Sunday, June 21, 2009

Dropping The Ball As It Crosses The Plate

Three days before production was scheduled to begin, Sony Pictures has nixed plans for Steven Soderbergh.'s baseball pic Moneyball reports Variety.

The move came on Friday after studio chief Amy Pascal apparently read the final draft delivered last week by Steven Zaillian and Soderbergh--finding it very different from the earlier drafts she had liked.

She put the pic "in limited turnaround" and gives Soderbergh the chance to set it up at another studio. Shooting was supposed to kick off on Monday in Phoenix after three months of pre-production and the cast--led by Brad Pitt- in place.

As a result there's been a scramble over the weekend to get another studio to sign on, if it can't be found by Monday then Sony could either entirely drop the project, delay it until the script issues are sorted, or replace Soderbergh and possibly Pitt.

Based on the bestselling book by Michael Lewis about Billy Beane (Pitt), the former MLB player who undermined his playing career by taking a big paycheck before he was ready, and resurfaced as The Oakland Athletics general manager who found success fielding competitive teams for low cost.

Wow! That was a pretty gutsy move by Pascal--given both the talent involved and the timing...Stay Tuned to see where the Moneyball bounces

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