It’s widely known that Leonardo DiCaprio was originally supposed to play Steve Jobs but later passed on the upcoming Aaron Sorkin movie. What isn’t common knowledge: how Amy Pascal and the film’s producer took the news.
“Horrible behavior,” producer Mark Gordon wrote. “Actually despicable,” Pascal corrected him.
According to the stolen emails, published by the Daily Beast on Saturday, Gordon had asked the Sony Pictures co-chairman whether DiCaprio’s decision to pull out of the Apple biopic was based on money or not.
Pascal replied “the latter.”
The role ultimately went to Michael Fassbender (after Christian Bale passed, too) and the movie, which originated at Sony, was eventually picked up by Universal Pictures.
Sony declined to comment on this story.
It’s the latest fallout from a paralyzing cyber-attack against Sony Pictures in recent weeks that has seen employee information, personal emails and unreleased movies hit the Web.
Also lambasted in the new emails were Willow and Jaden Smith, the children of one of the studio’s biggest moneymakers, Will Smith. Smith’s relationship with the studio extends all the way back to 1997, when he starred in “Men in Black.”
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According to the Daily Beast, Tom Rothman, head of TriStar productions, sent a message to Sony Pictures Entertainment president Doug Belgrad on November 18 following the release of Willow and Jaden Smith’s now-infamous T Magazine interview. “1. Read this,” the email, which forwarded a link, read. “2. they r home schooled: don’t let this family date your movies!!!”
Meanwhile, exchanges between Pascal and Gosling’s talent manager Ilene Feldman had a much different tone.
“Ryan absolutely loved you,” Feldman wrote on October 3. “Said it was like speed dating because he was late after hitting every wrong gate on the lot. Not it should turn to marriage. He really wants to do something with you.”
Pascal then looked into what project Gosling was interested in pursuing, which is allegedly Paul Feig’s “Ghostbusters” female-reboot.
“There is one make [male] part paul is planning. How insane would that be… He also wants jennifer [Lawrence] and Emma [Stone],” she later wrote to Hannah Minghella, the other co-president of production at Columbia.
Other exchanges show that Sony also pursued “The Notebook” actor for “Sinister Six” and “Jobs.”
Another email chain contained an apology from George Clooney to Pascal about his lack of confidence in “The Monuments Men.”
Her reassurance to the Oscar-winner: box office is “the best revenge.”
