Fight Club. The Social Network. House of Cards. And now — Steve Jobs?
David Fincher, the award-winning director of smart Hollywood thrillers and Netflix original series listed above, is in talks to direct the biopic of Steve Jobs based on the biography by Walter Isaacson, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Given that West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin is already attached to the project, and that Fincher and Sorkin collaborated on the Facebook movie, you wouldn't be too far-fetched in calling this The Social Network 2.
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One movie, of course, has already been released about the life of the Apple founder: the eminently forgettable Jobs, in 2013, from a small independent studio called Open Road. A hazy ramble through the Apple legend, it was notable only for lead actor Ashton Kutcher's uncanny physical resemblance to a young Jobs.
Fincher, however, is unlikely to sugar-coat his subject. Jobs was a charismatic genius, but also a Machiavellian tyrant. That's a powerful dichotomy that could make for a riveting two hours on the big screen, in the right hands. Fincher, the man who brought us Kevin Spacey's exquisite portrayal of Frank Underwood — not to mention the dark moral ambiguity of movies such as Se7en, The Game and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo — may be just the man for the job.
The only downside to this team is that The Social Network, as fantastic a movie as it was, played fast and loose with history. (No, Mark Zuckerberg did not start Facebook because of a girl he wanted to impress; he was dating Priscilla Chan the whole time.) Jobs' story, especially as rendered by Isaacson, is thrilling enough without such inventions.
The untitled Steve Jobs movie will be released by Sony Pictures, although a release date and lead actor have yet to be set.
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