Moneyball

That said.

LOL

Soderbergh on movie:

http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1610467/story.jhtml

" "My clearly stated goal is to set a new standard for realism in that world."

To that end, he'll be recreating the bowels of Oakland Coliseum — where the A's play — on a soundstage and filming at actual American League stadiums around the country. And since he has the cooperation of the MLB, "Moneyball" will also be able to use actual game footage from the 2002 season.

Soderbergh is also shooting for realism in his cast, which will be made up of both actors and the real-life participants. "Anybody who is not actively playing who was on the 2002 team has been approached," he said. "We've got about 60 percent of them. We have Art Howe, we've got Rick Peterson, the pitching coach. We've got three-quarters of the scouts who were there. ... The guys on the team we can't get — we're casting real people who can play and perform. We'll have the real footage and then we'll go to the close-up with our guy in it, and it should be seamless," the director explained.

Pittaro on deck for stardom

http://www.nj.com/sports/times/index.ssf?/base/sports-6/1240981510157800.xml&coll=5

Lenny Dykstra apparently on board to deliver his "Dude, reading hurts your eyes" line

Which real-life athletes will they pick for re-creating the sprinting scene at the start of the book, that's what I wanna know. Oh, and no Darryl Strawberry, no credibility.

Strawberry is on the movie's iMdB page.

fat catcher brown gets second life

not quite apropos as Brown walked away from baseball of his own volition.

Jeremy Brown's career MLB stats:
300/364/500

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/05/06/exclusive-steven-soderbergh-to-use-animated-bill-james-character-in-moneyball/

Whether this movie is amazing or awful, I am pretty sure I will be laughing all the way through it.

I've been in James' vicinity a number of times; he has an animated aura. Perhaps a cartoon bear (not as vivacious as Yogi).

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/11/SPTI17IHTB.DTL

Ex-A's third-base coach Ron Washington is also too busy managing the Rangers, so Hatteberg has a suggestion: longtime Soderbergh collaborator Don Cheadle.

Sony scraps Soderbergh's 'Moneyball'

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118005208.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&nid=2854

kinda figures. more:

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2009/06/benched.php

I'm still trying to figure out the $50M price tag.

Kinda thinkin' that if the A's hadn't been one of the worst teams in the AL for the past 3 seasons that there'd be more momentum behind this picture. This current season is pretty much the nail in the coffin for the Moneyball fallacy imo. I guess they could switch teams to the Red Sox and call it Fever Pitch 2: The Jamesian Prophecies.

of course, the A's current record has absolutlely fucking nothing to do with the validity of Beane's approach in the period the book covers, an approach that's generally embraced to some degree by nearly every MLB team.

Obv a Hollywood studio wants a feelgood Big Game sports movie for the droolers. Maybe one about Ryan Ludwick's current MVP season, right Steve?

I'm still trying to figure out the $50M price tag.

― Alex in SF, Monday, June 22, 2009 10:27 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

it's all a publicity stunt, now soderbergh will make it sex, lies, and videotape style for only $5 million

How to make $45M disappear from budget: scrap animated Bill James, replace with James Murphy in fat suit/beard.

What else?

Don't use MLB, but instead completely make up team names/jerseys/et all. Like the Philadelphia A's or the Boston Braves.

dont use MLB, but instead make it about a made-up sport

shoot it on-location in steven soderbergh's living room

Change it to badminton, call it Moneybirdie, and have Brad Pitt stop everything every few minutes to wink broadly at the camera.

i would love to see the dykstra footage tbh

just have Dykstra shoot the whole thing a la Jack Black in Be Kind Rewind.

pretty sure I couldn't bear to watch that tbh

so it wouldnt be that different from soderbergs last couple movies

http://www.icecoldservice.com/images/ics-jpeg.jpg

Heh

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/The-Moneyball-script-complete-with-Billy-Beane-;_ylt=AicSLxT7AbWq4uwuWmKz9UARvLYF?urn=mlb,172463

heh2

I hate anachronistic screenwriters...

You didn't have to take off your shoes at the Oakland airport until after the shoe bomber Richard Reid (sp?)... I want to say xmas 2001. Does anyone fact check scripts anymore?

fuck bitches

eat bloomin onions

from the comments:
Billy Beane once got busy in a Burger King bathroom.

I've been reading this screenplay on and off all day, and I can say with some certainty that the movie would've been boring as hell.

Well this was the non-doctored version. I'm sure Che-ized version would've rocked!

i think probly less boring than INKLORIUS BESTERDS

I'd rather skip both of them, honestly.

"i think probly less boring than INKLORIUS BESTERDS"

I think that looks fun enough, but I don't expect you to agree.

only if Cloris Leachman's role is a reprise of Frau Blucher.

It very well might be.

Oooh look three Spielberg films are in production/been announced. Better go anticipate the hell out of those pieces of shit.

take it to ILE ladies

aint sayin shit here.

anyway:

http://scriptshadow.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-happened-tomoneyball.html

"The biggest faux-pas is the handling of the all-important 'on-base percentage' stat. This is what the Oakland A's figured out that no one else did -- the hidden statistic which is the key to their success. It's what allows them to compete with half the salary of all the other teams. This is the movie. Yet here it's treated like an afterthought.

"In fact, I couldn't even tell you what the A's secret to success was in Soderbergh's draft. It's implied that there's a spreadsheet involved but the explanation stops there. A spreadsheet of never-explained numbers? That's how the team wins? That's your hook for the movie?"

Both of these sound awful.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dodgerthoughts/2009/07/moneyball-movie-is-back-on.html

so now the movie will be LAME

che was so fucken wack. with sorkin on board all they need to do now is ditch soderBOREgh and pitt and that's the movie right there.

Making Moneyball into a movie has got to be one of the worst ideas of all time.

Team 2009 payroll
New York Yankees $201,449,189
New York Mets $149,373,987
Chicago Cubs $134,809,000
Boston Red Sox $121,745,999
Detroit Tigers $115,085,145
Los Angeles Angels $113,709,00
Philadelphia Phillies $113,004,046
Houston Astros $102,996,414
Los Angeles Dodgers $100,414,592
Seattle Mariners $98,904,166
Atlanta Braves $96,726,166
Chicago White Sox $96,068,500
San Francisco Giants $82,616,450
Cleveland Indians $81,579,166
Toronto Blue Jays $80,538,300
Milwaukee Brewers $80,182,502
St. Louis Cardinals $77,605,109
Colorado Rockies $75,201,000
Cincinnati Reds $73,558,500
Arizona Diamondbacks $73,516,666
Kansas City Royals $70,519,333
Texas Rangers $68,178,798
Baltimore Orioles $67,101,666
Minnesota Twins $65,299,266
Tampa Bay Rays $63,313,034
Oakland Athletics $62,310,000
Washington Nationals $60,328,000
Pittsburgh Pirates $48,693,000
San Diego Padres $43,734,200
Florida Marlins $36,834,000