The director of comedy films Borat and Bruno is working on a show that lampoons Apple chief executive Steve Jobs.
iCON will focus on lead character Tom Rhodes, "a composite of Jobs and other Silicon Valley titans," according to a press release from indie television studio Media Rights Capital. The satirical show will be "a study of ego, power and greed."
The series will be written by Dan Lyons, best known for his "Fake Steve Jobs" blog, in which he pretends to be an ultra-cocky, egomaniacal version of Apple's CEO. Larry Charles, who directed the Sasha Baron Cohen films Borat and Bruno, will oversee development of the script and direct the pilot episode. Though the show will initially draw inspiration from Jobs, it's intended to take a broader look at tech culture, in the same way that Entourage provided sharp commentary on Hollywood.
Don't expect to see iCON in primetime. The show will air on EPIX, which at the moment is only carried through Verizon's FiOS TV service. However, the channel hopes that iCON can boost the network's status as a purveyor of edgy content, in the same way that Mad Men, Weeds and Burn Notice raised the profiles of AMC, Showtime and USA, respectively. I say EPIX is in a much smaller league than any of those networks, but I still like the idea of the show.
The real Steve Jobs tries to stay out of the limelight -- though this has only fueled his mystique -- and only recently began cooperating with a biographer, according to the New York Times. I'd be surprised if Jobs ever comments at all about this upcoming show. No word on when it will air.
