Sundance 2013: Open Road in Talks for Ashton Kutcher's Steve Jobs Biopic

11:35 AM PST 1/2/2013 by Daniel Miller

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Deal for "jOBS," which will close the festival, would have producers commit to pay for its marketing.

Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs in "jOBS"

Open Road Films is in talks to distribute jOBS, the Steve Jobs biopic that will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

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The deal is not yet complete, according to a source. Insiders describe it as a "rent-a-system" deal, where the producers commit to pay for the marketing of the film. The project was produced by Five Star Feature Films.

Open Road declined comment.

Since Kutcher's casting in jOBS was revealed in April, interest in the project has grown steadily. The Joshua Michael Stern-directed biopic was written by Matt Whiteley and also features Dermot Mulroney, Josh Gad, Lukas Haas, J.K. Simmons and Matthew Modine.

The film tracks Jobs' life starting in the early 1970s, when, after dropping out of Reed College, he began his climb to become king of the tech world as co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc. Jobs died of pancreatic cancer in October 2011.

CAA packaged jOBS and is representing the film's distribution rights domestically; Inferno is handling sales overseas.

This year's Sundance Film Festival, which runs Jan. 17 to 27, will screen 115 feature-length films representing 32 countries; the haul includes projects from 51 first-time filmmakers, including 27 films that are in competition. jOBS is set as the festival's closing-night film.

Email: Daniel.Miller@THR.com

Twitter: @DanielNMiller