Steve Jobs is a 2015 biographical drama film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Aaron Sorkin. A British-American co-production, it was adapted from the 2011 biography by Walter Isaacson and interviews conducted by Sorkin. The film covers fourteen years in the life of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, who unveiled the Macintosh 128K in 1984 to the iMac G3 on 1998. Jobs is portrayed by Michael Fassbender, with Kate Winslet as Joanna Hoffman, Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak, and Jeff Daniels as John Sculley in supporting roles.
Development began in 2011 after the rights to Isaacson's book were acquired. Filming began in January 2015. A variety of actors were considered and cast before Fassbender eventually took the role. Editing was extensive on the project, with editor Elliot Graham starting while the film was still shooting. Daniel Pemberton served as composer, with a focus on dividing the score into three distinguishable sections. The production participated in the San Francisco "Scene in San Francisco Incentive Program" administered by the San Francisco Film Commission.
Steve Jobs premiered at the 2015 Telluride Film Festival on September 5, 2015, and began a limited release in New York City and Los Angeles on October 9, 2015. It opened nationwide in the United States on October 23, 2015, to widespread critical acclaim, with Boyle's direction, visual style, Sorkin's screenplay, musical score, cinematography, editing and the acting of Fassbender, Winslet, Rogen and Daniels garnering unanimous acclaim. However, it was a financial disappointment, grossing only $34.4 million worldwide against a budget of $30 million. People close to Jobs such as Steve Wozniak and John Sculley praised the performances, but the film also received criticism for historical inaccuracy. Steve Jobs was nominated for Best Actor (Fassbender) and Best Supporting Actress (Winslet) at the 88th Academy Awards, and received numerous other accolades.
Plot In 1984, the Apple Macintosh 128K's voice demo fails less than an hour before its unveiling at Flint Center. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs demands engineer Andy Hertzfeld to fix it, threatening to publicly implicate him in the presentation's credits if he does not. Hertzfeld finally suggests faking the demo by using the prototype Macintosh 512K computer.
Jobs rants to marketing executive Joanna Hoffman about a Time magazine article exposing his paternity dispute with ex-girlfriend Chrisann Brennan as he denies he is the father of Brennan's five-year-old daughter, Lisa. Brennan arrives with Lisa to confront him – she is bitter over his denials and refusal to support her despite his wealth. Jobs bonds with Lisa over her MacPaint art and agrees to provide more money and a house. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak asks Jobs to acknowledge the Apple II team in his presentation, but Jobs feels that mentioning the computer (which he considers obsolete) is unwise.
By 1988, following the Macintosh's apparent failure, Jobs has founded a new company, NeXT. Before the NeXT Computer launch at the War Memorial Opera House, he spends time with 9-year-old Lisa. However, his relationship with Brennan is still strained. He accuses her of irresponsible behavior and using Lisa to get money from him. Wozniak arrives and predicts the NeXT will be another failure. Jobs confronts him about his public criticism of him, and Wozniak questions Jobs' contributions to computing history. Jobs defends his role as that of a conductor who directs "musicians" like Wozniak.
Apple CEO John Sculley demands to know why the world believes he fired Jobs – Jobs was actually forced out by the Apple board, who were resolute on updating the Apple II following the Macintosh's lackluster sales. Despite Sculley's warnings, Jobs criticized the decision and dared them to cast a final vote on his tenure. After Hoffman and Jobs discuss NeXT's unclear direction, she realizes Jobs designed the computer to entice Apple to buy the company and reinstate him.
By 1998, Apple has fired Sculley, purchased NeXT, and named Jobs CEO, and Jobs is about to unveil the iMac at Davies Symphony Hall. He is delighted by Hoffman's strong commercial forecasts but furious that Lisa has allowed her mother to sell the house Jobs bought for them. Hoffman reminds Jobs that he threatened to withhold Lisa's college tuition, and Hertzfeld admits that he paid Lisa's tuition and suggested she attend therapy. Wozniak again asks Jobs to credit the Apple II team during the presentation, and again, he refuses in an argument.
Sculley arrives in secret, and the two make amends. Jobs and Sculley discuss Jobs' life as an adopted child, and Jobs admits that his need for control stems from his feelings of powerlessness in being given up. At the behest of Hoffman, Jobs apologizes to Lisa for his mistakes and accepts that he is her father, admitting he is "poorly made." He confesses to Lisa that "the Lisa" was named after her. On seeing her Walkman, he also promises Lisa that he will put more music in her pocket. Lisa watches her father take the stage to introduce the first iMac, but only after he hands her the printout of the abstract she made as a kid on the original Macintosh, which he kept with him all those years.
