Boy, just when you thought “Iron Man 2” couldn’t possibly age worse than it already has, you remember that it came complete with an Elon Musk cameo, too. What a world, folks. Yeah, the reports are true that the notoriously impulsive billionaire is set to get the big-screen treatment with one of our most accomplished filmmakers behind the wheel. This is what we’ve come to.
For those wondering about the tone of this biography, specifically whether it will be as eviscerating as “The Social Network” or something much more flattering and less incisive, a previous interview with author Walter Isaacson by the Financial Times might reveal a clue or two. According to the writer, his plans to write about Musk came together shockingly quickly in 2021. Before he knew it, he was on the phone with the public figure to lay out his stipulations:
“So someone set up a phone call with [Musk] and we talked for an hour and a half, and I told him that if I do this I need total access, and you have absolutely no control over the book. None.”
Musk readily agreed, apparently without even doing basic research into Isaacson’s previous work on “Steve Jobs” (which the Jobs family famously denounced). Elsewhere in the interview are such gems as Isaacson’s reaction to Musk’s Twitter takeover (“Musk doesn’t have empathy and so Twitter was not a good fit for him,” he says), comparing Musk’s unpredictable mood swings to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the fact that Musk is hopelessly “addicted to drama.” On second thought, maybe this biopic won’t be so bad after all? Stay tuned to /Film for more updates on this as they come in.
