Moneyball Finds Itself in the 11th Hour, not 11th Inning

Talk about a changeup pitch. Not liking the changes that were implemented in the shooting script, Variety reports that Columbia Pictures’ Amy Pascal is throwing a wrench into the production which was supposed to begin tomorrow in Phoenix. Steven Soderbergh’s Moneyball is in the 11th hour  (we put it among our top productions to watch out for in our Tracking Shot feature) but is hopeful that a film to star Brad Pitt will find a suitor. The major knock on the film is simple math: American audiences don’t watch films about soccer and international audiences don’t care about baseball flicks.

The book focuses on Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics who used a sophisticated computer analysis system to piece together a team that regularly contended for the World Series despite a payroll dramatically lower than such big-market rivals as the New York Yankees. Many have recently claimed that Sugar was the best baseball movie, by the sounds of this project (which would intermix interviews with actual baseball players) I assumed that Moneyball could give this theory a run for its money. Judging from Soderbergh’s previous relationships, Warner Bros. might re-team with the director.

Here is how Variety describes Pascal’s point of no return: “after Pascal read the final draft delivered last week by Steve Zaillian and Steven Soderbergh and found it very different from the earlier scripts she championed. Pascal was uncomfortable enough with how Steven Soderbergh’s vision had changed that she applied the brakes.

Soderbergh and Pitt’s CAA reps spent the weekend attempting to get another studio to play ball in a game that will play out until Monday. If a new financier doesn’t emerge by tomorrow, Columbia will re-examine options that include replacing Soderbergh (and hoping that Pitt doesn’t ankle), delaying the film until she and the filmmaker find themselves in synch on the script, or pulling the plug.”