Casting Call: David Fincher & Aaron Sorkin’s Steve Jobs

In which we suggest who should star in the next big adaptation, remake, or historical film.

During his life, and especially after his death, writers attempted again and again to capture the complexity of Steve Jobs. Only one of those attempts was authorized by Jobs before his death in 2011. That’s the extensively researched, heavily interview-based biography by former Time editor, Walter Isaacson.

Adapting The Social Network from a nonfiction book on the birth of Facebook was hugely successful for Aaron Sorkin, so taking on the story of Steve Jobs and Apple seems almost natural. What doesn’t bode naturally is the eclectic and thoroughly unorthodox way that he decided to go about it. Sorkin recently finished his adapted screenplay on Steve Jobs (the book), commissioned by Sony, in three scenes. As in, the entire movie spans just three scenes of Jobs’s life. Three. In the whole movie.

Isaacson’s biography delves into all the nuance and genius of Jobs’s public and private lives from start to too-early end, but Sorkin has been vocal about wanting to opt out of the traditional birth-to-death biopic structure. Instead, the as of yet untitled picture will span three pivotal scenes in Jobs’s career, backstage before his famous keynote product launches: the Mac, NeXT (when he wasn’t with Apple), and the iPod.

David Fincher is reportedly in talks with Sony exec, Amy Pascal, to direct the film, and he’s hinted that if he does, he won’t do it with anyone other than Christian Bale as Steve. That collaboration is exciting in itself (see American Hustle if you’re unsure of what we mean), but what’s arguably more exciting is the prospect of the entire Social Network team reuniting on this project. Sorkin writing the screenplay, Fincher directing, and Scott Rudin producing.

Sorkin says he’s finished with the screenplay, but Fincher is still in post-production for Gone Girl, so no one’s even talking about production start dates yet. We’ll follow Fincher’s lead on the Bale casting, but we’re not waiting around to envision the rest of this cast.  

Casting Call runs every Friday. For more, click here.