Aside from supporting roles in Band of Brothers and evocative British realism drama Fish Tank, you’d be forgiven for not knowing who Michael Fassbender was prior to 2008. Less than a decade later, though, the German–Irish star has shouldered his way into Hollywood’s pantheon, and his stature will only continue to grow over the next two to three years thanks to roles in Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth – and indeed Assassin’s Creed – along with Ridley Scott’s sci-fi sequel, Prometheus 2.
Before all of that, however, Fassbender’s latest and much-talked about role will be playing the titular, flawed visionary for Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs biopic, and only today Universal has released a pensive new poster for the Oscar-tipped drama. It’s a beautifully clean, minimalist side-portrait of the lead character, which trumpets the film’s ensemble cast as much as it casts its protagonist in isolation.
Nevertheless, Steve Jobs may act as the crux of Boyle’s feature, as he charts his meteoric rise to prominence across three major Apple product launches, but according to co-star Kate Winslet, there’s plenty buried within Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay to relate to.
[Aaron] Sorkin makes it almost not about Steve Jobs at all. It’s about how that man has 100 percent dictated how we all live our lives today and how we function as people. The film is about all of us, and all of us today, not in ’84 or ’88 or ’98. I mean, look at us all — how we function. You look at a lot of toddlers today, they’ll pick up any screen of any kind, and they don’t push a button, they swipe. It’s horrifying but kind of extraordinary, and that is Steve Jobs. As a parent of a small child, it’s alarming. I remember the days of rotary phones. I’m 39 years old, so it wasn’t that long ago.
It’s refreshing to hear that Sorkin and the remainder of the creative team won’t limit themselves solely to Jobs’ time at the top. Part of the reason The Social Network proved to be so successful – a film Sorkin also wrote – was that above all else, it told the story of a friendship, one strained and tested when their humble college dorm project became one of the world’s biggest empires. For Steve Jobs, this creative process will tap into Walter Isaacson’s seminal tome on the genius, which was lauded for its unflinching portrayal of the visionary. We can only hope Danny Boyle achieves a similar feat.
Universal will play its Oscar-tipped card when Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs biopic arrives in theaters on October 9.
