Jobs bio screenplay at ‘earliest possible stage’

Movie may focus on ‘point of friction’ in Jobs’ life

The screenplay for the Sony biopic based on Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography is in the “earliest possible stage,” according to Aaron Sorkin. The screenwriter was interviewed today during the ongoing D10 Conference. “What I’ll do is go through a long period that would not look to any casual observer like writing,” he remarked. Instead, his early efforts on a screenplay will “look a lot more like watching ESPN to the untrained eye.” He actually doesn’t get to putting down his research and writing in his various writing apps or know how the screenplay will even start to sound until that research has been thoroughly completed and condensed into writing he can work with.

Despite the procrastination, Sorkin commented that he isn’t doing a linear adaptation of Isaacson’s book. “Walter Isaacson wrote a terrific biography, but biographies when they’re turned into movies — and there have been some terrific ones — but it’s very difficult to shake the cradle to grave structure of a biography,” he said. “I’m instead probably going to identify the point of friction of that appeals to me, and dramatize that.”

He added that he’s had some “hesitation” while considering the screenplay. “One of the hesitations I had in taking on the movie was that it’s a little like writing The Beatles. There are so many people out there who know so much about him and who revere him. I saw a minefiled of disappointment frankly that I was going to do something and — hopefully when I’m done with my research I’ll be in the same ballpark of knowledge about Steve Jobs as so many people in this room are.”

He further cautioned that people should not take the final movie as literal truth. “All I can say at this early stage of the game is, I think any time you are at the movies and you see the words ‘the following is a true story,’ you should think of it as a painting and not a photograph. You’re going to get an authorial point of view, and there could probably be many movies about Steve Jobs, and in fact there will be two.”

Aside from the Sorkin-penned movie, a different project starring Ashton Kutcher as Jobs is in development. It should in fact start shooting next month, and will likely beat the Sorkin project to theaters.