Baseball movie 'Moneyball' takes the field again

July 10, 12:00 AMLA Asian American Movie ExaminerEd Moy

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Steven Soderbergh

Baseball will take to the big screen in a new movie after all.

Sony has apparently relieved director Steven Soderbergh from the baseball movie "Moneyball," and replaced him with Aaron Sorkin to polish an early script by Steve Zaillian.

According to an article in Variety, Brad Pitt is still attached to star in the Columbia Pictures' adaptation of Michael Lewis' nonfiction bestseller "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game."

Production on "Moneyball" was originally set to start last month, but studio head Amy Pascal shutdown the movie just days before principal photography was to begin when Soderbergh reportedly turned in a new version of the script the studio didn't want to make.

The movie was then rumored to be in limited turnaround at the time, giving other studios the chance to pick it up.

But Variety reports that Sony is now going to keep the project, and Sorkin's presence assures that the film will fall in line with a version the studio favored all along, focusing on Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane, who assembled a contending baseball club on a shoestring budget by employing a sophisticated computer-based analysis to draft players.

Rumor was that Soderbergh's draft and production plans took a more documentary approach than the studio was comfortable with when considering the fact that Brad Pitt was cast as the star.

Personally, I think that Sony made a good move.  Although Soderbergh's experimental digital feature "The Girlfriend Experience" was praised by some critics, I found it to be a mostly empty and boring character study.

Although a documentary style might have given the movie more authenticity, it would have had less appeal to non-baseball fans and probably diminished commercial success at the box office.

Sorkin is expected to be completed with his revamp by August.

Sony is said to be high on Sorkin after recently picking up his script "The Social Network," which revolves around the formation of Facebook. David Fincher is attached to direct that pic.

"Moneyball" also fits in well with Sorkin's previous experience as the creator and writer of ABC's drama "Sports Night."

Michael DeLuca, based on the Sony lot, is producing both "Moneyball" and "The Social Network."

Sony initially optioned Lewis' book in 2004. Stan Chervin penned the initial draft of the script.

Hopefully the Sorkin version of the movie will be ready in time for next baseball season.