Leaked Sony e-mails reveal Aaron Sorkin wanted Tom Cruise as Steve Jobs

While the cyber-attackers who struck at Sony Pictures the week of Thanksgiving may have been motivated to stop Sony’s delivery of a certain film this Christmas, the data they leaked on Monday gives insight into the collapse of Sony’s role in another film—the adaptation of Walter Isaacson’s biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. And it also reveals who screenwriter Aaron Sorkin had in mind for the leading role in Jobs: Tom Cruise.

Based on e-mail messages in the Outlook mailbox of Columbia Pictures Chairman Amy Pascal, which made up nearly half of the latest leak of documents by the group calling themselves “the Guardians of Peace,” it was ultimately Director Danny Boyle’s choice of Michael Fassbender for the role of Steve Jobs that blew up the deal, as Pascal and her team struggled to find someone to help finance the film with him in the lead. Then, as Sony reached a deadline for coming up with a deal, producer Scott Rudin and Boyle closed a deal with Universal to take the picture, sparking an e-mail flame war.

The contentious relationship between Sony/Columbia and Rudin, with whom Sony Pictures had a standing first right of refusal deal for all his production company’s projects, played out in Pascal’s e-mail box along with her other daily message traffic—including notices about her posts to Pinterest, her Amazon purchases, and fundraising pleas from various Democratic political candidates. Her exchanges with Rudin and Sorkin also show how actors (and their agents) were petitioning for roles in the film.

Both Tobey McGuire and Matthew McConaughey approached those tied to the film about playing Steve Jobs, and Tom Hanks was campaigning to play the role of Jon Sculley. Seth Rogen, whose film The Interview may have made Sony the target of the attack that exposed Pascal’s e-mail, was lined up to play Steve Wozniak.

Christian Bale had been mentioned as a candidate for the role of Steve Jobs, and Pascal had said in an October 7 e-mail that she was "very happy" with the choice. But it was clear that Aaron Sorkin, who was brought on to write the first draft of the screenplay for Jobs, had someone specific in mind when he wrote the part. On October 31, just weeks before the wheels fell off Sony’s deal for the film, Sorkin wrote in an e-mail:

I've gotten Scott and Danny to the point where they're now a little interested in Tom Cruise. Though both remain concerned about his age (me less so) everyone agrees that he's an actor who can really handle language (Lions for Lambs, Magnolia, A Few Good Men) and a movie star who feels comfortable owning the stage. He's in London filming right now and Scott wants to get him a script to read and a meeting with Danny before Danny comes here to LA next week. I've been warned that he likes to bring in Chris McQuarrie to re-write but [Creative Artists Agency (CAA) agent] Maha Dakhil (who wants him in the movie) has assured me that won't happen.

In a follow-up, Sorkin wrote:

I just got off the phone with Danny who's concerned about the age but I think I got him thinking about it and he's going to look at some scenes from Lions for Lambs where Tom's basically auditioning for Jobs. He's also concerned that the choice will be met with derision because it's such a commercial choice but I honestly think that ends up working for us. Tom's going to surprise some people and they'll want to reward that. I don't think we'd have to recast Woz. Seth's the right age in the first act and Tom's the right age in the third. And the movie announces itself pretty quickly as not being literal--as being a painting rather than a photograph. Look, I wouldn't cast Clint Eastwood but if I saw Tom Cruise flying around the backstage corridors of Symphony Hall I wouldn't think he was too old. I think it would be dazzling performance.

Pascal e-mailed back, saying that she loved the idea and that she was going to talk to Boyle about it. But the next day she e-mailed Sorkin again to say that Boyle “seems committed to” Michael Fassbender for the part.

Sorkin replied, “This used to be an event. I don't know who Michael Fassbender is and the rest of the world isn't going to care. This is insane.” But in the exchange that followed, he wrote, “Fuck it. He's a great actor whose time has come.”

“That’s where I ended up,” Pascal replied.

“Yeah, if the movie’s good, he’ll be on the cover of everything and get nominated for everything,” Sorkin conceded.

Meanwhile, the lobbying continued for other roles. CAA’s Dakhill e-mailed Pascal, “Natalie Portman should be Joanna Hoffman in Jobs!” Pascal forwarded the message to Scott Rudin, saying, “I get about three of these a day.”

Director David Fincher had originally been associated with the film. But his name was leaked before Sony had gotten him aboard, and Fincher reportedly asked for $45 million to take the helm. In a March 27 e-mail, Rudin wrote, "It's a game. David told me today that he needed 45m to make the movie, and would neither cut his fee nor go into a pool. I said 'then don't let's waste time doing a budget'. And we shouldn't. Tomorrow [Sony Pictures marketing chief] Josh [Greenstein] will call and excoriate us all. It begins."

Sorkin felt Fincher had to do the film, responding: "What's it gonna take? Because I'll cut my fee down to scale and throw in two more Sony movies for free. It's more than he's just the right director (he's not the only right director)--there's a value in it being the same team that did TSN and since it was leaked that it's going to be DF there's now a cost to it NOT being DF."

Pascal countered, offering $40 million; a few days later, Fincher declined, calling Sorkin to break the bad news. He e-mailed Pascal, who replied, "No one even got back to us, did they?"