Cast
Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs: Co-founder of Apple Inc. Fassbender acknowledged his lack of physical resemblance to Jobs, but stated that he was more interested in capturing Jobs' essence than his appearance. In regards to how he aimed to depict Jobs, Fassbender stated he aimed to depict Jobs as "somebody who was passionate about his vision" as opposed to a cruel person. Kate Winslet as Joanna Hoffman: Apple and NeXT marketing executive and Jobs' confidant in the film. When discussing her audition for the film, Winslet later commented that she "heard about it through a crew member who I happened to be working with [in Australia on The Dressmaker], I didn't even care what role it was. I just wanted to be in it. Found out the nature of the role. Googled [Hoffman]. Found one picture of her. Got my husband to go to a wig shop. Buy a short-haired dark wig. Stuck it on my head. Sent a photograph of myself to [producer] Scott Rudin. Danny Boyle came to Melbourne and we had a meeting and he gave me the part." Winslet spent considerable time with Joanna Hoffman to prepare for the role before production began. She noted that Hoffman "has a softness to her. She came to America as a young woman and achieved a great deal. One thing that was unique about her as a figure in Steve's life was that she didn't need anything from him. She just needed for him to be the best version of himself. And that's what really set their relationship apart from any relationship with all his other colleagues." Winslet credits Hoffman's difficult childhood in Soviet Armenia with her ability to manage Jobs. On the nature of the relationship between Hoffman and Jobs, Winslet said that she and Fassbender "were able to develop as literally co-workers. I do believe it was very similar to the relationship that Steve and Joanna had. She was like his work wife. She was head of marketing for the Macintosh, and then she stayed with him for his working life. She was an extraordinary, feisty Eastern European person who was pretty much the only person who could actually knock sense into Steve, and she was also kind of an emotional compass." In developing her sense of the character, Winslet stated that she "just wanted to please [Hoffman] as much as I could. How she sounds, and her accent, is fairly complicated. She grew up largely in Armenia, spent some time in Poland, and has Russians in her family, so she has all three accents, but she's been in America since she was a teenager, so she had American rhythms. You know, she really has this accent that goes way up and down. It's almost impossible to copy because of just how singsongy it becomes. So I had to put it into my own register. But we were all doing accents. I mean, Michael's Irish, and he's playing Steve Jobs, for God's sake." Finally, Winslet notes that Hoffman "did genuinely love [Jobs]. And spending time with her, when I was figuring out how to play this difficult part, she would become very emotional. She misses him terribly." Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak: Co-founder of Apple and creator of the Apple II. Rogen admitted to not being familiar with Wozniak or his founding work with Apple. He met with Wozniak to prepare for the film, specifically picking up his tendency to move his hands around while speaking. In regard to Wozniak's relationship with Jobs, Rogen stated that "his feelings towards Jobs were very complex and interesting. Part of it was taking it at face value and part was reading between the lines." Wozniak stated that he felt honored to be portrayed by Rogen in the film. Jeff Daniels as John Sculley, CEO of Apple from 1983 to 1993 Katherine Waterston as Chrisann Brennan, Jobs' former girlfriend and Lisa's mother Michael Stuhlbarg as Andy Hertzfeld, a member of the original Mac team Makenzie Moss, Ripley Sobo, and Perla Haney-Jardine as Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Jobs' daughter (depicted her at different ages throughout the film) Sarah Snook as Andrea "Andy" Cunningham, manager of the Macintosh and iMac launches Adam Shapiro as Avie Tevanian, software engineer for NeXT and later Apple John Ortiz as Joel Pforzheimer, a journalist for GQ who interviews Jobs throughout the film
Production
Development
Sony Pictures acquired the rights to Isaacson's book in October 2011, hiring Aaron Sorkin to adapt it. In November 2011, George Clooney and Noah Wyle (the latter of whom had previously portrayed Jobs in the 1999 television film Pirates of Silicon Valley) were rumored to be considered for the title role. In May 2012, Sorkin officially confirmed that he was writing the script, and had enlisted the help of Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, for historical accuracy. Sorkin later stated that his screenplay would consist of three 30-minute-long scenes covering 16 years of Jobs' life.
Sorkin developed the screenplay around Jobs' relationship with a few key people: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Jobs' "right-hand-woman" Joanna Hoffman, former Apple CEO John Sculley, original Mac team developer Andy Hertzfeld, and Jobs' first child, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, as well as her mother Chrisann Brennan. Sorkin had a chance to speak with all of them while developing the screenplay, including Lisa (who did not communicate with Isaacson while he was developing his book). However, Sorkin has stated that much of the dialogue is fiction.
After Sorkin's completion of the script in January 2014, development on the project began to heat up when David Fincher entered negotiations to direct the film, with Fincher selecting Christian Bale as his choice for Jobs. However, in April 2014, Fincher exited the project due to contractual disputes. Danny Boyle was then hired to direct, with Leonardo DiCaprio in discussions for the role. In October, DiCaprio exited, with Bale, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Bradley Cooper being considered. Sorkin revealed in an interview that month that Bale was once again cast in the role, with Seth Rogen entering negotiations to play Wozniak, and Jessica Chastain being considered for a part. Ike Barinholtz revealed he had auditioned for the role of Wozniak. In November, Bale again left the project, with Michael Fassbender emerging as a frontrunner to replace him, and Scarlett Johansson reportedly being offered a role before Sony put the project in turnaround and Universal Pictures acquired it.
Following the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack in December 2014, Sony emails were leaked which revealed casting demands as cause of delay in the film's production. Also revealed in the emails were the details that Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey and Charlize Theron were at one point met with to discuss potential roles in the film.