Brad Pitt's 'Moneyball' Off the Injured Reserve

At long last, Moneyball. Columbia was going to shoot the movie last summer, but pulled up stakes around 72 hours before Stephen Soderbergh was set to film. Then the studio had Joe Pesci drive Soderbergh out to the middle of nowhere to beat him with a baseball bat. So, Soderbergh left the project over budgetary concerns and a script the studio didn't like. Aaron Sorkin re-wrote it and Bennett Miller (Capote) will now direct it, and Deadline says everything's a go again for this summer. There are a few things that remain the same, and a few things that have changed. For starters, Brad Pitt is still playing Oakland A's GM Billy Beane, upon whose story the book is based. But he has likely had to ditch some upfront cash in favor of a higher percentage after the fact should the movie succeed. Deadline notes it's the same strategy Sandra Bullock used for Blind Side, which I think means Angelina Jolie's about to sleep with a woman who has even more tattoos. Don't know if "Bombshell" McGee is a contractual deal or not, though. We'll keep you posted. The budget now is around $47 million, down about 20% from Soderbergh's rate. The format of the movie has been shifted, too. Instead of a docu-drama approach (with oodles of baseball player cameos and...um...animation), Miller will have a more run-of-the-mill sports bio-pic, albeit behind the scenes. Another fairly recent development is the signing of Jonah Hill, who will play Beane's stat-obsessed right hand man, Paul De Podesta. I really don't know if a movie about the business of baseball will sell a lot of tickets when movies about the on-field product have struggled in recent years. I guess that's why you go out and get a Brad Pitt, but this might be better off as an ESPN movie than a theatrical release.