Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011, and the tech world mourned the passing of a true legend. A few days later came news that Sony had acquired the movie rights to the Walter Isaacson biography which has since topped bestseller lists around the world. And in October it was rumored Aaron Sorkin had been approached to write the movie and was considering it.
Fast-forward a month and Sorkin has confirmed that he has been asked and is thinking about writing the screenplay to Steve Jobs. He told E! Online:
“Sony has asked me to write the movie and it’s something I’m strongly considering. Right now I’m just in the thinking-about-it stages. It’s a really big movie and it’s going to be a great movie no matter who writes it.”
“He was a great entrepreneur, he was a great artist, a great thinker. He’s probably inspired [my 11-year-old daughter] Roxy more than he’s inspired me. She plays with all his toys.”
Am I the only one who baulked at that last comment? Does Sorkin really believe the products Jobs helped create and sell were “toys?” Hundreds of millions of adults would disagree. I can only assume he had his tongue firmly embedded in his cheek at the time. If not then perhaps he isn’t the best man for the job.
The thing about Sorkin is he won’t sugarcoat anything. In the same way that The Social Network told the story of how Facebook came to be while still managing to show both sides of Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs should show that the man could be an absolute monster. Which even the book hints at.
