“Michael Fassbender wasn’t Hollywood’s first choice to play Steve Jobs in the new movie about his life. Nor the second, for that matter,” Anousha Sakoui reports for Bloomberg. “Sony Corp. would even go on to sell the project to Universal Pictures after Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale passed on the role.”
“So it’s a bit surprising that even before the film opens in some U.S. theaters on Oct. 9, some gambling touts have made Fassbender, 38, the early favorite to win an Oscar for best actor.,” Sakoui reports. “His portrayal of the Apple Inc. co-founder has garnered plaudits despite some concern from critics and movie fans that the half-German, half-Irish red-head doesn’t look like Jobs, who was of Syrian descent. ”
“Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin initially backed Tom Cruise as an alternative, partly because he felt Fassbender wasn’t famous enough,” Sakoui reports. “Family members and associates of Jobs opposed the film because they didn’t like how he’s portrayed. His widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, tried to stop the picture from getting made, the Wall Street Journal reported on Oct. 4. Hacked Sony e-mails refer to her opposition and suggest she tried to dissuade actors from taking roles in the movie. Powell Jobs declined to comment, according to a spokesman, as did Sony.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’re reserving judgment until we see the flick, but a mischaracterization would be exceedingly typical of the treatment Jobs and Apple have received from the media at large throughout the years. That it would also win awards, would be predictably ironic.
SEE ALSO:
Michael Fassbender already the odds-on favorite to win an Oscar for ‘Steve Jobs’ – October 5, 2015
Steve Jobs’ widow and friends take aim at Hollywood over ‘Steve Jobs’ biopic – October 5, 2015
‘Steve Jobs’ biopic too nasty to win Best Picture award – October 2, 2015
Andy Hertzfeld: ‘Steve Jobs’ movie ‘deviates from reality everywhere’ but ‘aspires to explore and expose the deeper truths’ – October 2, 2015
Aaron Sorkin blasts Apple’s Tim Cook over ‘Steve Jobs’ critique: ‘You’ve got a lot of nerve’ – September 25, 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
My thought is “Hollywood echo chamber in action, trying to fluff up and otherwise forgettable work of fiction.”
A hit piece on Jobs getting an Oscar tells you everything that I think about the Oscars. Rubbish.
It doesn’t matter if it’s fiction regarding particular portrayals of his mercurial personality if the moments ring true to his attitudes and behaviors in real parts of his life.
Biography-ish? Biografish! Smells bad on day one.
It’s likely the film will focus on the perception many people had of him as a jerk or a tyrant, rather than on his driven quest to achieve ‘perfection’ in building the best possible software and hardware; and his continuing frustration with what he felt was placid acceptance of mediocre products in the marketplace, and why others didn’t feel the same way he did. One other articule MacDailyNews posted some time ago was an interview with someone who knew Steve well, said that Steve cared deeply about this, and painfully so. So much so that people misunderstood his dedication for arrogance. Unless this film manages to capture this sentiment, then MDN will be right again.
Yeah, gonna pass on this film and of course the Oscars that award the film.
We now know why better actors like DiCaprio, Bale and Cruise declined to touch this film, their moral principles were too strong to let them be associated with it. We also now know why Sony dropped it, and for the same reasons: this film sounds like pure mudracking sleaze, at hit Job.
Fassbender is not a lesser talented actor than those you claim are better. He’s outstanding in everything he’s done.
No one is perfect.
The man was a visionary and had an appetite for disruption through a quest for perfection.
I wonder if his greatest misjudgment of character won’t end up being Bill Gates or Eric Schmidt, but Walter Isaacson.
Very possibly so, and very good point.
Academy members I know won’t hold it against Fassbender if the material is slanted (unless it went too far and too much controversy ensues) but judge him on his performance. Personally I hope he wins just to give the others their D’OH! moment of missed possibility pause. But in my mind they should have cast a talented unknown, especially in a biopic where I don’t want to be thinking about what famous actor is playing Steve Jobs. I know it’s not industry realistic but it would have been the better call.
It would be delicious irony if Pirates of the Silicon Valley went down as the best SJ / Apple movie ever.