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Laurene Powell Jobs tried to block Aaron Sorkin's Steve Jobs movie: WSJ

Laurene Powell Jobs tried to block Aaron Sorkin's Steve Jobs movie: WSJ

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The divisive response to Aaron Sorkin and Danny Boyle's new movie Steve Jobs from people who knew the Apple co-founder continues; a report in The Wall Street Journal claims that Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve's widow, tried to block the biopic by lobbying Sony and eventual distributor Universal against its release.

Steve Jobs, starring Michael Fassbender in the title role, uses material from Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs and centers around three pivotal product launches in Apple's history. "[Powell Jobs] refused to discuss anything in Aaron's script that bothered her despite my repeated entreaties," producer Scott Rudin tells the WSJ. She "continued to say how much she disliked the book, and that any movie based on the book could not possibly be accurate", according to the producer.

"The film was made with the utmost integrity."

In a statement to the WSJ, Universal Pictures chairman Donna Langley said Steve Jobs "was made with the utmost integrity and we are enormously proud of it." The studio reportedly offered to show Powell Jobs the movie under the condition that she not discuss it in public ahead of release, an offer she turned down.

Jobs' successor as CEO, Tim Cook, recently called Steve Jobs and other movies "opportunistic," prompting a harsh rebuke and subsequent apology from Sorkin. This followed Apple SVP Eddy Cue's public denouncement of The Man in the Machine, a "mean-spirited" documentary by Alex Gibney.

However, Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with Jobs and consulted on the movie, praised a rough cut of Steve Jobs, saying "I felt like I was actually watching Steve Jobs... I give full credit to Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin for getting it so right." Wozniak tells the WSJ that the movie "is about Jobs and his personality. I feel that it did a great job." Wozniak was paid $200,000 to consult on the movie according to the WSJ citing stolen documents posted online.

Steve Jobs opens in theaters this Friday.