After years of delays, the Steve Jobs biopic that doesn’t star Ashton Kutcher will finally open in theaters on October 9. The movie, simply titled Steve Jobs, has sometimes looked like it would remain in development hell forever. It was kicked around at Sony Pictures for some time, where Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale were considered for the lead role, before Michael Fassbender was finally chosen to don the turtleneck. At one point, Danny Boyle was going to direct. Then he wasn’t. And then he came back when Sony just threw up its hands and sold the thing to Universal, which now looks ready to take this thing to the finish line.
Steve Jobs, written by Aaron Sorkin, consists of just three scenes set backstage before three of Jobs’ famed product launches. Interestingly, the movie’s October 9 opening lands almost exactly five years after the October 1 opening for The Social Network, another Sorkin-penned movie about a technology mogul. That coincidence should ensure that the two films get rigorously compared, as if there wasn’t reason enough already.