Early this month Tim Cook sat down with Stephen Colbert for an interview and called movies made about Steve Jobs "opportunistic." Yesterday, during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin issued a scathing response to Cook, saying "if you've got a factory full of children in China assembling phones for 17 cents an hour you've got a lot of nerve calling someone else opportunistic."
Today, during an interview with E! News, Sorkin walked back his comments, saying that both he and Cook went a little too far.
"You know what, I think that Tim Cook and I probably both went a little too far. And I apologize to Tim Cook. I hope when he sees the movie, he enjoys it as much as I enjoy his products."
Sorkin's Steve Jobs film, which stars Michael Fassbender as Jobs and Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak will be released in New York and Los Angeles on October 9. The film will expand to more theaters on October 16 and open nationwide on October 23. Early reviews of Steve Jobs have called it "thrilling", with Oscar buzz surrounding the film.
The film is based on Walter Isaacson's best-selling biography, which Cook has said does a "tremendous disservice" to the Steve Jobs that he knew. The movie follows Jobs during three product launches, providing a behind-the-scenes look at how Jobs interacted with friends, colleagues and family.
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(View all)Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I always take a moment to tell anyone thank you when they walk back themselves in an argument or disagreement. I wish I saw it happen more often rather than watch people get entrenched once they've voiced an initial opinion.
Very true. Although what he did was walk back Tim's comment as well as his own, as if they were equivalent. But one comment was a very casual (and reasonable) opinion, about multiple for-profit movies, from someone whose friend died a couple years ago. The other was a quite blatant lie about a matter of factual record, and a very direct and UNreasonable attack against a man (and company) who has in fact done far more than the competition to keep children out of the workforce and get China to treat workers more fairly--while openly and publicly documenting the problems and the progress. And the apology failed to correct that lie, further cementing the damage when many believe it.Cook was entitled to his opinion and I wholeheartedly agree with him. It would piss me off as well.