Inside 'Steve Jobs,' the movie (pictures)

Set backstage in the minutes before three iconic product launches spanning Steve Jobs’ career -- starting with the Macintosh in 1984 and ending with the unveiling of the iMac in 1998 -- the film "Steve Jobs" takes us behind the scenes of the digital revolution to give an intimate look at one of its main players.

Shot in the San Francisco Bay Area, the film was directed by Danny Boyle. "San Francisco is the Bethlehem of the Digital Age," Boyle says, "the home of the second Industrial Revolution."

Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple, is played by Seth Rogen (right).

Director Danny Boyle on Wozniak: "It was beyond valuable having the real Steve Wozniak around during rehearsal to talk to us about his experience with Jobs, and with Apple. Seth had the essence of Woz, right from the beginning. I can’t verbalize it; there’s something in Seth’s performance that reaches to the root of Woz’s character."

From left to right: Michael Stuhlbarg as Andy Hertzfeld, Michael Fassbender as Jobs, and Kate Winslet as Joanna Hoffman. Hertzfeld and Hoffman were members of the team that developed the original Mac.

Lead actor Michael Fassbender reflects on the film: "This story is important because Steve Jobs changed all of our lives. He changed the way the world works, the way we communicate and interact with one another, how we watch films, how we listen to music and how we buy goods."

Fassbender on character Joanna Hoffman (played by Kate Winslet), a member of the team that produced the first Mac and one of the original employees at NeXT, the company Jobs started after being forced out of Apple: "I think Joanna had quite an impact on Steve. There’s footage of a NeXT retreat after Jobs is ousted from Apple, and you can see that she doesn’t pull any punches with him. She keeps him honest, and I think Kate really captures that spirit in her performance."

Composer Daniel Pemberton says of the film's score, "I really love when Steve claps his hands and this grand opera piece begins -- he was constantly being compared to a maestro in his career, and here, cinematically speaking, he is one."

Director Danny Boyle and writer Aaron Sorkin on the set of "Steve Jobs." Sorkin also scripted "The Social Network," about the advent of Facebook. Boyle directed "Trainspotting" and "Slumdog Millionaire."

Michael Fassbender waxes visionary in the lead role.

Fassbender as Jobs (right) with Jeff Daniels, who plays John Sculley, the man who tossed Jobs out of Apple.

Fassbender says of Sculley: "The fact of the matter was that Jobs needed somebody to handle the board of Apple. As far as the board was concerned, they respected Steve as a maverick genius of the tech world, but they found him difficult to deal with -- they did not see him as CEO material. Steve’s thinking was that Sculley could control the board -- he commanded their respect and they held him in authority -- but Sculley knew nothing about computers, so Jobs could manipulate him."

Kate Winslet and Danny Boyle talk during the filming of "Steve Jobs."

Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs and Perla Haney-Jardine, who plays Jobs' daughter Lisa in "Steve Jobs."

Director Danny Boyle on the Flint Auditorium: "The Flint Auditorium at De Anza Community College, in the heart of Cupertino, [California] was where the actual Macintosh launch in 1984 took place. That stage was where Steve Jobs unveiled the Macintosh that day. So we were standing in his footsteps, literally."