Sony Strikes Out Soderbergh’s Moneyball

Published by Jeff Leins on: June 22nd, 2009

At nearly the eleventh hour, Sony has put the brakes on Moneyball, a Steven Soderbergh film starring Brad Pitt.  Production was supposed to start this morning in Phoenix, but Sony/Columbia’s co-chairman Amy Pascal has put it into “limited turnaround,” meaning the two talents were free to shop it elsewhere for the weekend.  The logical choices are Warner Bros, which was once home to Soderbergh’s Section Eight, and Paramount, which houses Pitt’s Plan B production company.

The last minute decision came after Soderbergh handed in a week-old rewrite of Steven Zaillian’s greenlit script.  Both are an adaptation of Michael Lewis’ nonfiction book about the Oakland Athletics and their GM Billy Beane.  Apparently Pascal wasn’t happy with the changes the Oscar-winning director made or the direction it was headed, so she stopped everything on Friday.  The story itself is already different than the conventional sports narrative.  An LA Times piece called the project an “unusual studio picture.”

Sony will wait to see if a new financial backer emerges today before either replacing Soderbergh (which could mean Pitt walks) or pulling the plug on the film entirely.  The latter move could be a significant loss considering the director has already shot interviews with real ball players (Lenny Dykstra, Mookie Wilson and Darryl Strawberry) and the studio just finished a three month preparation of camera tests, budgeting (a reported $57 million), and casting.  Pitt was to star alongside comedian Demetri Martin, an animated version of stat man Bill James (seriously), and actual baseball players (David Justice and Scott Hatteberg as actors).

This is the exact opposite of Pitt’s 2007 departure from State of Play, which saw delays as they negotiated with Russell Crowe to replace him.  Edward Norton left shortly after.  The movie ended up being a disappointment for Sony financially despite being a overall great film.

I’m sure we’ll hear more about this as the situation develops within the next few days.