American Hustle star Christian Bale is director David Fincher's top choice to play Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in a new biopic. The actor has not been officially approached about the role, since he is currently taking time off to spend with his family after wrapping on Ridley Scott's Exodus, which is expected to put him back on the awards hunt for his role as Moses.

The Wrap reports that David Fincher met with Sony's Amy Pascal, and insisted that he would only take on the project if Christian Bale signs onto play the entrepreneur who passed away October 5, 2011.

David Fincher and Amy Pascal reportedly had a tense relationship during the making of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but Amy Pascal believes in him as a filmmaker, and, according to an insider, is inclined to keep him happy. The executive also has a good relationship with Christian Bale after working with him on American Hustle, which earned the actor an Oscar nomination last year.

Christian Bale has long been considered a front runner to take on the role since the project was first announced, given his physical resemblance to Steve Jobs.

We reported last month that David Fincher signed on to direct from a script by Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network), based on Walter Isaacson's best-selling biography that chronicles Steve Jobs' life.

The project has been in the works for several years, with Aaron Sorkin revealing in November 2012 that the film will be made up of three half-hour speeches, when the innovator first launched the Mac computer, NeXT, and the iPod, with some dialogue taking place backstage before these iconic speeches are delivered.

Production could begin in late 2014, although an early 2015 start date is more likely, since both Christian Bale and David Fincher will be promoting their upcoming movies Exodus and Gone Girl at the end of this year.

Scott Rudin, Mark Gordon and Guymon Casady are producing, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak serving as a consultant. Despite the fact that Open Road Films' Jobs, starring Ashton Kutcher, only made $35 million worldwide last year, Sony still believes there is plenty of global interest in a Steve Jobs movie featuring A-list talent.

Here's the official description of the best-selling book below:

"Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years-as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues-Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.

Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.

Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple's hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values."