Coupled in recent years with both an Oscar-nominated biopic as well as a new TV series that could best be described as inconsistent, it's a peculiar case indeed when Aaron Sorkin's cinematic endeavors begin to reign over his other work in terms of quality and anticipation. Yet that's precisely the case with “The Social Network” writer's latest project, promising to delve into the life of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, and while word on the project has been quiet as Sorkin and the company's other half Steve Wozniak hashed out an outline, at last an interesting direction for the film's overall structure has finally been revealed.
Expanding upon Sorkin's brilliant criss-cross of Facebook's origins with Jesse Eisenberg at Zuckerberg's legal depositions, the writer recently told a business conference his Jobs biopic will likewise take an unusual structure and make it common: namely, utilizing three 30-minute scenes to capture the Mac, NeXT, and iPod product launches, based in 1984, 1997, and 2001 respectively. Having previously said his adaptation of Walter Isaacson's biography would eschew the normal “cradle-to-grave” style of narrative, it would seem Sorkin's word is definitely bond, as he also explained that each section will follow Jobs around the launches in “real time.”
Besides likely twisting the facts slightly and turning into Danny Boyle — who also ambitiously and falsely pitched a real-time experience with “127 Hours” — the structure Sorkin has chosen strikes initially as, plain and simple, an immensely compelling idea. Each product launch acts as a fantastic dramatic signifier of Jobs' personal and professional positions, from the giddy start-up Mac vibe through to the established, steely iPod presentation, and the potential for contrast is exciting to imagine. The effort will also certainly require commitment to keep its more theatrical elements from spilling out too severely, but given the excitement both Sorkin's writing and David Fincher's direction gave to the desk-bound act of typing code in “Social Network,” a similar result remains completely conceivable here as well.
You can watch the full Sorkin interview below for his comments on the matter (with the first iPod launch right after that), but consider us onboard completely for what the writer has in store. [Business Insider/Collider]