“…but there’s one more thing.”
As you already know, Steve Jobs tragically passed away on Wednesday after a battle with pancreatic cancer leaving behind a legacy that has had many calling the former leader of Apple a modern-day Henry Ford or Thomas Edison. There is no denying that he changed the landscape of home computing forever, making user experience a priority when most PC makers were stuck with putting as much juice as possible under the hood. And thanks to iTunes and iPods, Final Cut Pro and Pixar, and of course, the iPhone, Jobs forever changed how we listen to music, make and watch movies and how we communicate with each other. And while it’s sad he’s gone, before his body is even in the ground, Hollywood is circling to find a way for Jobs to keep making them money and Deadline reports Sony is angling for the rights to “Steve Jobs,” the upcoming biography penned by Walter Isaacson.
While Jobs was notoriously careful about the message, details about his personal life and image he put out in the media, Isaacson had full access to the Apple co-founder, conducting over 40 interviews with him as well as talking to numerous friends, family members, colleagues and rivals. The book was originally set to be published in 2012, but for obvious reasons has been pushed up and will hit stores later this month. Of course, the main question is how critical an authorized look at Jobs will be and how it will handle some of the bumps in the road and criticisms he faced along the way. He was famously fired from Apple in the mid-80s, was known to be a ruthless perfectionist and have larger-than-life ego. He wasn’t all black sweaters, jeans and New Balance shoes.
But there is no denying there is a great story here, and certainly Jobs played a crucial role in our relationship with technology in our day-to-day lives. Even if you aren’t an Apple dork, everyone in the industry paid attention to what Jobs did with many rivals incorporating his ideas into their products (and vice versa as well). It’s all early days with Mark Gordon and Management 360 expected to seal the deal, and from there, writers, directors and someone to play the man will be sought. But until then, “The Pirates of Silicon Valley” will remain our ultimate Steve Jobs/computer industry movie. Seriously.
