The Second Coming of Steve Jobs - Alan Deutschman [107]
Larry finally latched on to Steve and Laurene and tried to remain in their little circle, but Steve managed to throw off Larry so he could continue to circulate among his guests.
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A BUG’S LIFE won the bug-movie wars. It earned $163 million in U.S. box-office receipts compared to $91 million for DreamWorks’s Antz. By the summer of 1999, Bug’s eclipsed even Toy Story as it became one of the five top-grossing animated films ever.
Business Week ran a cover story with the headline “Steve Jobs, Movie Mogul,” which elicited a few raised eyebrows in Hollywood. “Up in Silicon Valley or from Steve’s point of view, he’s a movie mogul,” says a successful film producer who has worked in the technology business as well. “Down here, he’s a guy who made a couple of movies.”
The Hollywood types knew that while Steve’s photo appeared on the magazine covers, John Lasseter was the overwhelming creative force at Pixar. “Everything that goes through Pixar has to have John’s seal of approval,” says Pam Kerwin. John signed off on every commercial, every THX trailer, even the details of the attraction at Disney’s theme park in Florida, where the characters Flik and Hopper sing “It’s Tough to Be a Bug.”
“John is the Pixar asset,” says Pam. “Everything there revolves on executing his creative vision.”
Although John was as much of an autocrat at Pixar as Steve was at Apple, John’s style of dictatorship was far more benevolent. John struggled with the extraordinary demands on his time, and he could lose his temper occasionally and be abrupt with people, but mostly he was a very nurturing and positive manager. He was very physically supportive of his people, giving them hugs and pats on the back to make them feel good. John was something of an overgrown boy, but he was also a sympathetic father figure. He was raising his five children, all boys, at his quirky house in the Sonoma wine country, which had an eight-foot-tall statue of Woody, the cowboy doll from Toy Story.
John realized that Pixar’s future would ultimately be bigger than himself. He needed to cultivate other directors with their own creative visions and unique styles. He gave more autonomy to talented artists such as Andrew Stanton. He gave Jan Pinkava the freedom to direct Geri’s Game, which won the Oscar for best animated short. But the ultimate responsibility for Pixar’s artistic direction depended on John.
John was overweight, so Pixar hired a personal chef and a personal trainer for him at the office. He was too vital for the company to tolerate any risk to his health.
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IN 1999 THE NEW YEAR began, as always, with Macworld. In his keynote speech, Steve Jobs unveiled the four new “fruit-flavored” colors for the iMac. He also showed off a new latch so it would be easier to open up the computer and get at the circuitry inside.
The crowd loved it. Steve was a rock star to them.
Bill Gates obtained a videotape of Steve’s speech and watched it on his VCR. He was astonished by how Steve could excite an audience of thousands of people with such seemingly trivial pieces of news. What was such a big deal, Bill thought. Colors? A latch?
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APPLE’S PUBLIC RELATIONS people kept tirelessly promoting the idea that middle age and family had made Steve nicer, mellower, and more mature. It was a shrewd effort to cover up that Steve was becoming more and more insufferable as he exulted in his renewed fame.
One time Steve called Ed Zander, the No. 2 executive at Sun Microsystems, who was taking over the day-to-day responsibilities for running the company.
“I want to see you right away,” Steve said.
“I have stuff on my calendar,” Ed said.
“No, it has to be right away,” Steve insisted.
Steve walked into Ed’s office and screamed at him for forty-five minutes about how Sun was “all fucked up.”
“I see this is the new mellow Steve,” Ed said.
Steve laughed and ended his tirade.
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AS THE MEDIA renewed its hero-worshiping adulation of Steve, he responded by subjecting journalists to some of his worst abuse. New