Steve Jobs’ Biopic, simply called “Jobs,” was expected to be released on April 19 to celebrate the 37th anniversary of the founding of Apple Computer. Unfortunately, it looks like the movie won’t be released when it was originally intended to as Open Road Films has delayed the film’s release.
Open Road Films has yet to confirm a new date for Jobs to be released saying they wanted to have more time to market the film, although we think the Internet has given the film a healthy amount of promotion ever since it was first revealed such a film would exist.
Earlier this year, we caught a first glimpse of footage from the movie starring Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs, which we thought he did a performed a believable Jobs in the scene. It was also revealed a few days later Kutcher suffered from problems with his pancreas when he followed Steve Jobs’ diet, which of course lead many people to believe that was the real reason for Jobs’ pancreatic cancer. Hopefully the film will do well enough to warrant the pancreatic troubles Kutcher had.
While the world waits for the official release of Steve Jobs’ upcoming biopic starring Ashton Kutcher called jOBS, his life story will also be receiving the manga treatment in Japan in Kiss magazine, which is a publication specifically for women. Artist Mari Yamazaki has been chosen to illustrate Jobs in the officially licensed manga as she feels “sympathy for Jobs” as well as for her realistic and charming painting style. The manga will be based on the best-selling Walter Isaacson biography titled “Steve Jobs.”
A teaser image drawn by Yamazaki was released to show what kind of art style she’ll bring to Jobs image. As you can see above, we think she did a great job of Jobs’ portrait as she captured the majority of his likeness, even down to his slight face stubble. We’re curious to see what extent her talent can take the Steve Jobs manga as we’re sure he’ll be portraying many emotions throughout its story, especially towards the end of his life when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
It’s been roughly 16 months since the passing of Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs, and the chairman of the company’s board of directors, Arthur Levinson, says that it’s been “weird” not having Jobs around. Even though the company has released several new products since the co-founder’s passing, such as the iPad mini and the iPhone 5, Levinson says that it’s been tough to ignore Jobs’s absence.
Levinson has been on Apple’s board of directors since 2000, and was a close friend of Jobs. He says he’s still not to the point where he walks into boardroom and doesn’t miss Steve. He even admits that he can’t even finish Jobs’s biography, saying that “the Steve Jobs that was in the public eye was not, for the most part, the Steve Jobs that [he] knew.”
However, Apple reported $13.1 billion in profit and $54.5 billion in revenues last quarter, in which Levinson describes as “phenomenal.” And while the board gets to see products anywhere from 6 to 18 months before their launch, Levinson says that the board doesn’t really have much say into Apple products, saying that “ultimately, the board is there to hire and fire the CEO.”
Of course, after such a great quarter this time around, it doesn’t look like Apple has any plans to fire its current CEO, Tim Cook. Jobs left Apple in great hands, being high up on the executive list, Cook was a good choice to take over the Apple helm, and has so far led the company as well as anyone would’ve expected.
Outside of a few close employees, a couple fawning reporters, and his obsequious biographer, few people ever knew Steve Jobs, what with his being an antisocial tyrant. But now, you can own him. Or at least a tiny, unsettlingly realistic miniature computer genius version of him. But should you? Is it moral? Is it good? More »
JOBS star Ashton Kutcher, who plays the lead role of Steve Jobs in the film, gave a talk this morning at Macworld/iWorld 2013 and discussed what it was like to play the role of the co-founder and former CEO of one of the biggest technology companies on Earth. When asked what he thought the most important things were that viewers should get out of the movie, he had a few things in mind.
Kutcher specifically mentioned three things that audience members should get from the movie: focus, compassion for customers, and dream the impossible. Kutcher noted that Jobs had the ability to say no to anything that wasn’t his greatest mission at the time, and says that “it’s not a detriment to your character if you say no to the things that won’t help other people.”
He also discussed the compassion for Apple customers that Jobs had. Kutcher said he learned that caring about the consumer experience is what makes Apple a great company, and as long as you focus on customers and give them priority, other things such as revenue and profit will just fall into place. Lastly, Kutcher mentioned that Jobs “believed that it was possible to do things that were impossible.” In fact, one of Kutcher’s favorite quotes from Jobs is, “Everything around you that you call life was made up by people who are no smarter than you.”
Kutcher said that he ultimately hopes people walk away from the movie with the motivation to not just settle for things, and he notes that people should just “make life better and build something.” JOBS recently debuted last weekend at the Sundance Film Festival, and will see an official theatrical release on April 19.
Last week, we caught a glimpse of Ashton Kutcher playing Steve Jobs in the upcoming biopic, jOBS. Judging by his performance, we though Kutcher stuck on a beard, studied Jobs’ mannerisms and performed his best impersonation Apple’s most iconic CEO. It turns out Kutcher did a little bit more to prepare for his role as Steve Jobs as Kutcher followed Jobs’ fruitarian diet, and ended up hospitalized due to it.
