I think your Act 3 needs the iMac, because that was the triumph of Job’s new plan for Apple – simplify the number of models, create something where the design was key and the design went beyond “pretty” to functional (that handle on the top, for example). If the iMac had tanked, we might not have seen the stuff that came later.

Jobs: Get inspired i think will be about his early life (has to be with the young ashton kutcher). I think the Sorkin movie should be later on (i think it will be seeing as they were talking noah wyle or george clooney. I think the Sorkin can tackle the tearjerker one – realizing his mortality and using that as the greatest “change agent”. The first scene – the call (whomever called whom) to get Steve back at Apple. Then the interplay of heathy success and unhealth that motivates steve. Last scene is the hospital redesigning the EKG machines and the final scene the Stanford speech 

I like the trilogy idea! At least that would make the fans happy. But again, Sorkin needs to focus on something, and he’s already said he’s not going to tell the whole story. He’s going to find the one part that provides the most drama and intrigue. One reason he might go with the later part of Steve’s life is that the old TBS production of “Pirates of Silicon Valley” and the new Ashton Kutcher Steve Jobs movie both focus on the early years.

I just don’t see the great storyline for the Steve character in the last 15 years, other than “merely a string of amazing successes that changed the world.” Big a story as that is, a screenwriter might not find the necessary evils in there for Steve to be fighting, in order to create the tension that makes for a great story.

Guess we’ll find out in a year or two. I’m really super-curious to find out what an objective observer and great screenwriter decides is the most compelling story to tell about Steve Jobs.

Never in a million years would I suggest that I could write a better screenplay than Sorkin. You might want to re-read this article. I’m asking my readers what they would do, and I’m sharing what I would do. It’s for fun. Like everyone else, I’m eager to see what Sorkin will do. I’m actually hoping it’s something that none of us would think of.

Yeah, but you still need a single focus for the Steve character. He’s got to be on some path toward the future, and have to deal with the obstacles that get thrown in his way. Sorkin has already said he was looking for that core idea upon which he could build a story. I doubt that he’d feel compelled to included any of Steve’s great achievements — unless they advanced the story he wants to write.

Then again, as you point out, “Pirates” looked at the early Steve already. Plus that other Steve movie is going to be about his younger days. So … who knows!

Ken, great post.

Personally I think there should be definately some additional focus in the movie on the products Steve/Apple has introduces to the world. For instance:  the triomphant return of Apple with the iMac , some of his most famous keynotes (imagine an “behind the scenes look),  product development , product ideas , which shaped Apple over the years and those products being loved by the public at large. Of cours the focus of such a movie is how Steve struggled with his ideas/inovations, with Apple, with his family life and with his health,  but you can’t simply say “screw ‘m” (regarding the products Apple introduced over the years).Perhaps in the US “one knows all the product stories”, but in the rest of the world people might be really interested in getting some more insight …

Many people who love their iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad don’t probably know the story behind it either , and of course the movie should definately not be about Apple’s products only (on the contrary) , but you can’t just leave them out. I think the most interesting story about > 1997 is how Steve got his beloved Apple back where it belonged ; at the top , using those great products to begin with and the struggle it took …

What do you say?

I agree. An amazing person lik Steve Jobs is a combination of his personality, his insight , his creativity, and the way he introduced products to us that “we” never thought we needed. Let’s see what the movie will bring us l…

Who should play Steve’s role?

I think you nailed, Ken.

To put it more simply, (a word I believe you’re familiar with) in the classic movie story-telling vernacular:
Boy meets girl. (Steve Jobs creates Apple)
Boy loses girl. (Jobs gets ousted from Apple)
Boy wins girl back. (Jobs ends up running Apple, and in the process saving it, his vision, and everything it eventually would come to stand for… to the tech industry and the hundreds of millions of insanely happy Apple consumers around the world)

Not to mention Apple stockholders, of which I am one.

I’d do it in a similar way except your Act 2 would be Act 1. I’d completely leave out the founding of Apple. The biggest problem with telling the story of Steve Jobs now is that the story was already told when people thought it was over and that story revolved around the founding of Apple. I think the movie has to serve as a kind of corrective to the pervasive misunderstanding of Apple and Jobs and that’s best done by leaving that part out. So the movie would start with Steve Jobs being kicked out of Apple. Maybe it could literally start with him packing up his stuff and leaving his office. The first act would be his “wilderness years” and is basically your act two. He tries to build “Apple done right” in the form of NeXT (and this is where we can learn about the Mac and Apple team members as he tries to lure them away from Apple) but he doesn’t find much success. Pixar is a consolation prize, but it’s not enough. Act 2 sees him getting Apple back and covers the iMac, etc, all the way up to the first signs of illness. Act 3 is coping with morality, discovering what’s truly important, etc.