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Wednesday
06May2009

Soderbergh Wants Cartoon Character in 'Moneyball'

DateWednesday, May 6, 2009 at 2:22PM
We reported yesterday that you can download Steven Soderbergh's new film The Girlfriend Experience now at Amazon, even though it won't be in theaters for another few weeks. Soderbergh clearly marches to the beat of his own drummer, and with the Ocean's money he's earned and with the Oscar win in his back pocket, Soderbergh can afford to take a few chances where other directors wouldn't dream of it.

To that end, the filmmaker is throwing around the idea of having an animated character in Moneyball, which is presumably a fairly straight ahead sports business movie otherwise. The story comes from the book about Oakland A's GM Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), who kind of revolutionized the sport because of the way he found great talent to play in a smaller market with a lower payroll.

He was able to do that in part because of sabermetics, a statistical analysis of player performance pioneered by Bill James, and in the film, Soderbergh thinks casting James doesn't do the impact of the character enough justice.

“We have this sort of oracle character that appears throughout and declaims various issues and he’s essentially supposed to be Bill James,” Soderbergh told MTV. “He’s your host in a way. The background will be real but the person who is supposed to be him will be animated.”

But isn't that just a gimmick? “It needs a gimmick,” Soderbergh insists. “It needs something to make it not Masterpiece Theatre."

"His writer voice is so big, I thought to literalize it is going to actually harm it. I need to make his voice funny and when he comes on you’re happy to see it.”

How this could work: Rotoscoping, something that still has an underlying reality to it. I think shoving a cartoon character into what is essentially a biography could backfire or at the very least cause an unnecessary distraction.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment2 Comments |

Reader Comments (2)

American Splendor?

Wednesday, May 6, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterZack Solomon

Slightly different scenarios.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009 | Registered CommenterColin Boyd

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