Benched
Variety's Michael Fleming and Peter Bart don't exactly say in so many words why Sony chief Amy Pascal put Steven Soderbergh's Moneyball, a fact-based sports biopic movie starring Brad Pitt, into limited turnaround last Friday, or 96 hours before it was supposed to begin filming on Monday (i.e., tomorrow).
But it seems as if (a) Pascal had it her head that Moneyball would be some kind of commercial hotpants Brad Pitt baseball movie and (b) what she realized she would be getting, after reading a final draft of Soderbergh and Steven Zallian's script last week, would be -- surprise! -- a cerebral, non-jockstrappy "Steven Soderbergh movie" with a sprinkling of Warren Beatty's Reds that she didn't want to spend over $50 million on.
"Soderbergh and Pitt's CAA reps spent the weekend attempting to get another studio to play ball in a game that will play out until Monday," Fleming and Bart write. "If a new financier doesn't emerge by tomorrow, Columbia will re-examine options that include replacing Soderbergh (and hoping that Pitt doesn't ankle), delaying the film until she and the filmmaker find themselves in synch on the script, or pulling the plug.
"Even in the climate of heightened studio caution, the turnaround news on Moneyball is surprising, given that had reached the equivalent of third base. The picture was just 96 hours before the participants were ready to take the field, following three months of prep and with camera tests completed and cast and budget in place.
"Pascal's wariness is hardly unfathomable, even though the script was approved by Major League Baseball. The film doesn't follow the traditional narrative structure of most sports yarns. Moneyball is based on the bestselling Michael Lewis book about Billy Beane (Pitt), the former phenom who undermined his playing career by taking a big paycheck before he was ready, [but] who later resurfaced as the Oakland A's general manager who found success fielding competitive teams for low cost, compared to the payrolls of league rivals like the New York Yankees.
"Aside from actors like Pitt and Demetri Martin, Soderbergh is using real ballplayers -- like former A's Scott Hatteberg and David Justice -- as actors, he has also shot interviews with ballplayers like Beane's former Mets teammates Lenny Dykstra, Mookie Wilson and Daryl Strawberry. Those vignettes are interspersed in the film in a style comparable to director Warren Beatty's used of 'witnesses' in his celebrated film Reds.
"While Soderbergh is confident his take will work visually, Columbia brass had doubts on a film that costs north of $50 million. That is reasonable for a studio-funded pic that includes the discounted salary of a global star like Pitt, but baseball films traditionally don't fare well on the global playing field.
"Columbia's move to jettison a Pitt pic is ironic. Pitt dropped out of State of Playjust before that picture was to begin production, when he read the studio-approved shooting script that veered too far from the draft that prompted him to sign on. It is unusual to see a studio step off a film to which a superstar like Pitt is firmly committed."
What this seems to mean is either that (a) Pascal doesn't believe that stars like Pitt mean all that much when it comes to opening a costly film -- that the movie itself has to have the commercial goods or it's not worth doing, or that (b) she's half-persuaded that the 46 year-old Pitt -- 50 in four and a half years! -- isn't much of a star any more. Or a combination of both.
Pascal is too smart to have been under any illusion that she would be getting anything other than a "Steven Soderbergh film" -- smart, probing, not a dumbassed date flick -- out of Moneyball. It was never going to be Ocean's 11 in cleats or Bull Durham or anything in that vein. So what exactly was so different and (to Pascal) freaky about the latest draft? I've got an earlier draft -- someone please send along the new one so I can figure this out.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on June 21, 2009 at 3:35 PM
comment #1
Jay T.
says ...
I love baseball. I love movies. And yet I still thought this project sounded boring.
Posted by Jay T.
at June 21, 2009 5:47 PM
comment #2
JapAdapters
says ...
This movie costing north of $50 mil is so un-Moneyball it's hialrious.
Posted by JapAdapters
at June 21, 2009 5:57 PM
comment #3
Phatang!
says ...
So true, JapAdapters! Somehow I had missed the irony.
But really, having read the book... what the hell kind of movie were they planning on making? Where's the story? Is the early draft any good, Jeff?
Of course, if they were making a movie about the baseball player Billy Bean (no e)--THAT I'd get.
Posted by Phatang!
at June 21, 2009 6:31 PM
comment #4
Chicago48
says ...
sounds boring.
Posted by Chicago48
at June 21, 2009 7:13 PM
comment #5
Chicago48
says ...
Pitt needs a hit --badly.
Posted by Chicago48
at June 21, 2009 7:14 PM
comment #6
dangovich
says ...
I'm surprised this book ever got sold to a movie company. If a studio wants a baseball story that's inherently cinematic, then someone should option the life story of Lenny Dykstra..An amazing rise and fall, and a choice opportunity for an actor to pull off a Deniro-esque weight gain.
Posted by dangovich
at June 21, 2009 7:22 PM
comment #7
RyanStewart1
says ...
When I interviewed Soderbergh last month, he said the big challenge of the script was throwing a ton of statistical info at the audience and keeping it visually exciting. He made it sound like Fast Food Nation, seriously.
Posted by RyanStewart1
at June 21, 2009 7:36 PM
comment #8
YRG
says ...
