Steve Jobs biopic to consist of backstage scenes before Apple product launches

Writer Aaron Sorkin has revealed that his upcoming Steve Jobs biopic will consist of scenes before three Apple announcements.

For some hardcore Apple fans, watching the late CEO Steve Jobs unveil a new product on stage was just as exciting as any big-budget movie.

Acclaimed screenwriter Aaron Sorkin seeks to capture that energy and anticipation in his upcoming Jobs biopic, as he revealed that the movie will consist of three scenes taking place just before major Apple announcements. In an interview with Newsweek and The Daily Beast at this week’s Hero Summit, the writer, who penned classics like The Social Network and The West Wing, said that the scenes would depict the following key moments for Jobs:
“The first one being the Mac, the second one being NeXT (after he had left Apple), and the third one being the iPod,” Sorkin said.
These scenarios will occur in real time, and are likely to consist of fictionalized accounts of the late Apple co-founder and CEO backstage before his iconic keynotes.
“I hope I don’t get killed by the studio for giving too much away,” Sorkin said to The Daily Beast, “but this entire movie is going to be three scenes, and three scenes only, that all take place in real time.”
Sorkin is currently writing a draft of the script, and hopes to end it with the quote, “Here’s to the crazy ones,” which references an ad campaign that Jobs had developed.
“If I can earn that ending, than I’ll have written the movie I want to write,” Sorkin also said to The Daily Beast.
This is the second time Sorkin will be profiling an influential figure in the tech industry for one of his films. In 2010 he penned The Social Network, which delves into the life of Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, taking viewers through the story of how the world’s largest social networking website came to be.
Sorkin has a knack for telling grandiose stories and capturing dramatic tension in a ‘behind closed doors’ type environment. His latest television show, HBO’s The Newsroom, centers on a broadcast television news network striving to compile day-to-day newscasts, complete with last-minute revisions and chaotic changes. His acclaimed NBC show The West Wing focused on the section of the White House that housed the Oval Office and the president’s senior staff.
We’ve seen Sorkin tell us a story about a game-changing tech figure, and we’ve seen him show us behind the scenes inner workings of the White House. It’ll be interesting to see how he applies these writing principles to Jobs’ biopic.