You don't have to be dead for long around these parts for Hollywood to come clambering after your story. Just two days after Steve Jobs passed away, Sony made an offer to purchase the movie rights to the upcoming biography by Walter Isaacson. I guess you don't even have to be dead for authors to start writing up your life--just pretty close to it.
The biography itself, creatively entitled Steve Jobs, will hit shelves on October 24th. It'll probably cover the entirety of the entrepreneur's career, which begs the question of exactly how much of Jobs's life will be highlighted in the screenplay. They may well opt for a traditional, all-encompassing biopic span, but I'm guessing the overall success of the last great tech entrepreneur film will have at least some influence on how this one is written. The Social Network wasn't exactly a biopic as much as it was a portrait of the internal politics of a rising industry, but it certainly cashed in on the tendency we have to grant a lot of celebrity to innovators in the tech field. We might just see a biopic that focuses on Apple's rise to power rife with exaggerations of the conflict and competition surrounding the company's early days. It'd probably sell more tickets than the alternative.
The biggest question then would be which actor in Hollywood is up for the job (I'm so sorry) of portraying the film's eponymous character. Steve always had more presence than his geekier industry peers, so the Michael Cera school of awkward is out. We might just see a Reynolds or a Gosling-type donning that turtleneck.
Via Vulture.
