Aaron Sorkin just made a movie about Steve Jobs, but that wasn’t the first time his career found itself in the orbit of the iconic Apple co-founder. As the legend goes, Jobs asked Sorkin to pitch a movie to Pixar—another company he co-founded—in the ’90s, but since nothing ever came of it, any details about that pitch seemed like they’d be lost forever. Or they were, at least, until Digital Spy simply decided to ask Sorkin what he had pitched to Pixar all those years ago.
As it turns out, Sorkin’s idea was equal parts clever, lazy, and condescending to the kinds of movies that Pixar makes, so it probably would’ve fit in with his other work. Sorkin says Jobs approached him about writing a Pixar movie, to which Sorkin responded, “I don’t think I’m able to make an inanimate object talk.” Jobs, ever the brilliant sage, told Sorkin, “once you make it talk, it’s no longer inanimate.” (Not that anyone should make another biopic about Jobs, but that would be a good line for the trailer if somebody did.)
This inspired Sorkin to write a script, and the idea he ultimately came up with is the screenwriter equivalent of that time Jan Brady made up a boyfriend by looking at the objects in the room. Basically, the movie would be about a struggling writer who can’t get any work done, but then the objects in his office would come to life and write his book (or, say, movie pitch) for him. Sorkin doesn’t know what the rest of the plot would’ve been, but that makes sense considering he clearly came up with that idea in about 15 seconds. Still, it’s fun to think about how things might have been different had Sorkin been allowed to make this terrible Pixar movie.