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Actor Noah Wyle On Portraying Steve Jobs

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Sunday October 9, 2011 @ 6:28pm PDTTags: Noah Wyle, Pirates Of Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs, TNT

Now that Sony Pictures is planning a movie based on the new authorized biography of Steve Jobs, attention has focused anew on the last film about the Apple icon. Actor Noah Wyle talks about playing Jobs in TNT’s 1999 made-for-TV movie Pirates of Silicon Valley that the cable channel is re-scheduling. Here is some of what Wyle told Fortune magazine about the experience at the time:

I had apprehensions of playing Jobs in Pirates Of Silicon Valley. TNT was really excited about me taking the part, but I had worries I usually didn’t have as an actor. I knew something about him and I had the script, but I couldn’t really get a beat on the guy until they sent me the documentary, Triumph Of The Nerds. Then it was “Ohmigod! I’ve never seen anything like this. I have to play this guy.” I was so taken by his presence, his confidence, smugness, smartness, ego, and his story’s trajectory. He seemed to be the most Shakespearean figure in American culture in the last 50 years I could think of – the rise of, the fall of, and the return of. The truest definition of a tragic hero — but you get the ‘bonus round’ that F. Scott Fitzgerald said didn’t exist. Jobs has had one hell of a second act.

We were under a very strict directive not to contact the people we were playing for fear that they would find something libelous in the script and shut the production down. So I didn’t. The day after the movie aired, I was sitting in my living room and my phone with what I thought was my unlisted phone number rang.

“Noah?” said the voice.
“Yes,” I said.
“This is Steve Jobs.”

My heart started beating through my shirt. And he said — and I’ve memorized this—”I’m just calling to tell you I thought you did a good job. I hated the movie, I hated the script, I think if you had spent a little more time and a little more money and maybe a little more attention to detail, you could have had something there. But you were good.”

And all I could say was, “Thank you. Sir.” MORE

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TNT To Re-Air ‘Pirates Of Silicon Valley’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday October 6, 2011 @ 9:37am PDTTags: Bill Gates, Noah Wyle, Pirates Of Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs, TNT
Nellie Andreeva

Will Hollywood Book Biopic Of Steve Jobs?

As a tribute to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died yesterday, TNT will preempt its primetime lineup for two back-to-back airings at 8 PM and 10 PM of its 1999 original movie … Read More »

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Will Hollywood Book Biopic Of Steve Jobs?

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Wednesday October 5, 2011 @ 8:24pm PDTTags: Pirates Of Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs authorized biography, Walter Isaacson

R.I.P. Steve Jobs

The hottest biopic in Hollywood right now has to be based on former Time magazine top editor Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of Steve Jobs being published by Simon & Schuster on November 21st. Given the TV and movie industry’s past and present penchant for making entertainment out of people’s lives, it won’t be long before the book is made into a film. The 448-page profile is based on over 40 interviews with the Apple co-founder and over 100 conversations with friends, family members, colleagues and competitors. And it’s a compelling story: the building of the world’s most valuable technology company by creating the devices that changed how people use electronics and revolutionized the computer, music, and mobile phone industries. Jobs gave his full cooperation but had not read it as of mid-August, the date of the Barnes and Noble overview. At first titled iSteve: the Book Of Jobs, Isaacson had second thoughts about what was appropriate for the first biography to get Jobs’ blessing and cooperation. Even when it wasn’t even finished, it made it (briefly) into the top 50 on Amazon’s bestseller list. Isaacson eventually persuaded his publisher Simon & Schuster to go with the simple title of Steve Jobs. First planned for 2012, the book’s release date was moved up. Read More »

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