THR is reporting that Matthew Modine has been cast in the Steve Jobs biopic entitled Jobs, which stars Ashton Kutcher as the titular main character and Josh Gad as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
As for Modine’s role, he’ll play John Sculley, “the man whom the late Jobs recruited in 1983 to lead Apple, and who famously wound up firing Jobs two years later.”
The Joshua Michael Stern-directed film will look at the younger years of Steve Jobs’ life but aside from that, no further details are known about what the film will focus on.
The addition of a seasoned veteran like Modine should definitely help the project though, especially because I don’t have much faith in Kutcher leading it. Though he may not be a household name, Modine is a dependable actor and has a fairly large fanbase thanks to his famous role in Stanley Kubrick‘s Full Metal Jacket as Pvt. J.T. ‘Joker’ Davis.
“It’s my feeling — and I think there’s a lot of people who feel — that had John Sculley not fired Steve Jobs from Apple Computers and [let] Steve go on the journey that he did when he was away from Apple Computers, that we wouldn’t be speaking about Steve Jobs today,” said Modine.
Meanwhile, Sony is still working on their Aaron Sorkin-penned Steve Jobs biopic, which is based off Walter Isaacson’s acclaimed biography. That project is still in the scripting stage though and no cast members have been confirmed.
Modine will next be seen in The Dark Knight Rises.