"Moneyball": New Baseball Movie w/Brad Pitt Back On Track

storm888

Sony Hires Sorkin to Rework Brad Pitt’s ‘Moneyball’ (Update1)

Share | Email | Print | A A A

By Michael White

July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp. has revived the Brad Pitt baseball film “Moneyball” after hiring “The West Wing” writer and producer Aaron Sorkin to rework the script, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

Pitt remains committed to the movie, based on Michael Lewis’s book about Billy Beane, general manager of Major League Baseball’s Oakland A’s, the person said yesterday. The studio is looking for a director to replace Steven Soderbergh, according to the person.

Sony Pictures Entertainment stopped work on the film days before filming was scheduled to begin after Soderbergh submitted a revised script. The studio may have concluded that the changes reduced the film’s prospects, Variety reported at the time. Sony gave Soderbergh the option to offer his revised script to other studios, the person said.

Soderbergh’s manager, Michael Sugar, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

Culver City, California-based Sony Pictures is developing another Sorkin script, “The Social Network,” a film about the creation of the Facebook Inc. Web site, according to the Internet Movie Database. On “Moneyball,” he’s working from a script by Steve Zaillian, the person said.

Sony spokesman Jim Kennedy said the studio had no comment. Sony shares slipped 0.4 percent to 2,240 yen as of the 11 a.m. trading break in Tokyo. They’ve gained 17 percent this year.

Game Changer

Pitt was cast to play Beane, who recruited undervalued players to turn the A’s into playoff contenders. Lewis’s book chronicles how he assembled his team by ignoring standard measures of performance, such as batting averages. Instead, Beane hired unheralded players with, for instance, a high percentage of walks. Lewis is a columnist for Bloomberg News.

Before the Oakland A’s hired Beane to be the general manager in 1997, the team had five straight losing years. To rebuild his roster, Beane turned to Paul DePodesta, an assistant general manager, to help him analyze baseball statistics.

Beane and DePodesta found that players who get on base more often tend to score more runs, leading to more victories. The implication was that players with high walk and low strikeout percentages may not be superstars, but they do win ballgames.

Among the other changes for “Moneyball,” Scott Rudin has become a co-producer of the film, joining Michael De Luca, the person said. Rudin’s producing credits include “No Country for Old Men,” winner of the best-picture Oscar last year, and “There Will Be Blood,” which was nominated for the award.

No Blockbusters

“A League of Our Own,” Sony’s 1992 comedy starring Tom Hanks, generated ticket sales of $107.5 million, making it the only baseball film to take in more than $100 million in the U.S. and Canada, according to Box Office Mojo LLC, which tracks receipts. The film was made for about $40 million, the Web site said. The average sales for 37 baseball films listed on the Burbank, California-based site are $25.3 million.

Sony ranks fifth in 2009 box-office receipts at theaters in the U.S. and Canada with $587.4 million in sales as of June 21, according to Box Office Mojo. Time Warner is first with $896.1 million.

To contact the reporters on this story: Michael White in Los Angeles at mwhite@bloomberg.net.

30

DrJ

I am a baseball fan, but this really sounds like a boring movie and a guaranteed box office flop even with Brad Pitt. To top it all off, the A's have not won a World Series in the Money Ball era so is making the playoffs going to be the happy ending of the film?

Sony has been shooting themselves in the foot with their business decisions for years. This is a company which owned the portable music platform for years but held onto Minidisk as an MP3 delivery platform, which failed as a stand alone delivery platform, while apple gobbled up market share and established themselves as the market leader with the iPod.

It just seems like they never know when to cut losses with a losing idea. Pure arrogance.

Disclaimer: I have (3) Sony TVs in my home.

fandango

it would be a good story if the A's were good.....they are terrible and in no way can you call any part of Cali small market....

bman90278

Glad to hear its back on track. I was really surprised when the movie got shelved ...it was just a couple of days away from shooting when it got canceled last month. Hopefully, they rehire the same crew from the original build.

Brian

Tabe

<< <i>it would be a good story if the A's were good.....they are terrible and in no way can you call any part of Cali small market.... >>


Yeah, winning one playoff series in 15 years while finishing under .500 the last two years (and a third coming this year) is successful? And I'm with you, it's a joke to call Oakland a "small" market.

Tabe

hammered

Boring.
I read the book and it was mildly entertaining, but I got the gist of it about 20 pages in.
They will really need to embellish the story to make it an interesting movie.