moneyball_sorkin_pitt

Just the other day I said we probably wouldn’t run any more Moneyball news for a while, and that turned out to be a big fat lie. Because THR is reporting that Aaron Sorkin (who created the show Sports Night, remember) has signed on to rewrite the film for Sony. Steven Soderbergh no longer has anything to do with the project, and a potential director is yet to be announced. But the studio obviously wants to make good on the $10-14m already spent on the project, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a name before too long.

Interestingly, this is very much of a piece with the other big Sorkin script we’ve been talking about recently: The Social Network, aka Facebook The Movie. Sorkin’s Facebook script was described as being without structure and directed conflict, and indeed that’s very much the case based on what I’ve scanned so far today. And Soderbergh’s draft of Moneyball was described in similar terms; kind of an interesting character piece, but one that wasn’t a story in conventional Hollywood terms. Intriguing that Sorkin would be signed to rewrite a script that is in many ways like a draft he just turned in for a different project.

Otherwise, things are much the same. Brad Pitt is still on board to star as Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s manager who used non-traditional statistical systems to build the cheapest winning team in baseball. (Not that whatever deal he and Sony have really means anything; I figure it’s even odds at best that he’ll actually appear in the film when it gets moving.) No word on Demetri Martin, who was set to play Beane’s assistant Paul DePodesta. Over the past few weeks, Soderbergh had been shooting interviews with real players to incorporate into the film, but I’d expect those will never see the light of day, unless Sony needs to fill space on the DVD.

  • Nick
    Boo. Bring back Soderbergh, give him complete creative control and final cut and release it immediately after completion.
  • lolz
    The Nr.1 reason Sony is hessitant with this, is the fact that Baseball [ please ignore the rest of this comment, if this movie isn't related to that at all]. Is highly unpopular in virtually all of the rest of the world. And so overseas, the film will massively lack in sales.
  • Aaron Sorkin's batting average on projects is higher than Steven Soderbergh's. Sometimes experimentation produces a good movie, but Soderbergh puts out movies like they are film school projects. I'll take Sorkin's writing over Soderbergh's. I'd still like to see him direct, though that doesn't like look like it's happening.
  • Andrew
    Why is this project such a big deal?
  • bobpayne
    I want this movie to happen so much. Aside from being a such a hugely informative book, there's this little strand of a redemption story in Billy Beane, and it would be awesome to see it on the screen.
  • Latesh0w66
    Thomas Schlamme?
blog comments powered by Disqus