Speaking with USA Today during jOBS’ Sundance premiere this past Friday, Kutcher spoke of the diet, which consisted of eating only fruits, nuts and seeds, and said he ended up in the hospital with pancreatic problems.
“First of all, the fruitarian diet can lead to, like, severe issues. I went to the hospital like two days before we started shooting the movie. I was like doubled over in pain. My pancreas levels were completely out of whack. It was really terrifying … considering everything.”
Considering Steve Jobs died of pancreatic cancer in October 2011, we’re sure Kutcher was concerned for his safety after following the fruitarian diet. Hopefully preparing himself for his role in jOBS didn’t do any permanent long term damage.
The Steve Jobs biopic, JOBS, made its debut this past weekend at the Sundance Film Festival (with a theatrical release on April 19), and the reviews have begun pouring in. While many critics praised Kutcher and Gad for a job well done in their roles as Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, respectively, they were quick to criticize a few inaccurate details in the film. For instance, we saw the first clip from the film a few days ago, and Steve Wozniak said himself that the scene was “totally wrong,” and it’s actually not what happened at all during the early days of Apple. In the long run, though, does it really matter? In the Hollywood industry where the truth doesn’t always entirely make it through anyway, should we really be upset that a narrative non-fiction film isn’t 100% accurate?
In the one-minute clip, Jobs and Wozniak are in a heated debate about the operating system that Wozniak created. While Jobs is certain that the OS will be a big hit with the general public, Wozniak isn’t so sure and needs convincing. Apparently, though, the Woz himself denied that he was ever skeptical about his creation, and he actually had full confidence in the operating system. All hell broke loose at this point for Apple fans.
Many argue that there’s no excuse for the production team to bend the truth of the history of Apple and its founders. Because both Jobs and Wozniak have a biography and an autobiography, respectively, fans argue that there’s no reason for the movie to include made up bits, since resources are readily available. For instance, in Steve Jobs’ biography, author Walter Isaacson interviewed Jobs over 40 times, as well as interviewing over 100 different family members, friends, and colleagues in order to get an accurate account of the man behind the company. Because of that, many fans argue that there’s no reason that the team behind JOBS had to steer away from the truth.
Sure, in the grand scheme of things, the movie gives a mostly-accurate account of the history of the company and the founders who created it, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise that some of the factual details are either missing or a little off, and it shouldn’t be big deal either. It’s just a movie, folks. Movies are meant to be entertaining and fun to watch. In other words, it’s not a documentary, where there’s a word-for-word account of what happened. Remember The Social Network? It’s another non-fiction film that shows off the conception of Facebook, and while it gave viewers a vague idea of how the social networking giant got started, all of the drinking, drugs, and parties actually never happened in real life; but it was still fun to watch. If the movie ended up being an exact representation of how Facebook got started, it would honestly be boring as hell — just Zuckerberg in his dorm room sitting at his desk coding for hours on end. Who seriously wants to watch that?
In other words, it’s completely okay to make up scenes in order to make the movie more dramatic and fast-paced, or whatever style the director is going for. I agree, though, that there is a line, but screen writers these days are smart enough not to cross it. And by crossing the line, I mean putting in explosions, car chases, and pretty ladies in a film about the history of Apple — now THAT would be ridiculous. But so what if Wozniak was skeptical about his operating system in the movie when that really wasn’t the case. It shouldn’t change how you enjoy the movie. Plus, this is only one clip — one minute from a 122-minute film. We shouldn’t even be criticizing something that we’ve only seen 0.8% of anyway.
However, this isn’t the only Steve Jobs biopic that will be coming out. If you recall, Sony Pictures is also working on a movie about the history of Apple and its fearless founders, only this time, Wozniak himself is involved, along with Aaron Sorkin, who is one of the greatest screenwriters of our time. While this Sony version may be a little more accurate than JOBS, though — thanks to the Woz’s help — I’ll be surprised if it’s any more accurate than JOBS. Sorkin was the one who penned The Social Network, and he’s always been one to credit the fact that non-fiction films and documentaries are two completely different beasts.
In any case, if you really want to know what the early years of Apple were like, I hope you would be smart enough to not rely on a couple of Hollywood movie to accurately inform you about the company’s history. You’re better off reading Jobs’ and Wozniak’s respective books, “Steve Jobs” and “iWoz”. Both give a clearer picture of what Apple was like in the early days, and they better reflect the relationship that the dynamic duo had back in the late 70s and 80s. Happy reading!
Ashton Kutcher, method actor, truly goes the distance to capture the essence of a character. In the case of portraying Steve Jobs for the upcoming indie flick jOBS, Kutcher put himself on a diet of strictly fruits, nuts, and seeds, mimicking Jobs ‘fruitarian’ lifestyle. More »
Gizmodo reader Seth Kinkaid was one of the first people to watch jOBS—the first Steve Jobs’ biopic starring Ashton Kutcher—at Sundance 2013. These are his impressions.More »
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While the world waits for the official release of Steve Jobs’ upcoming biopic starring 
