Trailers are problematic things. Reveal too much, and you put the audience off. Reveal too little, and you fail to grab their interest. The balance is particularly difficult to strike when the film in question is a biographical drama, and one which lacks explosions, car chases and the like. This is why it is so notable when a trailer arrives for such a film, and is perfect – like this one, for Steve Jobs.
Based on the book Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson, award-winning writer Aaron Sorkin has crafted a screenplay that dramatizes the rise of the man that shaped the digital age with nothing more than his passion ambition and vision. It charts both his professional and personal life, and details the effect that his career had on his relationships with those around him, as well as on himself, using a three-event narrative structure.
“Set backstage at three iconic product launches and ending in 1998 with the unveiling of the iMac, Steve Jobs takes us behind the scenes of the digital revolution to paint an intimate portrait of the brilliant man at its epicentre.
“Steve Jobs is directed by Academy Award winner Danny Boyle and written by Academy Award winner Aaron Sorkin, working from Walter Isaacson’s best-selling biography of the Apple founder. The producers are Mark Gordon, Guymon Casady of Film 360, Scott Rudin and Academy Award winner Christian Colson.
“Michael Fassbender plays Steve Jobs, the pioneering founder of Apple, with Academy Award winner Kate Winslet starring as Joanna Hoffman, former marketing chief of Macintosh. Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple, is played by Seth Rogen, and Jeff Daniels stars as former Apple CEO John Sculley. The film also stars Katherine Waterston as Chrisann Brennan, Jobs’ ex-girlfriend, and Michael Stuhlberg as Andy Hertzfield, one of the original members of the Apple Macintosh development team.”
This initial preview of the film is essentially a teaser trailer, but its tight editing packs a powerful punch. We get our first glimpse of Fassbender in the role of Jobs and the resemblance is striking – while this visual is balanced with voiceovers from a number of characters – including Jobs and Wozniak.
Steve Jobs is released on October 9th, 2015, and if this teaser trailer is any reflection of the tone that film will have, then its spot in the midst of awards season is probably well-deserved. This footage suggests a film that not only delivers an unflinching portrait of driven genius, but also of the place that genius holds within the context of our social history, and our technological evolution. If it fulfils its promise, this will be essential viewing.
