Sony has commissioned the creative team of “Social Network” for another high-profile technical biopic, this time about Apple founder and tech pioneer Steve Jobs.
Director David Fincher is in talks to direct the untitled drama, written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and produced by Scott Rudin, who were behind the Oscar nominated hit “Social Network.”
The film is based on the Walter Isaacson biography “Steve Jobs,” to which Sony acquired the rights following the Apple mogul’s death in October 2011. Sorkin finished the script earlier this year.
Sorkin has publicly said the Jobs biopic will be divided into three long scenes, each taking place backstage before one of Apple’s famous product launches. “The first one being the Mac,” he said. “The second one being NeXT, after he had left Apple. And the third one being the iPod.”
“It’s a little like writing about the Beatles,” he added. “There are so many people out there that know him and revere him.”
Fincher, who last directed “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” for Sony, is in post-production on Fox’s “Gone Girl,” starring Ben Affleck, which is slated for October 3 release.
If a deal is completed, filming would most likely not begin to later this year. Open Road’s Ashton Kutcher-starring ”Jobs” was a failure last year, but Sony is confident that the Fincher-Sorkin project will have more commercial appeal, given the high-profile creative team involved, not to mention that it’s based on the only authorized biography that Jobs would give his blessing to prior to his death.
The biography, released in 2011, is based on more than 40 interviews Isaacson had with Jobs as well as more than 100 interviews with friends, family and a variety of other associates linked to Jobs over the years.