‘Steve Jobs’ trailer: Michael Fassbender takes on a tech iCon

Michael Fassbender takes center stage in the new trailer for “Steve Jobs,” which offers the first good glimpse of the German-Irish actor playing the charismatic Apple co-founder.

The minute-long clip begins with a wide shot of Jobs (Fassbender), his back to the camera, facing an empty auditorium -- presumably the Flint Center in Cupertino, Calif., where he unveiled the original Macintosh in 1984.

As the camera pushes in and the frame narrows, some choice lines from the Aaron Sorkin-scripted, Danny Boyle-directed biopic play in voice-over. In Jobs’ typically grandiose manner, he promises that “the planet’s going to shift on its axis nigh and forever” once he unveils his latest wonder. And he claims, “I sat in a garage and invented the future.”

We also hear from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen), who says, “You can’t write code. You are not an engineer. What do you do?”

“The musicians play the instruments,” Jobs says. “I play the orchestra.”

Eventually the frame narrows to a blinking white cursor, which spells out the title. Amid heavy applause, we finally see faces: Rogen as Wozniak, Kate Winslet as Macintosh marketing chief Joanna Hoffman, Jeff Daniels as Apple CEO John Sculley and Fassbender in Jobs’ trademark black turtleneck.

As befits the legacy of Jobs -- an inveterate showman who whipped the Apple faithful into a frenzy by keeping the company’s creations secret until just the right moment -- the teaser is enigmatic and intriguing.

Set for release Oct. 9 from Universal Pictures, the film is much anticipated on multiple levels. Jobs was of course a hugely influential and often controversial figure, and the movie is based on his bestselling biography by Walter Isaacson. There are big names on both sides of the camera: the aforementioned Sorkin, Boyle, Fassbender, Rogen and Winslet, as well as Oscar-winning producers Scott Rudin and Christian Colson.

Moreover, the film endured a roller-coaster development process that included a protracted search for a leading man and a fractious back-and-forth between Rudin and former Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal, who was originally overseeing the movie.

The row, which was made public via the Sony Pictures hacking incident, ended with Rudin taking the film to Universal. In leaked emails, Pascal wrote of losing out on “a seminal movie like ‘Citizen Kane’ for our time.”

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