If I told you that Pirates of Silicon Valley star Noah Wyle was set to return to the screen as Steve Jobs in the upcoming biopic based upon Walter Isaacson’s best-selling biography, you’d probably say, “Great Choice!” After all, Wyle was great as Steve. The role fits him. It would be wonderful to see him settle back into it over a decade later, and finish the arc.
Now, what if I told you that Noah Wyle had some competition for the role of Steve, and that competition was his old ER co-star George Clooney? What would you say then? My guess is your response would be the same as mine: “What the fffffffff……”
Cheesy British tabloid The Sun is reporting the aforementioned showbiz showdown between dapper, rugged heart-throb Clooney and beaky, dorky and adorable Wyle.
There aren’t any more details, but frankly, if this report is true, it sounds absurd. Steve Jobs was a handsome man in his own way, and very charismatic, but he had none of Clooney’s barrel-chested, twinkling-eyed machismo, or his cool, unflappable demand. I just don’t think Clooney can play Jobs. Jobs wasn’t a He-Man. Wyle, on the other hand, has already proven himself to be a fantastic casting decision.
Truthfully, I think this whole report is bunk. My guess is they’ll recast Steve Jobs with a far younger actor than Wyle. After all, it’s easier to age someone in a film than make him younger, and there are far, far more marketable young actors right now in Hollywood than cute old Noah.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
