MY MOVIE WEEKwith Mike Shaw

» What incredibly surprising news. A Steve Jobs biopic is already on the way, with Sony Pictures securing the film rights to the upcoming official biography of the late Apple boss.

The authorised biography of the tech and gadgetry guru was written with his complete support and Jobs’ close friends and family members also helped shaped the material, so it’ll be more than the usual 400 pages of rumour and supposition.

The book was scheduled for a November 21 release date but this has been pushed forward to this week in light of his recent death. It is expected that the movie will be similarly fast-tracked into production.

So, the speculation over who will play Jobs starts now.

Casting director Tammara Bilk says: “When you’re casting somebody to play someone that is familiar to audiences, you’re never going to get somebody that is going to look exactly like them. So you have to get at the sort of internal essence of the person. You have to get their energy.”

With a Jobs biopic, there’s the added difficulty of finding someone who can play him both as a young man starting Apple Computer in his parents’ garage in 1976 and as the 50-something CEO who became the public face of the iPod/Pad/Phone.

And then there’s the dramatic weight loss Jobs saw in his final years as he battled pancreatic cancer.

For that reason, some folk are touting Christian Bale as perfect for the role (his weight loss/gain for movie roles is the stuff of legend), but I don’t think he’d be right. He’s Patrick Bateman and Batman – could you really buy him as a nerd? Even when he was dangerously thin in The Machinist, he still had an aura of menace about him.

My initial thoughts were Adrien Brody (shares Jobs’ distinctive nose) and Edward Norton (good actor and would be able to play young and older Jobs), but – having given it careful thought – I’ve got my heart set on Crispin Glover. He’s a great actor, with a distinctive nose, with experience of playing young and old in the same film (Back To The Future).

Jobs has already been portrayed on screen once, by ER’s Noah Wyle in 1999 TV movie, Pirates of Silicon Valley, but I think it’s safe to say Wyle won’t get a look-in this time round, unless the film’s casting budget drops to $500 and a tube of Pringles. What do you lot think?

» Six-times Oscar nominee Jim Sheridan has fought to have his name taken off his latest film – supernatural thriller Dream House starring Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts and Rachel Weisz. The trouble began when Sheridan encouraged his actors to improvise, deviating from David Loucka’s script.

Morgan Creek Productions, who are backing the film, recut the film after it did badly in test screenings, prompting Sheridan to request that his credit be taken off the film altogether.

However, the director of In America, My Left Foot and In the Name of the Father relented when the studio agreed to fund reshoots to fix the problem. But Morgan Creek denied Sheridan a final cut clause in his contract, so they recut it against his wishes anyway, resulting in the director reinstating his petition to have his name slashed from the credits and promotional materials.

Some commentators are saying that it’s petulant behaviour, but I can understand where Sheridan is coming from. If I wrote an article that was changed substantially against my wishes, I wouldn’t want my name on it – and that’s just something I have bashed out in the few cogent moments I have between laudanum-soaked madness; I can’t imagine how furious I’d feel if it happened on a project as high-profile as a movie.

This doesn’t just apply to creative work though; whether it’s stacking shelves, fixing cars or teaching children how to cage fight – someone making a mess of your work will drive you mad. Poor Jim!

» A few weeks ago I talked about a 3D release of Top Gun, and now we have more news about the long-mooted sequel. In the first solid development for a long time, X-Men: First Class contributors Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz have been hired to work on a script for the film.

Director of the original, Tony Scott, is already working on developing the sequel with a focus on modern tech, including the pilots who fly drones and other vehicles via high-tech equipment – although I hope that’s not the total focus – remote control planes aren’t as exciting as real ones with people inside getting missiles shot at them.

That’s it until next week. I think I’ll go embarrass myself with Goose.