Danny Boyle’s STEVE JOBS (2015) Official Trailer

The life of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, has inspired many works from biographies to fictional feature films, as well as documentaries. Some documentaries are rushed together to capitalize on the innovator’s death (my Review can be found here) while other fictional films were honest attempts at the life and times of the man. ‘Jobs‘ featuring Ashton Kutcher in the lead role of Steve Jobs, was an admirable effort into telling the story of the man behind one of the leading technological innovators in the world. However, inconsistent storytelling prevented the film from making an impact, despite Kutcher’s brilliant performance. (My Review of ‘Jobs’ here) Now, another film seeks to tell the story of Steve Jobs, in the aptly titled ‘steve jobs’ directed by Danny Boyle (‘Slumdog Millionaire’)

Starring Michael Fassbender, (‘X-Men: Days Of Future Past’) ‘steve jobs’ is based on a biography about Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, adapted for the screen by Aaron Sorkin. The creator of ‘The Newsroom’ applies his trademark ability to re-tell real life incidents, as he had previously done with ‘The Social Network’, to the story of Jobs and uses a pretty innovative narrative for doing so. The film will be split into three 30 minute segments of behind the scenes events from 3 turning points of Jobs’ life during his career, with flashbacks filling in details regarding the man’s personal and more private live. Director Danny Boyle is known for improving and challenging himself as a filmmaker, almost never repeating the same style, story or technique more than once. Here he looks to infuse an innovative narrative into ‘steve jobs’ that should make the film stand out from the previous on-screen depictions of the man.

The trailer seems to focus on the more controversial elements of Jobs life, such as his lack of technical skill or programming knowledge, but his insistance on image and philosophical concepts with which he lived his life. The film doesn’t seem to romanticize or dramatize those aspects of Jobs’ life, but portrays them in realistically harsh light, and makes the audience aware of this, by having the characters in the movie call attention to Jobs’ eccentricities, which lends to some of the more humorous elements of the Trailer. The Trailer also expands on Jobs’ personal life, which was an element that was unfortunately missing from ‘Jobs’. 

Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs

‘steve jobs’ is the biggest and most expensive of the films of Jobs’ life, being in development for years, initially being optioned by Sony Pictures, but eventually ending up at Universal Pictures. Over the years, the casting has involved many actors, before finally settling on Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs and Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak, the other Apple founder. Wozniak himself consulted with Sorkin over the script for historical accuracy. Fassbender has been criticized for not resembling Steve Jobs, however, the actor’s dramatic background will definitely lend to a weighted performance as can be heard from his voice in the Trailer. Kate Winslet plays Jobs’ confidant, while Jeff Daniels is also starring in a pivotal role.

With a innovative concept of three 30-minute segments retelling the life of one man, ‘steve jobs’ is one of the more intriguing projects of the year as it seeks to properly tell the story of one of the most celebrated innovators who has impacted modern day society in unforeseen ways. With Danny Boyle helming the project and a lead cast known for high caliber performances, the film is definitely one of the more interesting, non-super hero or franchise related films this year.

‘steve jobs’ releases October 9th, 2015. Starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Jeff Daniels & Seth Rogen, directed by Danny Boyle and written by Aaron Sorkin.