Moneyball

Why am I just hearing about this, and now I'm pissed off it isn't happening!

Has Soderbergh's Moneyball Movie Been Canned?

One of the best modern accounts of baseball put down into book form apparently was under pre-production by no less than Steven Soderbergh and Brad Pitt... that's an automatic greenlight.

The "story" is that of how GM Billy Bean used math [specifically, On Base Percentage metrics] to evaluate players that the traditional scouts refused to grasp.

The story is that just 96 hours before shooting was to start, the production was shut down!
The story from Columbia Pictures was that there were some serious last minute script changes, and they pulled the plug.

One unusual element in the planned film? Soderbergh intended to drop "interviews with such ballplayers as Beane's former Mets teammates Lenny Dykstra, Mookie Wilson and Darryl Strawberry" throughout the show. Could have been cute. Kind of 'When Harry Met Sally' ish... not so good for a baseball picture.

So there's two chances that this is made - one, they're able to take it to another studio, and two, it'll get made, but it might suck?

Pitt was going to be Beane, comedian Demitri Martin as number-cruncher Paul De Podesta, and charming ballplayer Scott Hatteberg as himself sticking it to the smug baseball establishment.

Your thoughts?

Oh, you haven't read the book?! Well, get on it!