Sony Hack Reveals Steve Jobs Biopic Madness as Natalie Portman Turns Down a Role

Remember that stench of doom we sensed around Jane Got a Gun earlier this year as it went through a brutal gauntlet of production issues? Well, that's how the forever-developing, troubled Steve Jobs biopic is starting to look. Penned by Aaron Sorkin and to be directed by Danny Boyle, the film was set up at Sony before they got nervous and dropped it, only for Universal to come to the rescue. When a project of this scope gets dumped there's always a bigger story behind it, and thanks to Sony getting hacked we know just how chaotic things were behind the scenes.

We're not going to post hacked emails or anything like that; leave that to the folks over at Gawker who posted a blistering series of conversations between widely despised producer Scott Rudin and Sony chief Amy Pascal. In them we see the bull-headed twosome fighting over everything, but it's Rudin who looks like a total donkey for ripping into Angelina Jolie, calling her a "minimally talented spoiled brat" amongst other scathing insults. What the heck does Jolie have to do with anything? You may recall she and David Fincher, who was originally supposed to direct Jobs, were going to do a massively-budgeted Cleopatra epic. That project never came together and Fincher bounced, but she apparently was still holding out hope earlier this year, only to have Sony dangle the Steve Jobs film in his face. Of course, that didn't work out for Sony, either. Ironically, Rudin refers to Jolie's massive ego but these emails reveal he needs to check himself in a major way.

Meanwhile, the Jobs film is bumping along over at Universal but still has some problems to iron out. Michael Fassbender is set (for now) to star as the tech giant with Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak. Recently Natalie Portman's (coincidentally of Jane Got a Gun!) name was mentioned for the female lead but now Variety says she's turned it down for unspecified reasons. Perhaps she sensed something was wrong, too? Sorkin could be bringing his The Newsroom star Jeff Daniels in to play Apple CEO John Sculley so maybe things aren't all bad. Then again, let's just wait and see if Fassbender makes the start date. If not, Universal could always turn to Tom Cruise, who was sought by Sony out of desperation.