Sony backs out of Steve Jobs movie, but don’t worry!

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A case of art imitating life: Steve Jobs was cast out of Apple in 1985, and now the Jobs movie has been thrown out by Sony. Photo: Ben Stanfield/Flickr CC
Photo: Ben Stanfield/Flickr CC

Just as Steve Jobs had to go through some frustrating years of failure before returning to Apple to turn in around, so too is the Aaron Sorkin Jobs biopic experiencing its fair share of setbacks.

Following the recent news that Christian Bale has, err, bailed on the project, now Hollywood magazine Deadline is reporting that the movie is being put into turnaround by its studio, Sony Pictures. Turnaround refers to a deal whereby the rights to a particular movie are sold from one studio to another in exchange for the cost of development, plus interest.

Exactly why the film is supposedly being dropped by Sony isn’t known, particularly since the Sony-owned Columbia Pictures did so well both critically and commercially from Sorkin’s previous true tech drama, in 2010’s The Social Network. It may, however, have something to do with schedules.

The film has had multiple production challenges to contend with, such as the backing out of A-list actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Bale. Bale, in particular, was cited by Aaron Sorkin as, “the best actor” out there fitting the correct age range to play Steve Jobs.

Currently, Michael Fassbender is linked to the role, which Sorkin has said is an “extremely difficult part” due to the amount of dialog. Slumdog Millionaire’s Danny Boyle is attached to direct.

The Hollywood Reporter thinks part of the reason Sony put the movie into turnaround was because it already has several movies in production for 2015 and wanted to film the Jobs movie later. However, both Boyle and Fassbender have limited time windows available.

All is not lost, though. Although Sony may no longer be involved with the project, Deadline claims that it has already been snapped up by Universal Pictures which has all but given it “a green light.” This means that the fast-tracked movie shouldn’t lose any momentum, despite moving from one studio to another. It could also mean that, despite the hiccup, we actually end up seeing the movie earlier.

Neither Sony nor Universal has made comment.

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