Remember how everyone has been talking about the Steve Jobs biopic that Ashton Kutcher is set to star in? Yeah, you're now going to consider that the "other" Jobs biopic. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has been considering at least since November writing a different Jobs biopic, this one based on Walter Isaacson's landmark biography, which Sony acquired the rights to not long after Jobs's death last fall. Now, in a press release from Sony, the deal with Sorkin is done.
That means that Sony's project, currently titled Steve Jobs, not only has the best-selling source material, but The Social Network writer and creator of The West Wing on board to write it. The Kutcher project, on the other hand, is an independent effort from Swing Vote director Joshua Michael Stern and writer Matt Whiteley. If you need more proof of what a titan Sorkin is here, Jobs himself once asked Sorkin to write a movie for Pixar, the company Jobs helped found and turn into the global animation giant we know today. Clearly Jobs had a lot of respect for Sorkin's talent, and now it's apparent the feeling was mutual.
Based on the set photos we've seen, the Kutcher movie is already in full swing, and it's likely it will beat Sony's Steve Jobs to the screen. But with Sorkin on board to write the Sony project, it will inevitably start attracting huge talents. Remember how in one year there was the Capote movie with Philip Seymour Hoffman that got a lot of attention, and the Infamous movie about Truman Capote with Toby Jones that got almost none? It's not too hard to spot the underdog in these dueling Steve Jobs projects-- and those of us skeptical from the beginning about Kutcher's casting can now be extra relieved that there's another option out there.
