The Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has hit back at claims family and former colleagues of Steve Jobs are fiercely opposing his controversial forthcoming eponymous biopic of the late Apple co-founder.
The Wall Street Journal wrote on 4 October that the tech guru’s widow Laurene Powell Jobs had repeatedly tried to “kill” Danny Boyle’s film, which stars Michael Fassbender in the title role. Current Apple CEO Tim Cook also described recent attempts to immortalise the late Jobs on the big screen as “opportunistic” during an appearance on the Late Show With Stephen Colbert last month.
Speaking on the NBC network’s Today on Tuesday news programme, Sorkin said he hoped Cook’s view might have changed now that he had been given the opportunity to see the film. “Tim Cook – at the time he made that statement, at the time he took umbrage, he hadn’t seen the movie,” said the screenwriter, who adapted Walter Isaacson’s book Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography for Boyle’s film. “The studio since set up a screening for him and he hasn’t said anything since.”
Responding to claims that Laurene Powell Jobs had not wanted the film made, Sorkin said: “Mrs Jobs hasn’t seen the movie. When she does, if she does, I think she’ll be pleasantly surprised. I don’t think it’s what she expects it to be.”
The film-maker’s script for the biopic touches on the former Apple CEO’s initial refusal to recognise his daughter, an episode Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has described as “hard on me … when the money didn’t matter, and I can almost cry remembering it”. The Social Network screenwriter said he understood why those who cared about Jobs might be concerned.
“Certainly with Mrs Jobs – and yesterday was the anniversary of Steve’s death, it was four years – with Mrs Jobs, with Tim Cook who was such a good friend, I don’t begrudge them wanting to protect a good friend who isn’t here to defend himself,” he said. “But again, they haven’t seen the movie, and I think they will be surprised that it’s not the thing they’re scared of.”
But Sorkin, who recently described writing “antihero” characters such as Jobs “as if they are making their case for God”, admitted he struggled to find the humanity in his subject during the screenwriting process. “I’ll be honest, with Steve it was tough,” he said. “I’m the father of a daughter. He denied the paternity of his daughter. But it was his daughter, Lisa, who actually helped me get past that.”
Boyle’s film, also starring Kate Winslet as original Mac team member Joanna Hoffman, Jeff Daniels as former Apple chief executive John Sculley and Seth Rogen as Wozniak, hits US cinemas on limited release this weekend as it builds anticipation ahead of an expected Oscars run. The biopic, which takes the form of just three scenes, each shot in real time and taking place just before a vital product launch, is due out in the UK on 13 November.
