“Aaron Sorkin has lashed out at Apple CEO Tim Cook’s recent assertion that filmmakers were being ‘opportunistic’ in making films about the late tech titan Steve Jobs,” Alex Ritman reports for The Hollywood Reporter.
“‘Nobody did this movie to get rich,’ he said. ‘Secondly, Tim Cook should really see the movie before he decides what it is,'” Ritman reports. “But Sorkin’s most stinging retort was reserved for last. ‘Third, if you’ve got a factory full of children in China assembling phones for 17 cents an hour you’ve got a lot of nerve calling someone else opportunistic.'”
Read more in the full article here.
Earlier this month, Ben Child reported for The Guardian:
Apple CEO Tim Cook has described recent attempts to immortalise the late technology guru Steve Jobs on the big screen as “opportunistic” during a high-profile interview on US television.
Speaking on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Cook said he did not recognise what the host described as ‘unflattering’ portraits of his predecessor in the forthcoming Danny Boyle biopic “Steve Jobs,” nor the documentary “Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine,” which is due for a limited release in US cinemas this weekend and hit online formats earlier this month.
“The Steve I knew was an amazing human being. He’s someone that you wanted to do your best work for,” said Cook. “He had this uncanny ability to see around the corner and describe the future – not an evolutionary future but a revolutionary future.”
Cook said he had not seen either movie, but added: “He was a joy to work with and I love him dearly, I miss him every day. I think that a lot of people are trying to be opportunistic and I hate that, it’s not a great part of our world.”
MacDailyNews Take: Sorkin should produce Apple’s factory in China filled with children assembling iPhones for 17-cents an hour.
Since he can’t, as it doesn’t exist, then Apple should sue Sorkin into a tiny puddle of paste for defamation. Make a nice little example of him.
Before throwing out defamatory statements, is Sorkin completely sure that Cook was including his Steve Jobs is amongst the opportunistic dreck like Alex Gibney’s piece of shit and Yukari Iwatani Kane’s awful hit-piece?
SEE ALSO:
Tim Cook talks 3D Touch iPhones, philanthropy, coming out as gay on Late Show with Stephen Colbert – September 16, 2015
Eddy Cue: New Steve Jobs doc is ‘inaccurate and mean-spirited’ – March 16, 2015
The Hollywood Reporter reviews ‘Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine’ doc: Unnecessary – March 16, 2015
Back on mushrooms?
If not then maybe he should be…
Only if they’re Fair Trade.
MacDailyNews might be. They sure got spun up. Dude, I’m with you on the Take, except for the foul language. Not appropriate for a professional, please cease and desist.
Oh, please. Go fuck yourself, pollyanna.
The “17 cents an hour” phrase is hyperbole; not defamation.
The true wage is about $1.50 per hour but the point hits the nail on the head.
It is patently untrue. Apple doesn’t have any factory in China, much less one “full of children” making “17 cents an hour.”
Sue him until he can’t breath, Apple!!!
If Sorkin makes a film about Tim Cook it is likely not to be complimentary, artistic license and all that. It would be quite easy for Sorkin to link Apple with underpaid and overworked employees in China. Therefore, Cook should refrain from pissing off Sorkin if Cook knows what is is his and Apple’s best interest.
Cuba is right next to the USA
the average pay in Cuba is 11 cents an hour
which means that the chinese factory worker at 1.50 (your numbers) is filthy rich COMPARATIVELY. (I can use comparatively as well as you guys compare Chinese Wages with USA).
Article 2014:
“Cuban salary equates to only about $20 per month. Starting with this figure, we can work out, that based on a worker working 9 hours per day, 5 days per week and 4 weeks per month, (total 180 hours), that the average hourly salary is about 11 cents per hour.”
—–
Cuban workers will line up for 1.50 an hour.
In two days A chinese will earn as much as A Cuban in a month.
Besides demonstrating your racist opinion, what the hell is your point?
dmz
why is my post racist?
My point
(which everybody with half a brain gets but obviously excludes you)
is that comparing Chinese wages and implying it’s ‘underpaid’ while using the standard as USA or Europe is a distortion as bad as comparing it to Cuba where the wages is 11 cents,
Maybe you’ll like to point out WHERE in my post am I racist?
For all you know I’m a Cuban American? (Many Cuban Americans are the ones most vocal against political and living standards in Cuba).
The Guardian:
“Miami is no stranger to protests from the Cuban community.
protesters gathered Saturday in a Little Havana park in a show of opposition to the president’s plan to normalise relations with Cuba.”
——-
BTW Apple is one of the few companies trying to BRING BACK JOBS to the USA like the Mac Pro factory. The owners of the Sapphire Factory screwed apple otherwise Apple will also be making glass in USA. Not to mention they are opening research centres in several places in USA and Europe.
I was apparently writing my response at the same time you were writing yours. DMZ’s racist accusation is the sad reality of today’s discussion and debate. There ALWAYS has to be an ugly ulterior motive for making a statement or judgement. Empirical facts go over the heads of this type. They already have all the answers, and facts just get in the way.
thanks for you reply.
You have a measure response to DMZ below.
