While we haven’t gotten many details about the Aaron Sorkin-penned screenplay based on Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography, we have previously learned that it will focus on three separate days in the life of the Apple co-founder, with each 30-minute act taking place just before a major product announcement. We also know that Michael Fassbender will star alongside Seth Rogen, Michael Stuhlbarg, Kate Winslet, Perla Haney-Jardine, and Jeff Daniels.
Today we got our hands on a copy of the screenplay (or at least a February 2014 draft of it) which reveals what many already may have already suspected based on previous reports: the three products Jobs will unveil during the biopic are the original Macintosh, the NeXT Cube, and the iMac.
The film opens with the launch of the Macintosh and a key scene in which Andy Hertzfeld and Joanna Hoffman attempt to convince Steve Jobs to cut the iconic “Hello, I am Macintosh” moment from the computer’s demo due to a voice synthesizer problem. “The first rule of a launch is nothing can crash,” Hoffman says.
That’s followed up by a humorous moment in which Jobs tries to convince his team to turn off the exit signs above the doors to totally darken the room during the event. He even offers to pay whatever fines the fire marshal imposes. “If a fire causes a stampede to the unmarked exits, it will have been worth it to those who survive,” Jobs quips.
In a private conversation between Jobs and Hoffman moments later, the executive expresses his fear that if this demo bombs, IBM will become to computers what the Bell telephone company was to phones. Jobs resigns to scrubbing the entire product launch if they can’t get the voice demo working again.
Jobs then confronts Hertzfeld, saying that he will destroy the engineer’s reputation if he doesn’t fix the voice demo:
Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to announce the names of everyone who designed the launch demo–I’m going to introduce everyone and ask them to stand up. The bag was designed by Susan Kare, the Macintosh font that’s scrolling across the screen was designed by Steve Capps, the starry night and the skywriting was Bruce Horn, MacPaint, MacWrite, Alice, down to the calculator and then I’m going to say the voice demo was designed by Andy Hertzfeld and you’re not gonna die but you’re gonna wish you did.
The second act covers the moments before the first public demo of the NeXT Cube following Steve’s exile from Apple, while the third act details the evolution of both Jobs and the earlier computers by showing us what happened before the original iMac announcement.
Steve’s daughter Lisa plays a role in all three acts, confirming earlier reports that she would be a major character. In the first act, for example, Steve insists that his decision to name a computer after his now-five-year-old daughter was merely a coincidence… right in front of her. This topic comes up again later in the film.
If you’re wondering how the film ends (spoiler warning here, obviously), the final scene features Steve reconciling with Lisa just moments before an announcer introduces Jobs to demo the iMac, followed by a hard cut to black and the end credits.
The movie hits theaters on October 9th.
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They are going to need a boatload of CGI to make Fassbinder look even remotely like Jobs, especially the younger Jobs.
I don’t see this working as a movie at all. It’s sounding like a good story, but it probably should have been a book IMO.
IMHO, in an performance, I don’t look for the actor to look “exactly like the historical figure,” instead for me it’s more of a “reasonable look” and then rely on the performance instead. Example: Patton.
George C. Scott looks absolutely NOTHING like Patton, but his performance alone drove a masterpiece of a film.
That’s fine, except this isn’t going to be a masterpiece.
“I don’t see this working as a movie at all.”
Not particularly surprising given how consistently negative you are about everything all the time.
I was an extra for the iMac demo scenes that just filmed this last weekend and i can tell you Fassbender kind of looks like Job’s. I was disheartened by this, but i will keep an open mind and see the film when it releases. Plus it is being directed by Danny Boyle and he is amazing!
You were disheartened after having seen him?
I have a feeling how viewers respond to this will depend less on their opinion of Jobs than their enjoyment of, or tolerance for, Aaron Sorkin’s writing. I don’t judge this film without seeing the finished product, but the above description includes the same tropes that Sorkin uses in every single other thing he writes — a phenomenon which has been satirized innumerable times, including a few times when Sorkin participated in poking fun at himself. For those not enamored of Sorkin, this is probably destined to provide more fuel for hate-watching, Steve Jobs or no.
Sorkin isn’t a biographer and he was the wrong choice for this movie. The Social Network was a very entertaining movie but it wasn’t close to factual. This might turn out to be a great movie, but it will be a fictionalized account of Steve Jobs at best.
Interesting concept – to do a film with only 3 major segments. Looking forward to seeing it!
So you have an alleged draft copy, from over a year ago, on a film that changed directors, screenwriters, actors, and finally the studio itself. I would take all the info in this article with big grains of salt.
Yes, the studio, actors, and director all changed. The screenwriter, however, has NOT. This has been Sorkin’s script from day one. At some point, the script was “finished” and no more major changes were made. That very well could have been as far back as February last year, though it’s likely that small changes have been made as production continues. What we end up seeing on screen will be very similar to this.
I refuse to watch any Steve Jobs film that doesn’t star Christian Bale.
Ugh. I’ve heard the story of this part of Steve’s life a billion times. Why can’t one of these biopics go up to the iPhone, or maybe the iPad?
In this case the blame likely lies with Isaacson. The Biography itself is much more detailed about the times up to the iMac than the lesser told stories of Apple after that.
When actors play Abraham Lincoln, the makeup artists make an effort to make that actor look like Abraham Lincoln. Using Fassbinder is like Oprah Winfrey playing Whitney Houston.
I’m not sure I see the analogy. Can you explain why Oprah would be a bad choice to play Whitney Houston?
I think he’s just saying even though it’s not an exact face-for-face match, the magic of movie makeup can make it a very convincing portrayal, and I’d agree with that. There have been a lot of great transformations done in the makeup chair. That being said, I’m not convinced Fassbender is one of them.
But why couldn’t Oprah Winfrey play Whitney Houston?
No one said she couldn’t.
Bryan didn’t say, “Oprah Winfrey can’t play Whitney Houston,” but he implied that it would be odd for her to do so. I’m just wondering why would it be odd? Doesn’t Oprah Winfrey look just like Whitney Houston?
Really, like when Anthony Hopkins was Oscar-nominated for playing Nixon, yet he looked nothing like Nixon? Kind of like that?
That’s GREAT! Too bad the actors look *nothing* like the real people.
Probably will see this, but then again, hasn’t everything in this biopic been covered now in the other movies. They all end either at the launch of the iMac or the launch of the iPod. Would love to see some of the later stuff from the iPhone/iPad era
I will see it. The script seems great and honestly I care more for actors’ abilities in this case.