Sony Pictures has surprisingly ditched its Steve Jobs project, putting the high-profile feature into turnaround.
The studio had no comment on the story.
An informed source said that Universal was likely to make a deal for the biopic.
In recent weeks, producers had set Michael Fassbender to star as the late Apple mogul after Christian Bale dropped out. Seth Rogen is also in talks to play Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
Based on Walter Isaacson’s biography “Steve Jobs,” the real-life drama is directed by Oscar-winner Danny Boyle and adapted by Aaron Sorkin. Scott Rudin is producing “Jobs” alongside Mark Gordon and Guymon Casady.
It’s unclear why Sony decided to abandon the tech drama. The studio acquired rights to shortly after the mogul’s death in 2011.
Sorkin has publicly said the movie would be divided into three long scenes, each before one of Apple’s notorious product launches, and that Jobs’ daughter Lisa was the heroine of the film.
It’s not the first Steve Jobs movie Hollywood has produced since his death. Last year’s independently financed “Jobs” starred Ashton Kutcher as Jobs and Josh Gad as Wozniak earned a modest $36 million at the global box office.
Sorkin, Sony and Rudin last worked together on “Moneyball” after teaming on another technology drama: 2010’s “The Social Network” about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. That movie grossed over $220 million worldwide.
The Sony-Jobs news was first reported by Deadline.com.
