Sony Pictures is dropping plans to produce a film about Steve Jobs and is in talks to sell the project to Universal Pictures, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The producers wanted to press ahead on a faster schedule than the studio could accommodate, said one of the people, who wasn’t authorised to speak publicly and asked not to be named. They took the project to Comcast Corp’s Universal Pictures, which is in talks to acquire the film, a second person said.
The film division of Tokyo-based Sony Corp acquired the rights to create a film based on the Walter Isaacson biography Steve Jobs, after the Apple Inc co-founder’s death in 2011. The script is being co-written by Aaron Sorkin, who won an Oscar for the The Social Network screenplay.
The project has seen various changes in the line-up of its cast and production team. Danny Boyle, director of the Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire, is attached to the project after it had initially been linked to David Fincher, who directed The Social Network.
Leonardo DiCaprio first dropped out of talks to play Jobs, people with knowledge of the matter said in October. Christian Bale was then considered for the role and subsequently pulled out, people familiar with the situation said. Michael Fassbender has most recently been in talks over taking on the role, according to Deadline.com.
Seth Rogen, known for comedies such as 2007’s Superbad, has been in talks to play Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
The film had been in pre-production, according to Imdb.com. Deadline reported the talks with Universal on Wednesday.
Sony said earlier this month that the film and TV unit, maker of the Spider-Man movies, will turn into a $10 billion (Dh36.7 million)-a-year business during the next three years, compared with about $8 billion now.
