wyle
Latest
The All-ER lineup: Clooney and Wyle look to (re)-tackle Steve Jobs film role
No cited sources for this tidbit -- not even the usual "a person close to the production" -- but the UK's Now magazine sparked a rumor wildfire this week when it suggested that two veterans of NBC's ER are both interested in playing Steve Jobs for the upcoming film version of Walter Isaacson's biography. George Clooney and Noah Wyle (50 and 40 years old, respectively) are the two leading men in question; if you guessed Anthony Edwards and Goran Visnjic, sorry. The younger Wyle has two advantages in this horse race; for one, he's played Jobs before in the TV movie Pirates of Silicon Valley. For another, he's younger -- if the producers hope to have a single actor portray the Apple co-founder from his Reed College & Cupertino garage days all the way forward through his life, they'll either need an actor in the middle of that range or some serious help from the CGI wizards at Pixar. If I were the one casting this film, I'd forgo the high-wattage but aging Clooney and the been-there-done-that Wyle for something different. Maybe a performer with a legitimate claim to Jobs's Middle Eastern heritage (Alexander Siddig?) or a credible indie favorite with an edge (Sam Rockwell). Of course, if we want the perfect combination of Steve-esque looks and fan favorite, there's always Justin Long. Fortune's Apple 2.0 blog has a poll running which shows a dramatic (5 to 1) preference for Wyle over Clooney. [hat tip to CNET]
