Christian Bale Confirmed To Play Steve Jobs In Biopic, Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin Calls Fast-Talking Role ‘Extremely Difficult’

After months of speculation, Christian Bale has been confirmed to play Steve Jobs in an upcoming biopic on the late Apple founder.

Although Leonardo DiCaprio was originally rumored to be in negotiations to play the lead role, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin says Bale is the perfect actor to tackle the "extremely difficult role."

"What we needed was the best actor," Sorkin told Bloomberg TV in an interview published on Thursday. "You know, it's like the NFL draft. There are some people who make a science out of exactly...'We need to draft a middle inside linebacker who can do this' and other teams say, 'Who's the best athlete on the board?' We needed the best actor on the board, in a certain age range, and that's Chris Bale."

Sorkin won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2011 for "The Social Network," a film centered on Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The critically-acclaimed film and television writer revealed in the interview on Thursday that there was no question that Bale was the right choice for the role of legendary Apple, Inc. co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs.

"He didn't have to audition," said Sorkin, adding, "Well, there was a meeting."

Sorkin, who is known for writing rich and fast-moving language for the screen, admitted that portraying Jobs will present Bale with a challenge.

"The role is an extremely difficult role," said Sorkin. "He has more words to say in this movie than most people have in three movies combined. There isn't a scene or frame that he's not in and there's a tremendous amount of language. So it's an extremely difficult part and he's gonna crush it."

Earlier this year, Sorkin revealed that the film, which will be directed by Oscar-winner Danny Boyle, will consist of "three scenes, and three scenes only, that all take place in real time."

The project is based on a biography written by Walter Isaacson. In the book, the author quoted an Apple II engineer who says that many Apple employees were afraid of Jobs "because of his spontaneous temper tantrums and his proclivity to tell everyone exactly what he thought, which often wasn't very favorable."