Confirmed: Christian Bale to play Steve Jobs in Sony’s upcoming biopic

Christian Bale Steve Jobs (image 001)

Christian Bale has been officially confirmed as the leading star in Sony’s upcoming movie adaptation of Walter Isaacson’s bestselling 2011 biography of Apple’s late co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs.

The English actor, 40 years old, will play Steve Jobs, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin made it clear during an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Emily Chang for an upcoming edition of Studio 1.0.

Bale was chosen as “the best actor on the board in a certain age range,” Sorkin said, adding he’s ”gonna crush it” and that “there isn’t a scene or a frame that he’s not in”.

“He has more words to say in this movie than most people have in three movies combined,” he quipped.

Although shooting hasn’t started yet, Sorkin told The Hollywood Reporter that the movie, based on Walter Isaacson’s official bio book, will be divided into three distinct scenes, running approximately 30 minutes long each. The individual scenes will portray the events leading up to major Apple product launches: the iPod launch in 2001, the NeXT introduction and the original iMac unveiling.

Check out Bloomberg TV’s interview with award-winning writer Sorkin.

Bale was first mentioned as a possible front-runner for the Steve Jobs role back in March 2014, when it also became clear that the movie was to be directed by “Slumdog Millionaire” director Danny Boyle after Oscar-nominated “The Social Network” director David Fincher had dropped out.

Following news earlier in the month that Oscar-nominated actor Leonardo DiCaprio reportedly withdrew himself from the negotiations to play Apple’s mercurial co-founder, Variety reported that Christian Bale was close to reaching a deal with Sony.

Here’s Conan O’Brien take on how Bale might tackle the new role.

Aside from Bale and DiCaprio, other actors have been considered for the part like Matt Damon and Bradley Cooper.

Bale has of course played Batman in “The Dark Knight Trilogy,” is set to star as Moses in the upcoming “Exodus: Gods and Kings” and has won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2011 for his role in “The Fighter”.

[Bloomberg TV]