What Steve Wozniak Thinks Of The New Steve Jobs Movie

The new biopic Steve Jobs is not the first movie made about the legendary co-founder of Apple. It may be the first, however, to get the seal of approval from Jobs’ partner, Steve Wozniak. The other mind behind the revolutionary computer company told Deadline he was blown away by the quality of the film.

“I saw a rough cut and I felt like I was actually watching Steve Jobs and the others (including Rogen’s dead-on portrayal of Wozniak), not actors playing them, I give full credit to Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin for getting it so right.”

The movie premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on Labor Day weekend. Michael Fassbender plays Jobs and Seth Rogan plays Wozniak. Kate Winslet and Jeff Daniels also star.

The film has three distinct parts, each covering a significant product launch, according to Variety. The Guardian, which gave the film three stars out of five, described the movie’s structure as three distinct plays. There is the Mac launch in 1984, Jobs’ rival computer company NeXT in 1988, and the iMac in 1998.

Despite The Guardian‘s dismissal of the film as “aimed at the die-hard iPhone fetishists,” it gave high praise to Fassbender’s performance as Steve Jobs. The film was widely well-received at Telluride.

Although Seth Rogan’s portrayal of Wozniak was said to be “dead-on” by Deadline writer Pete Hammond, the actor told Variety the character sketch was supposed to be interpretive.

“[T]he character wasn’t really written that much in the voice of the actual Steve Wozniak, in my opinion. I think the themes are real to Steve Wozniak, the things he cared about, but the way he presents those ideas and the way he literally just interacts with people, from what I see, it’s not an incredibly realistic interpretation.”

It was Wozniak’s kindness that Rogan was most struck by when he met the legendary Apple engineer.

“Honestly one of the things is he’s immensely lovable. He’s just very sweet, compassionate, caring — he’s just the kind of guy you want to give a hug to. That was something I thought was important, especially within a movie that had so many abrasive characters.”

Although Steve Jobs was originally slated for October 9 release, Variety reported that it will now only open in New York and Los Angeles on that date. It will expand to more cities the following Friday and enjoy a wide release on October 23.

[Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images]