Just as we were all getting excited about seeing Christian Bale and Seth Rogen sharing the big screen in the Steve Jobs biopic from director Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin, the former has now exited the project.
The movie is scheduled to shoot this winter, and Bale is the second leading man to drop out of the movie after Leonardo DiCaprio was originally attached to play Steve Jobs when David Fincher looked like he would helm the biopic. Rogen and Jessica Chastain are still being eyed for leading roles, but no deals have closed.
In fact, Boyle will apparently start meeting with actors and actresses this week, and there’s no word on how Bale’s departure could affect casting and if they still want Rogen as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
According to the site that broke the news, Bale decided not to play Steve Jobs in the movie “after much deliberation and conflicting feelings” because he “came to the conclusion he was not right for the part.”
This obviously came out of the blue as Sorkin was recently quoted as saying, “We needed the best actor on the board in a certain age range and that’s Chris Bale. He didn’t have to audition. Well, there was a meeting.”
The movie is based on Walter Isaacson’s biography Steve Jobs, and Sorkin has previously revealed that the movie will be broken up into three lengthy scenes, each of which will take place backstage before the launch of famous Apple products. These are said to be the Mac, NeXT and, of course, the iPod.
