Sony Pictures Entertainment, the studio that produced high-speed and high-profile movies This Is It, with Michael Jackson, and The Social Network, about Mark Zuckerberg, could do it again with the Apple co-founder Steven P Jobs. The studio late this week concluded a deal to buy film rights to the authorized biography Steve Jobs, from Walter Isaacson, according to a person who was briefed on the deal and spoke on the condition of anonymity because the studio had not authorised a public statement.A Sony spokesman declined to comment. Word that discussions were being completed was posted Friday on the website Deadline.com.
After Jobs? death on Wednesday, Simon & Schuster, the book?s publisher, moved up its release date by a month, to October 24. And advance orders have been brisk, as readers hunger for more information about a leader who has emerged as the embodiment of creativity and enterprise that has appeared to falter in much of the business culture.
Historically, movies have been developed slowly, and seldom tackled current events, as circumstances, interest and the national mood would often change in the years it took get a picture on track. But that has changed, as studios took advantage of faster digital production techniques, and showed a new willingness to keep pace with the increasing pace of the media world. After Michael Jackson?s death, the studio had his concert film, This Is It, in theatres within months.
Having agreed to pay a reported $1 million advance against a total of $3 million if the movie is produced for the Jobs book, Sony is certainly in a position to join its producing partners ? the MG/360 team, which pairs Mark Gordon and Management 360 ? in putting a movie on screens while the memory of Jobs and his achievements is fresh.