Updates: Bennett Miller Takes Moneyball, Plus Minor Bourne 4 And Jack Ryan Details

A month ago there was news that two directors were possibly in line to take Steven Soderbergh's place on Moneyball: Marc Webb of (500) Days of Summer and Capote's Bennett Miller. At the time, there was conflicting info on who was first in line. THR seemed to emphasize Webb, but The Playlist had been told that Webb's offer was old and that Miller was really the guy in line for the job.Variety now confirms the latter info, saying that Miller is being tapped for the job. Questions linger: what is the new script, by Aaron Sorkin, really like? While Brad Pitt remains attached, will he actually make the film? What will the budget end up being, with or without Pitt? (It was in the realm of $60m with Soderbergh on board.) If Sony really has Miller signed, we should know some of those details soon.

After the break, some minor stuff on Bourne 4 and the new Jack Ryan movie.

Matt Damon has been doing work to promote Invictus, and interactions with the press naturally led to questions about the fourth Jason Bourne movie, from which director Paul Greengrass just walked. In classic movie star style, Damon is being diplomatic about the idea of another film ("I feel like someday it's going to happen,") but less diplomatic about doing it with a new director.

"Paul's got to go to work, you know? He's ready to do another job, and it wasn't the right job now. I get it. I wouldn't do it without him but I don't feel like he's done with it totally. I think he'd change his mind if a good script came along." Interpret that as you will. [EW]

Finally, as Invictus producer Mace Neufeld is also working on the new Jack Ryan film for Paramount, there have been opportunities to pressure him on the status of that project. He's reiterated that the film is not based on an existing novel (which we've known for ages) and that Chris Pine is the new Jack Ryan. He says the Hossein Amini draft will be rewritten by Adam Cozad. (Not a red flag; pretty standard procedure there, especially for a large franchise reboot.)

The only big new detail Neufeld gave out is embedded in the following quote:

We pick him up when he's on Wall Street...[but] the Jack Ryan movies have never been action films. They're kind of 'thinking man's thrillers.' Jack is referred to as a 'water-walker' because of his ability to jump ahead to conclusions. That's very big in all the Jack Ryan films and that's how we want to portray him. He's a teacher. He's a historian. He's a linguist. And he's really smart.

Neufeld says the film is not an origin story, but the character's work on Wall Street predates his tenure with the CIA. So starting on Wall St. and non-origin story don't seem to go together.  [ComingSoon]