I had no desire in my original post to get into a ‘political’ debate just wanted to talk ‘wages’ .
(how could I have compared wages if I didn’t name countries? If I said Burma or Somalia etc wouldn’t I have got the same criticisms?)
BTW From my personal experience several of my wife’s friends have visited Cuba and love it.
Nothing you said is racist. It should be standard procedure at this point, the minute someone accuses you of racism, they should be regarded as inconsequential and not worth your time.
It escapes me how Davewrite’s comment was racist. Please explain.
Also, his point is this: Sorkin’s jab is illogical in the sense that rate of pay in China is relative to their economy, and not comparable to that of a 1st World Hollywood director. If China’s labor rates were the same as those in the US, China wouldn’t have those jobs at all. China’s growth to an industrial powerhouse, with a growing middle and upper class. Not unlike the US in the 19th & 20th centuries. And as low as China’s pay seems to our experience, it’s not anywhere near the worst in the world. Davewrite appears to be simply providing a relevant comparison.
Sorkin’s jab is a non-sensical, knee-jerk reaction akin to retorting, “Yeah?… well, you’re mother wears army boots!” It shows Sorkin to be infantile.
racist opinion
Is that your standard knee-jerk reaction to anything you don’t want to believe, snowflake?
Davewrite didn’t mention race at all.
-jcr
Mexico is also super cheap.
It was closer to $3 / hour back in 2012. I’m very sure it’s more than that now.
Looks like it varied from 0.5/hr to $3 per hour with the average slightly less than $2 per hour.
What constitutes a good wage in these areas though?
Sorkin is an ass.
from the first trailer of the movie (before they revamped it) it shows that he doesn’t bother with the truth but sensationalism like the false ‘Apple Stole the GUI’ remark.
Sorkin latest assertion of ‘children’ working is also patently wrong but I have no doubt he knows this but just wants to engage T.C in a pissing match TO GET PUBLICITY FOR HIS MOVIE. He’s willing to lie, besmirch Jobs and Apple and hurt thousands of Apple employees and apple investors to further his own ends (and he’s a millionaire already), that’s lowest of the low.
btw if anybody watched the Colbert show the person would have seen that T.C was so polite and mild mannered on it.
Anyone who believes “Apple Stole the GUI” has proved that they never saw or used a Xerox Alto. It centered its GUI metaphor on the concept of showing and manipulating a document. Apple chose not to adopt this approach. Both used Doug Engelbart’s brilliant invention of the mouse and rejected his idea of a second chording device to issue commands.
Besides, Xerox had an investment in Apple, which they later cashed-out for a nice profit. And Apple modified the Xerox GUI with Xerox’s approval.
The Apple “GUI theft” and “tried to patent round corners” notions are perpetrated by those trying to debase Apple, but don’t know the truth and don’t seem to really care about the truth, either, as far as I can see. Because the true information is available to anyone who really wants to know.
I remember playing Playstation’s,
“Grand Theft GUI”.
It wasn’t very realistic either.
Proximity is opportunity.
A set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something.
Sorkin is a typical Dem/Lib/Prog/Socialist. He read something somewhere about this, so now he’s an expert who knows it all.
This is so typical it’s laughable.
“He read something somewhere about this, so now he’s an expert who knows it all.”
Gee…for a moment I thought you were describing people who watch Fox News…my bad.
Dickhead!!!
Kind of like Donald Trump or all those other faceless Republican *ahem* frontrunners *ahem* then?
Did you just fart or does nothing intelligent ever come out of your brain?
Sorkin is employing the “ad misericordiam” liberal fallacy: This argument must be valid because there is suffering.
Liberal: We feel sorry for illegal immigrants (future Democrat voters), therefore we should reward them for breaking into our country by adding 15 million foreign criminals to our already bankrupt welfare system, so they can overrun our school systems, crowd our prisons, bottom out our wages, and march down our streets with their flags, demanding that we speak their language.
Thinking Adult: That’s an “ad misericordiam” fallacy. Pity in no way justifies compromising public safety, destroying the economy, or abandoning the rule of law.
There are no “typical Dem/Lib/Prog/Socialists” any more than saying that Ted Cruz is a typical Republican.
How about cutting the political baiting and talk about facts instead of hyperbole?
I post with my real name so I can be held responsible for my comments. How about showing yours?
He’s like one of those whack jobs with sandwich boards on the street corner except his message is sounding more and more desperate.
Sorkins Defensive insecure attack tells me that the movie has nothing going for it and is cheesy/corny …..as the trailers show..
He shot himself in the foot by this stupid remarks !
It’s very easy to critizice when one has not been in the shoes of people without any other chance to make their life better.
I don’t advocate illegal immigration. I’m very much against it. But truth is, the American Immigration system gives foreigns pretty much no way to stay legally in the U.S.
Because, while nobody likes illegal immigration, a lot of people asks “why can’t people come in legally?”
The answer is, because there’s no rational way to make it happen. Not all illegal immigrants are criminals, rest assure the 15 millions you mention. Most of them simply don’t have a way to change their status, but returning to their home countries is a worse alternative that living illegally in the USA.
