that.
The same from just a few years ago – they didn’t invent the touch screen. But they built an OS that made it usable and brought it to the masses, while everyone around them was laughing at them for paying so much for “just a screen for a phone.”
Now everyone calls it obvious and something they would have done. Except they didn’t. Apple did. Apple made it a reality. Everyone else *is* a copycat. Period.
Not only did Apple not steal, but they did not borrow. The company paid Xerox in Apple stock.
This old ‘stolen GUI’ meme is a staple of the anti-Apple crowd. Whenever a competitor is accused of ripping off Apple, the inevitable response is that “Apple did it first.” That type of rationalization demonstrates how low this country has fallen. It is no longer a matter of integrity (don’t steal). It is no longer a matter of getting caught (fear/guilt). It has become simply a monetary equation balancing the profits achieved from theft versus the costs of litigation and a potential fine/judgment. There is no shame left and admitting guilt is an extremely rare event, no matter how obvious the crime.
Seems NO ONE gets the facts correct.
Steve saw some ex-XEROX PARC employees (software engineers if I recall correctly) at Apple playing with a GUI type interface and was very intrigued by what they were doing. They encouraged him to visit XEROX PARC and see what XEROX was doing. (NOTE: this was *before* Steve ever set foot in XEROX PARC.) Thus it is a *fact* that Apple personnel were playing with a rudimentary GUI concept *before* Steve went to XEROX PARC.
Steve went to XEROX PARC and got a more detailed demonstration of what they were doing with a GUI interface (among other things).
At some point (during the tour? shortly after he got back to Apple? No one knows) Steve came to the realization that a GUI interface was *THE* future of computing. It definitely made the computer more accessible by average people — one of Steve’s core beliefs.
Steve found out that XEROX had no intent to take their GUI public — something Steve wanted to do. So Apple (not Steve directly) negotiated a deal with XEROX to license XEROX intellectual property with regard to XEROX PARC’s GUI so that Apple could freely pull from it to develop its own GUI — remember, it was something Apple software engineers were already playing at doing.
The GUI project became a formal project within Apple, and the OS underlying it, as well as the Apple developed GUI, eventually showed up in the LISA.
So, two main things that most people don’t know (or for the anti Apple fan club, will never admit): 1) Apple engineers were playing with a GUI interface BEFORE Steve went to XEROX PARC, and 2) Apple licensed XEROX PARC’s rights to the GUI.
Yes, I’m leaving out A LOT of details, but Apple stole absolutely nothing from XEROX.
The whole issue that Apple’s GUI, even in the LISA, was radically different from, and much more user friendly than, the GUI at XEROX PARC at the time — while absolutely true — is 100% irrelevant to the basic facts related to any comment about “Apple stealing the GUI from XEROX PARC.”
Always good to have the record set straight, thanks. Too bad some myths stick so stubbornly.
I relish Malcolm Gladwell’s nice piece of journalism on the topic, here:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/05/16/creation-myth
“I remember being shown their rudimentary Graphical-User Interface, and within 10 minutes, it was obvious that every computer in the world would work this way someday. It was one of those sort of apocalyptic moments. It was as if, all of a sudden, the veil had been lifted from my eyes. I thought it was the best thing I had ever seen in my life. You could argue about the number of years it would take, and you could argue about who the winners and the losers in terms of companies in the industry might be, but I don’t think rational people could argue that every computer would work this way someday; it was so obvious once you saw it. You knew it with every bone in your body. It didn’t require tremendous intellect. It was so clear. You would’ve felt the same way if you would have been there.”
Steve Jobs Bio: The Unauthorized Autobiography