Zaillian’s script was anchored by on-screen monologues by Bill James, the oddball guru of modern-day baseball statistics (who today works in the Boston Red Sox front office). James functioned as a Greek chorus for the film, offering wry, Yoda-like explanations about the complexity of the game.
Zaillian’s deft renditions of James’ maxims were funny and always to the point, allowing the audience the opportunity to see inside the game. In one monologue, James says: “If you score three runs and the other team scores four, you can be inspired as all hell but you still lost. The numbers represent the ineluctable sum of victories and defeats, and that cannot be made one iota larger or smaller than it is by PR campaigns, personal animosities or any of the greater and lesser forms of B.S.” But in Soderbergh’s draft, the James material had all vanished, presumably to be replaced by interviews with Beane’s real-life associates.
...Sony would also have to find a new director who is not only a good fit for the material but would pass muster with Pitt, who has director approval on his films. To find a director with enough stature or buzz to attract Pitt won’t be easy. The most likely options would be for the studio to go in more of a comic direction—possibilities being Jay Roach or Jason Reitman—or toward a more dramatic choice, like Gary Ross or even George Clooney, who is putting the finishing touches on a two-year production deal with the studio. (My own pick would be someone with a sharp, subversive edge, like Pete Berg.)
Pascal insists there’s no bad blood between her and Soderbergh, saying the two plan to meet in the coming days to discuss other possible projects. In the meanwhile, she remains an ardent believer in the film. “We love this movie, we always have and we still want to make it. It’s a completely innovative way to tell a baseball story. It’s about wanting to believe in magic, which is what baseball is all about.”
Repoz
Posted: July 01, 2009 at 04:06 PM |
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What in the holy heck is subversive about Hancock and The Kingdom?
Hopefully, it gets made before it turns into Major League 2010: Revenge of the Beaner!
I wouldn't call him or it subversive, but Friday Night Lights was great.
That's just meta enough for GGC to take a lead role.
Not so fast, Sean. I've heard rumblings about someone turning the BPro/Primer lawsuit into a script!
For a brief moment I was wondering why the hell John Podesta would be in the Moneyball movie and what he would be doing with spreadsheets.
Oops, Depodesta.
But, Sean, if you've got a few thousand dollars you wanna give me, I'll be happy to shoot a movie, enter it in a festival, and give you some sort of credit.
Life of Sean; or Hey, I'm the Forman!
That's gold, that is. Gold! Waddya say?
Sign me up! I'm not fat or ugly enough to be Youkilis, though.
I'd do this in a heartbeat. I mean, we might all get sued, but it would be almost worth it.
I'd do this in a heartbeat. I mean, we might all get sued, but it would be almost worth it.
You know what, I've never acted before and I'd probably sound like Keanu Reeves trying to do Shakespeare, but I'm up for this on one condition--it gets livestreamed somehow on Primer.
Where can we find the arcana version of the script online, anyone?
I have long been in the camp of "Moneyball is not a movie", but The Girlfriend Experience made me think Soderbergh could pull it off. The Zaillian script was okay; a bit too Hollywoodish. There was probably a third way between the Zaillian script and Soderbergh's rejected approach, one that kept the structure of Zaillian's adaptation while just taking out the erroneous Hollywood touches (the Hatteberg stuff, for instance).
Any biopic of Sean has to be titled Forman Enter, 1 Man Leave.
I'll likely forget that I ever put that up, so it's basically a perma-link.
Hey, that movie was pretty good. Not because of Keanu Reeves, of course, but it was damned good.
I really liked the script and could picture it being a good movie as I read it, but I can't think of any reason (besides Brad Pitt) my mom or sister would ever want to see it.
Screw your mom and sister (no offense to your mom and sister)! Every movie is slanted towards every audience so every freaking one turns out 50% the same. The original concept behind Jerry Maguire, I remember the SI article long before the movie came out, would have been awesome. JM's a bad example here because the whole Zellweger side plot really did bring the chicks out, but still. It was completely unnecessary, until it made itself necessary. Once they had to add that to the script, the whole thing turned into a redemption story, and of course the redeemed must have his redemption validated by someone of the opposite sex, blah blah blah.
A straight-forward no-######## balls to the wall movie about a hardnosed sports agent who gets screwed over and dumped by his agency for showing one moment's weakness raging against that unfairness while recognizing that one moment is one moment too many and rededicating his life/career to destroying the former agency, that's a movie, and it doesn't need a love story like every single other movie.
Sign me up! I'm not fat or ugly enough to be Youkilis, though.
Me too. I don't look good in jeans.
Yes, this certainly would have been a movie to appeal to Hollywood's target audience.
Uh huh. I completely believe you, 100%.
NY Times: Money Worries Kill A-List Film at Last Minute
Somewhere in Hollywood, Michael Bay's iPhone is ringing.
"Video Voyeur: The Susan Wilson Story" on the Lifetime network?
You have to feed the iPhone now, too? Christ, being stuck with AT&T;is already limiting its reach.
It could be the greatest thing in the history of the internets. How many people would we need?
I bet we have a lot of fat scouts, too. The audience will have to use their imaginations.
* Well, Damon. Affleck's not a stretch.
We should be able to do that. If I promise a case of beer, Primates will be lining up out the door.
I might lose my nerve in a public space. If there's enough other guys to do it in the park, I'll be glad to direct or gaff or grip or bestboy or something.
But really, this thing is so absurd, it's impossible for us not to do this, right? And we'd have to talk Backlasher into flying to town to play DePo or Scott Hatteberg.
And yeah, the more I think about it, the more I agree we almost have to do this. Failed Hollywood script + intense internet baseball fan community + Brooklyn is exactly the kind of ridiculous thing that would get us play in Time Out New York.
I want Harveys as Bill James.
My sister once dated a guy who was from Arkansas and an Evel Knievel fan. He wrote a musical about Knievel and she wrote the music. I saw a reading under similar circumstances as this, but it was on the Lower East Side somewhere near NYU. I think my sis was channeling Ray Manzarek because most of the tunes had Doors-ish melodies.
I want Harveys as Bill James.
Naw, we'll just write in a character that will randomly yell at people to get off his lawn. OK, what the hell. I'm in. You, Lassus and I. We're getting there. We'd need some geek to run the recording, webcasting or whatever. Wherever will we find such a capable geek?
That would be appropriate.
I feel like when I was 8 and my friend and I were going to make a giant fort out of discarded Christmas trees complete with a pulley system for moving treasure up and down and a secret underground basement where there would be secret tunnels connecting our houses.
We can create another thread or post in the Lounge. Or we worry about recording/webcasting later once we get the ball rolling a little. We can always craigslist it, I suppose, but I'd like to see how many people we get from here before we go down that road. Right now, we just need bodies.
So I guess we just post a subject in the lounge and see what happens? And by "we" I mean, of course, "you".
Did someone say beer? I'm in.
Guh. Fine. Posted.
Michael Bay should just direct the scene with the chair being thrown and let Soderbergh handle the rest.
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