I’ve been a lega immigrant. I entered the USA with a L-1 visa, and then was hired with an H1-B visa. I lived in California for 7 years, legally. I paid my taxes, I never committed a crime, I made great friends, a good living, in a nutshell, a life in the USA. I was perfectly happy there.
After 7 years, when my visa expired, I was left with 2 options: Stay illegally or pack and return to my country, and start from zero.
I decided to to break the law. I packed and started from zero. It was an awful experience. I was depressed from a long time. I tried, for 7 years, to find a way to stay legally. As I said, I did everything to be a model citizen, everything the country would expect from a citizen.
In the end, none of that was worth jack for the system.
So, no, I’m not for illegal immigration. I’m also not for kicking out those immigrants who can do for the country, love the USA, and are worth staying. The same way most of the current American forefathers did.
My opinion should be: If a person:
1. Entered the country legally, and stayed legal for 5 years
2. Paid his/her taxes
3. Has no criminal record
then, residency should be granted. If after, let’s say, 10 years of residency, they continue in good behavior, then naturalization should be allowed.
In that case, illegal immigration would have no excuse. The way the law works today? Those people have no alternative.
While this is a valid explanation of your immigration viewpoint, that I may or may not agree with, how does this soapbox speech pertain to Sorkin’s movie and whether or not he is opportunistic?
Steve was a big person and a bigger than life personality and deserves attention in movies-books, he changed the world with his drive and vision. since he was bigger then life those books n movies deserve scrutiny.
Now I have a great excuse NOT to see his fucking movies. Tim Cook is entitled to his opinion and Aaron Sorkin needs to grow the hell up and learn to take criticism. What a total shit bag!
Sorry Mr. Sorkin, but you’re a willful LIAR:
Third, if you’ve got a factory full of children in China assembling phones for 17 cents an hour you’ve got a lot of nerve calling someone else opportunistic.
Not that I’ve ever approved of Apple being involved with China. Exactly the opposite. But Sorkin could ONLY know full well this was utter bullshit. What an asinine statement, pointing out his desperation.
Knee-jerk reactions.
It’s commonplace to see them flying around celebrity-land like spit wads, especially when leaked by gossip rags like The Hollywood Reporter. The same may be said of political situations. I guess there’s no real reason why tech-oriented folk should be any less spring-loaded than celebs or politicos and their followers — although in my younger days I believed we were more dispassionate because of the logical basis of technology. I was wrong: cults are everywhere.
It’s a fact that apple uses premises that are in general labour violations to manufacture some of their products, they are culpable even though they don’t any factories. Tim Cook statements is childish at best. Apple is not a fair player nor is Tim Cook, Apple is a business so they should drop the holier than thou attitude.
The movie is based on the official biography so that’s it, I don’t think it is any going to shed any new light on Steve jobs than what pirates of Silicon Valley showed us.
Apple is a customer of the factories not the owner.
If I eat at a McDonald’s and the manager there is nasty to his staff I’m “culpable” as well? seriously?
In spite of this Apple audits the factories and terminates contractors who continually violate Apples code of conduct it.
Also: “The movie is based on the official biography “, WTF does that mean when Woz who was official consultant said many of the scenes and conversations were made up and never happened including some of his supposed conversation with Jobs. (BTW for the most of the show Woz the official consultant has no clue as the last product he seriously worked on was the Apple ll decades ago)
Isaacson’s bio might be ‘official’ but Jobs never read it or signed off on the final version (came out after his death). Also a bio even if factually correct (which the book wasn’t, numerous tech details have been shown to be wrong) it can be DISTORTED. If I wrote a bio of General / president Grant and spent 90% of it on his drunkedness and the battles he LOST instead of his victories it’ll be factually correct and STILL WRONG (as in distorted) . Numerous people who knew Jobs including his close friends have panned Isaacson’s book as a distortion.
Dear Mr Sorkin,
Please show respect for Mr Cook, who was hand-selected by Steve Jobs as his replacement.
Between Aaron Sorkin and Tim Cook …I will believe Tim Cook, any day !
Go Apple !
Sorkin is wrong in everything he pushes in his obnoxious political TV shows and he is wrong in this. Sorkin is a dunce.
Apple does not have factories.
In China, the effect of Apple via Foxconn, is huge employment, which China desperately needs given its population, and an upward pressure on wages and conditions, since Apple provides Foxconn with significant money for wages and benefits. It should be noted – China is a communist country not because of Steve Jobs or Tim Cook. They chose this awful economic system a long time ago. It should be noted – Aaron Sorkin and his political ilk very much admire communist systems and those politicians who push that ideology. Sorkin mocks American free market capitalism and limited government, which is the reason for America’s wealth of which he is a benefactor. Sorkin would have America become more like China with most people making next to nothing. That is the effect of Sorkin’s political worldview. He should do some introspection before criticizing.
People have thrown out so many false accusations about Apple through the years, another about China factories is not surprising but I agree. If one of these idiots was sued for false accusations it might set an example to the others. Because unfortunately, some fools believe this shit thrown out by these nut cases.