Steve jobs

Jobs a good ’un...

Director Danny Boyle Starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, Katherine Waterston ETA 13 November

OK, so Michael Fassbender looks more like the movie star he is than the eponymous Apple Inc. co-founder he’s portraying, but his erect posture, strange little smiles and soft intonations promise to allow viewers to suspend disbelief as director Danny Boyle invites us to take a “behind the scenes look into the making of the modern world”.

The production had hiccups – David Fincher, who was originally in the frame to direct, reportedly wanted $10m plus final cut; Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale both declined – but the trailer entices with its gloomy, energetic visuals and flashes of seismic clashes both at home and at work. “What do you do?” asks co-founder Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen), and Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay sets out to show us just this as it focuses on three key launches between 1984 and 1998.

Given Sorkin scripted The Social Network and the London Film Festival has selected Steve Jobs as its closing film, we hope for great things. The supporting cast is robust – Kate Winslet as Mac marketing boss Joanna Hoffman, Jeff Daniels as Apple’s ex-CEO John Sculley and Inherent Vice’s scene-stealer Katherine Waterston as Jobs’ ex-girlfriend Chrisann Brennan – and The Fass is clearly jazzed. “Aaron Sorkin is a modern-day Shakespeare,” he assures Total Film. And while he’s in a praising mood… “Steve Jobs was obviously a genius. Not only did he change the ways we use phones, he changed how we listen to music, he introduced us to the personal computer and he also changed the face of retail. At a time when the internet was closing high street stores, he said, ‘I’m going to put 14 members of staff on the floor, all dealing with people one-on one, you don’t have to go to the counter to buy it anymore.’”

Let’s hope his genius infuses the film.