David Fincher Won't Direct the Steve Jobs Biopic

Crushing our dreams of a The Social Network reunion, it turns out David Fincher won't direct the Steve Jobs biopic that Aaron Sorkin is writing the script for and Sony is producing. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio balked at the $10 million up-front fee that Fincher was seeking.

Fincher is said to be seeking a hefty $10 million up front in fees, as well as control over marketing, in negotiations with the studio. Sony allowed him considerable input into the marketing of the 2011 film The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, including honoring his request to use the tagline "The feel bad movie of Christmas" in its campaign. A source says Fincher also had the studio create metal, razor-blade-shaped one-sheet materials for the film that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce but were not suitable for display in theaters.

This is super disappointing. Considering that The Social Network was the best movie of 2010 (sorry, The King's Speech fans), I would have loved to have seen what the talent behind that film could have done with Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography.

Throw in the fact that Fincher wanted to cast Christian Bale as Jobs, and this is going to be one of those hypothetical projects that BuzzFeed adds to listicles entitled "11 Movies You Didn't Know Almost Happened." I'll read that article, but I would have rather seen this movie.