$50 million is a lot of money and I just don't see the audience for a statistical movie about baseball, Pitt or no Pitt. Soderbergh hasn't proven to be a Michael Bay either. Unfortunately, the Studios are not looking to produce art anymore. I was just watching Nixon again, another $45-50 million movie that wouldn't have been produced these days, even though I think it's a great film. Michael Lewis is a good author, though, and he has a lot more books in his canon that could make good think pictures. As for Soderbergh, I just saw The Girlfriend Experience and Bubble. He should stick to his fast digital films and give up on the majors. He could produce 50 good films rather than one great one and I'd be happy. Still upset that no major studio picked up Che.
Posted by YRG
at June 21, 2009 7:53 PM
comment #9
fredderf
says ...
Still upset that no major studio picked up Che.
- Hear, hear
Posted by fredderf
at June 21, 2009 8:09 PM
comment #10
scooterzz
says ...
it was another 'improv' movie...i've got a feeling soderbergh saw it coming...
http://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/2009/04/29/soderbergh-pitt-keep-it-real-with-moneyball/
Posted by scooterzz
at June 21, 2009 10:02 PM
comment #11
jbf81
says ...
Pitt needs a hit --badly.
Chicago48, are you aware that Benjamim Button made more than 300mil and that he carried that film pretty much alone? I would call that a hit.
Posted by jbf81
at June 22, 2009 4:30 AM
comment #12
Floyd Thursby
says ...
The book is one of the best, most fascinating of the more than 100 baseball books I've read, but there's no coherent narrative, just short character studies and theories about the economics of baseball. Too bad Zallian couldn't pull it off.
Posted by Floyd Thursby
at June 22, 2009 5:10 AM
comment #13
BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey
says ...
I don't think Hollywood has entirely given up on art movies. There are tons of films released every year that they know will never make a dime. It's just they usually cost under $5m, whereas this thing at $50m is a ridiculous amount of money for the type of film it'd be. What, aside from Pitt's salary, would that money be going towards?
Posted by BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey
at June 22, 2009 6:14 AM
comment #14
DavidF
says ...
Yeah, I enjoyed the book and like Soderbergh and Pitt but I'm baffled as to what this movie might be.
Is the most exciting scene a montage in which Bill James discovers the importance of On Base Percentage?
Will there be a slide show in the middle showing the comparative winning records and payrolls of the Yankees and As?
Is Jeremy Giambi a lead character?
Sounds like Field of Dreams, minus the touching baseball stuff, replaced with some of those nice Beautiful Mind-type mathematical overlays.
I'm damned curious to see the screenplay for this thing.
Posted by DavidF
at June 22, 2009 7:01 AM
comment #15
BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey
says ...
Baseball stats are boring anyway. The game itself is so simple that sportscasters had to invent all these meaningless stats so they had something to say during the 3-hour commentary.
Posted by BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey
at June 22, 2009 7:16 AM
comment #16
Mark
says ...
This is hilarious. Obvious payback for State of Play. No chance that this moves forward w/ another studio or w/out Soderbergh. I would bet that it's dead. Shame, it would've had to wait for DVD to get out of the red, but this had Netflix Top 20 all over it.
I doubt, btw, that it would have taken itself as seriously as Reds. I would compare the structure more to Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
Posted by Mark
at June 22, 2009 7:18 AM
comment #17
BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey
says ...
What's also funny is that this was probably the most commercial of Soderbergh's next few projects. If they don't want to pony up $50m for a sports movie starring Brad Pitt, are they really going to finance a rock opera and a Liberace biopic?
Posted by BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey
at June 22, 2009 7:46 AM
comment #18
ErrantElan
says ...
"(b) she's half-persuaded that the 46 year-old Pitt -- 50 in four and a half years! -- isn't much of a star any more. Or a combination of both."
I think the opposite, actually....Pitt has always been a "star", but only recently has he actually become a "draw". I think Mr. and Mrs Smith was the first film where it seemed like his presence (Jolie didn't hurt) actually made a film a ton of money. Benjamin Button as well. So, I think his box office power has only gone up.
Posted by ErrantElan
at June 22, 2009 9:56 AM
comment #19
BurmaShave
says ...
I think the central problem with this project is that for all his advancements, Beane has never gotten his team to a World Series championship. Sabermetrics is a great thing to read about, but it's not at all cinematic. Also fuck David Justice that pretty boy piece of shit I hope he burns in hell go Mets.
Posted by BurmaShave
at June 22, 2009 7:19 PM
comment #20
JapAdapters
says ...
The problem with the book is that for all it's glorification of Beane it ignored the fact that Whitey Ford and Earl Weaver had exploited these overlooked statistics as far back as 40 years ago.
Posted by JapAdapters
at June 23, 2009 6:43 AM
comment #21
julieW
says ...
your story is totally wrong because that is the OLD draft of the script written by Steven Zaillian.Soderbergh's script was much better and accurate (Soderbergh was mortified to hear that Billy Beene had been happily married for years while Zaillian portrayed him as single and with a different skirt in every scene) Soderbergh's script was approved by MLB (which Zaillian's was not) and Brad Pitt (who had script approval) Soderbergh also flew to San Diego days before shooting and sat with Paul and Billy and went thru the script line by line for accuracy. Amy Pascal still thinks she can start from scratch ...but MLB and Billy and Paul have already told her they won't approve any other script. So apparently she's willing to eat the 14 million she's already spent on the movie. (Sony and Howard Stringer must be forgiving bosses with deep pockets) You should look into the REAL reason she pulled the plug..that's a good story.
Posted by julieW
at June 26, 2009 6:41 AM