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Kutcher Clearing His Schedule, Fully Preparing for Steve Jobs Role

by Alex Billington
April 4, 2012
Source: The Daily, TMZ

"He believes the role was meant for him." So the producer claims. On April Fools Day this past weekend, despite not being a joke at all, news broke that 34-year-old actor Ashton Kutcher was set to star as Steve Jobs in an indie biopic titled Jobs, already being prepped to shoot this summer. The news made quite a stir, but I'm supportive, as I think Kutcher can be a great actor if he really puts his all in, and it sounds like that's the case. The Daily (via Mac Rumors) followed up with producer, and the project's financier, Mark Hulme this week and got some quotes out of him about Kutcher's early preparations for the role. Read on!

Hulme, who runs Five Star Feature Films, is the "sole investor" behind the project, featuring a script by Matt Whiteley, to be directed by Joshua Michael Stern. He speaks rather frankly to The Daily and Kutcher's involvement, stating: "When he read the script, he loved it. He and the director (Joshua Michael Stern) met two days later and they could tell that this was the right direction." Now he's ready to "prove to the world that this is the right part for him." Hulme mentions briefly some of the preparations he's taking, even going so far as to clear his schedule to get ready, as he'll be filming this during his "Two and a Half Men" hiatus.

"He is already meeting with folks that knew Steve Jobs. He's working with professionals to get inside the voice. He's letting his hair grow out. I understand he's canceled all meetings and actually canceled all other projects."

"Ashton is a much more intense individual than a lot of his current roles represent. We are feeling convinced that he's gonna nail this."

As we know, Jobs' biography released last year was already picked up for adaptation by Sony, but they're moving slower on it, with Aaron Sorkin set to script. Instead, Hulme is excited by how fast his project is moving. "We think that it's in the spirit of Steve Jobs that we are being independent and moving very quickly. We think that possibly Sony would look at telling a different part of the story." Mark Hulme isn't the only one speaking about this project, as TMZ (ugh, I know) caught up with Steve Wozniak, somehow, and got him to comment on this as well. While his statements are just an outsiders' opinion, they do hold some weight, especially for those who still may think it's a joke that Kutcher is playing this role. He states:

Wozniak tells us, "The fear that many might have is that Ashton was selected because he's 'hot' right now. But I feel that his selection was done in the most professional manner. And I'm glad that he's onboard. I think he'll put a lot into it and that he cares about this particular subject."

That's exactly what we need to see from Kutcher for this to really turn out great, and for him to impress all the doubters. Speaking of exactly that, Hulme says they're already working on a tagline: "We actually are tagging the film right now, at least a working tag, Get Inspired." Speaking of what this film will actually focus on, while the original report only stated it will chronicle Jobs from "wayward hippie to co-founder of Apple", Hulme clarifies what exactly their story is about - "Jobs will focus on the Apple CEO's early years":

"We decided between 1971, the initial partnership of Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, is where we would start and then the bulk of the script remains in the early years of Apple and the recruiting of [former Apple CEO] John Sculley from Pepsi and then of course Jobs' ousting and a smaller portion is his triumph and his return," Hulme said.

That seems to span quite a bit of time, the entire early half of his career, but it sounds like it'll end right when he's getting back into the modern era of Apple we know today. He returned in 1997 and lead it to its massive success today, before passing away last October. To be honest, I'm considerably excited for this project, I definitely want to see another great film in the same vein as The Social Network focusing on the legendary Steve Jobs, right as his company continues to conquer the world. It sounds like Kutcher is going all out and I can't wait to see what his portrayal turns out like. We'll continue to keep you updated on this.

Filed under Casting, Hype, Indies, Movie News

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