Demetri Martin Cast in Steven Soderbergh’s Moneyball
Posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Demetri Martin is on a roll. First he landed the lead role in Ang Lee’s comedy Taking Woodstock, and now he has signed to star alongside Brad Pitt in Steven Soderbergh‘s Moneyball. If it was announced next week that Martin had been cast in Scorsese’s next film, I wouldn’t be shocked at all (okay, maybe I would a little…)
Moneyball is an adaptation of the book by Michael Lewis (Moneyball: The Art to Winning an Unfair Game), which tells the story of ballplayer-turned-Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane (Pitt) who tried to create a competitive baseball team on a budget payroll. Martin will play a Harvard graduate named Paul De Podesta, who turned down jobs on Wall Street to use his statistical skills, a system known as “Earned Run Value,” to change baseball scouting tactics.
Columbia Pictures has also signed Oakland A’s team members David Justice and Scott Hatteberg to play themselves in the film. Schindler’s List and American Gangster scribe Steve Zaillian is doing a polish on the script, which was originally penned by Stan Chervin and Rachael Horovitz.
