Will Danny Boyle's Style Make 'Jobs' a Hard Sell?
After it was announced that David Fincher would not direct the upcoming Steve Jobs film, Sony found a new director for the job.
Variety is reporting that Sony is courting Danny Boyle to direct the upcoming film. Boyle has not made a film since 2013 and his last movie was "Trance," which was released by Fox Searchlight. The director has also not worked with a major studio since "The Beach" back in 2000. Since then he has worked on smaller films including "Slumdog Millionaire," which won eight Oscars. However, that movie almost went straight to DVD because of its subject matter. Boyle has also built a relationship with Fox Searchlight as his last six films were released by the distributor.
The decision for Boyle is also very interesting as he is not known for directing biopics or movies based on real life people. His closest film to a biopic was "127 Hours," which was basically a one man show.
If Boyle accepts the offer, it could end up being a risky proposal. Boyle is known for having fast cut editing and a wild soundtrack featuring many artists. This is a style that the director has infused in all his movies and one that his fans have come to expect from the director. However that style has not meant box office success. Boyle films don't tend to be box office hits and his biggest hit was "Slumdog Millionaire," which made $141 million domestically. That movie had Oscar buzz and a huge campaign surrounding it, especially after winning the Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival. Otherwise, the director's second biggest film was the 2003 horror film "28 Days Later," which made $45 million.
His last two films, "127 Hours" and "Trance," made $21 million combined domestically. These two films featured A-List actors, but did not have the audience to truly gain traction at the box office.
Along with Boyle's announcement it is rumored that Leonardo DiCaprio will play the lead role. The news comes as a surprise because DiCaprio announced last week that he would be joining Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu in the upcoming Western "The Revenant." He recently signed to star in "The Ballad of Richard Jewell," which would reunite him with his "The Wolf of Wall Street" co-star Jonah Hill. However, that movie has no director assigned yet and the script is far from complete. Meanwhile, "The Revenant" is slated to start production in the fall. With these two films in pre-production, it seems that DiCaprio is very busy to take on this production.
However, since Boyle and DiCaprio have already worked together on "The Beach," that could sway towards the project.
Sony wants to have the film ready for next year in order to be ready for awards season, but if DiCaprio is chosen the studio will most likely have to wait to shoot the film in the early part of 2015.
The film was written by Aaron Sorkin, who best known for his work on "The Social Network" for which he won an Oscar. Scott Rudin will produce the film and, if DiCaprio joins, it will reunite the actor with Rudin who produced "Revolutionary Road." The movie will also be produced by Mark Gordon and Guymon Cassady.