The story of how theAaron Sorkin-scriptedSteve Jobsmade it to the big screen could be a movie unto itself.
First there was the issue of finding a director.David Fincherseemed set to reteam with Sorkin following their successful collaboration onThe Social Network, but had afalling outwith Sony, the company responsible for the film’s production, after they balked at Fincher’s fee and marketing demands. Sony then found their director inDanny Boyle(Slumdog Millionaire), who brought the film over the finish line, but not before having trouble securing an actor to play Steve Jobs. Fincher envisionedChristian Balein the title role, and that initial castingseemed to carry overwhen Boyle took the reins. Of course, Bale eventuallydropped out, leaving the heavy lifting of Sorkin’s dialogue and three-act-structured-script toMichael Fassbender.
The film finally took shape and was released in early October. While it waspolitely embracedby critics, it could not find an audience, leading to the news yesterday that Universal ispulling it from 2,000 theaters. Though there is still Oscar season to contend with, that was quite the disappointing ending to such a promising project, in all its potential iterations.
Now another wrinkle has been added to the story of howSteve Jobscame to fruition. According toFact Magazine(viaPitchfork), Boyle had planned to be directing a musical film aboutDavid Bowieduring the time he eventually was hard at work onSteve Jobs. Apparently, Boyle had been working withFrank Cottrell Boyce(24 Hour Party People)for years on the project, but had to abandon it once they learned Bowie wouldn’t grant them permission to use his songs. This halted the project and left Boyle, in his words, “in grief.” This freed him up to take onSteve Jobs,or, again in Boyle’s words, to “fill the space in my heart left by the abandoned Bowie script.” Boyle said he is “very keen” to direct a musical at some point.
I do hope Boyle is one day able to persuade Bowie to allow him to use his music for such a project. The idea alone is very intriguing. In fact, a Danny Boyle-directed musical about David Bowie sounds almost as good as a David Fincher-directed movie about Steve Jobs. Oh wait.
