Moneyball script--new link

[dadofandrew]

I just tried to read the script that was online, it's now gone. Anyone have an active link?

[Schlitz001]

I don't have a link, but they scrapped this movie, right?

[PeaveyFury]

Yeah, Columbia Pictures scrapped it a week or so ago.

[BrewCrewForever]

I actually really hope they get this movie done. I think it would be interesting, of course I like most on here are a baseball nerd. Which seems to be the only audience for this film.

[RayKingsForemanGrill]

It's actually back on. Aaron Sorkin reworking the script. Soderbergh is out.

[Diskono]

I hope they keep the ghost-jedi Bill James thing. So ridiculous, it goes all the way back to being good.

[PeaveyFury]

It's actually back on.

 

What studio picked it up? Columbia just dropped it very recently, so that's a heck of a rebound for a concept that doesn't seem like it will be particularly interesting or draw well in theaters.

[Katuluu]

Columbia still holds the rights, but they are actively shopping it. I believe Warners and Paramount are rumored to be the front-runners.

 

And yes, Sorkin has been hired to do a re-write, and word still is that Brad Pitt is still attached to star.

[TooLiveBrew]

I don't get what makes this a compelling film. Book, yes. Film... ?

[sbrylski]

I don't get what makes this a compelling film. Book, yes. Film... ?

Scene: Draft room, 2002

 

Billy Beane: "Prince Fielder is too fat!"

Other guy: "You're wife is too fat!!!"

 

<15-minute gun fight. Other guy left dead on the floor.>

 

Billy Beane: "Bud, we're going with Swisher."

Bug Selig: "With the 16th pick in the 2002 MLB draft..."

[TooLiveBrew]

It takes a visionary to make these things happen... http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[dadofandrew]

I'm pretty sure that's another urban legend...Beane never said Prince was too fat, Lewis did. And since he married Tabitha Soren, I can't fathom arguing with him...

[Patrick425]

From the start, a movie based on this book seemed bizarre. What's next? A movie based on the 2007 Sporting News Fantasy Football preview?

 

Also, on imdb.com it shows DeMetri Martin as Paul De Podesta?! C'mon! Seriously? That has to be a joke. Is this movie going to be a comedy?

[bjkrautk]

I now want to see an Aaron Sorkin-ized version of Moneyball....just to see if this sequence makes the cut:

Ray Durham - You know what we need to do more of here in Oakland?
A's Coach - Stealing bases?
RD - Stealing bases.
Coach - We've never been big on stealing bases here in Oakland.
RD - You know how many bases I stole with the White Sox before getting here?
Coach - Twenty?
RD - Twenty. Know how many bases I've stolen since the trade?
Coach - How many?
RD - Six.
Coach - We should talk to Billy about stealing bases.

BEST MOVIE EVER!!!

(I generally love Sorkin's work - never got into West Wing, but I own Sports Nite on DVD, and went out of my way to see the Studio 60 finale - but the guy has some tropes in his writing style.)

[Diskono]

Beane: YOU CAN'T HANDLE STEALING BASES!

[kramnoj]

Here is a link to the Moneyball script https://webspace.utexas.edu/jsk79/www/Moneyball.pdf

 

Sorkin has been asked to touch it up, Pitt still wants to do it. Peter Berg has been mentioned as a possibility once the screenplay is done. I was surprised to learn that of the different movies that he has directed. For sports, he directed Friday Night Lights (the movie). I also enjoyed, in their own way, The Rundown, The Kingdown, and Hancock.

 

As for how this can be made into a movie, I would recommend that anyone who has time to kill read the linked script. It's obviously not Oscar material, but it reads like a typically successful Hollywood drama (faint praise, I know). It's obviously dramatized in order to make it a movie that people will want to see, but it's an interesting story about underdogs that try to find a new way to beat the big boys.

 

Pitt has the star power to draw a certain amount of interest, just by himself, and I imagine that he would have a blast playing Beane (especially in this script). I'm disappointed that Soderbergh got dropped, but he was going to take the movie in a different way than the studio wanted. He talked about making James an animated character, because his scenes were far too deity like in this script and were out of touch with the rest of the movie. I don't know how much he was joking, but I understand the sentiment after reading the script.

[dadofandrew]

Thanks kramnoj, i intend to read it this weekend.

[danzig6767]

Here is a link to the Moneyball script https://webspace.utexas.edu/jsk79/www/Moneyball.pdf

 

Sorkin has been asked to touch it up, Pitt still wants to do it. Peter Berg has been mentioned as a possibility once the screenplay is done. I was surprised to learn that of the different movies that he has directed. For sports, he directed Friday Night Lights (the movie). I also enjoyed, in their own way, The Rundown, The Kingdown, and Hancock.

 

As for how this can be made into a movie, I would recommend that anyone who has time to kill read the linked script. It's obviously not Oscar material, but it reads like a typically successful Hollywood drama (faint praise, I know). It's obviously dramatized in order to make it a movie that people will want to see, but it's an interesting story about underdogs that try to find a new way to beat the big boys.

 

Pitt has the star power to draw a certain amount of interest, just by himself, and I imagine that he would have a blast playing Beane (especially in this script). I'm disappointed that Soderbergh got dropped, but he was going to take the movie in a different way than the studio wanted. He talked about making James an animated character, because his scenes were far too deity like in this script and were out of touch with the rest of the movie. I don't know how much he was joking, but I understand the sentiment after reading the script.

I'm just trying to figure out who the demographics are that this movie expects to attract? I love baseball and likely there is no way i'd pay 9-10 bucks to go to a theater to go and see it. I might watch it when it came on cable. Most of the guys i know are sports fans and i highly doubt any would be interested in going to see it. In fact, when around every male friend or relative i know, i don't remember ever hearing any of them bring up that they read Moneyball. Brad Pitt being in the movie would be an attraction to some females who like him, but my guess is the storyline though would turn them off given the number of females who even know Oakland has a baseball team are small.

 

About the only demographic offhand that i could see being strongly interested in the movie would be hardcore baseball fans that are really into stats. That's a pretty small demographic. Now maybe the movie could be made in a fashion to have a much broader appeal, but the premise of the book itself seems to mainly just appeal to those stat loving hardcore baseball fans. I should add that i've never had a desire to get Moneyball, so maybe there is more to the book than i imagine which could with good production and acting appeal to a larger movie audience than i'm assuming.

 

To those who have read the book, what about it do you think could draw an audience if made into a movie?

[dadofandrew]

I can see it as a comedy, especially making fun of the scouts that are 30 years behind the times, and using phrases like "We're not selling jeans here" and the like. It's a unique story, much like HBO's film about the tobacco takeover, with Jim Garner. I've seen parts of that a dozen times, and always enjoyed it, and I have no interest in that company or smoking.

[kramnoj]

Moneyball is many things to many people. To some it defines the new stats. To others it is a small market team trying to exploit market inefficiencies. Michael Lewis took those aspects and framed a story around the underdog A's. It's about a 102 win team that was going to lose Giambi and Damon and somehow became a 103 win team with Hatteberg replacing Giambi, despite never playing 1B.

 

I read about the first 2/3 of the script. It doesn't really involve a lot of actual baseball action. It is mostly about the people, and the story. It's a drama, there will be moments of humor, the script follows the basic formula of any Hollywood drama.

 

While the book is about stats, it doesn't go that deep into the actual stats. Stats are the tool to drive the story, but it is at heart a story.

[kramnoj]

Not much of an update, but Pitt talked up "Moneyball" a bit at a recent premiere: http://moviesblog.mtv.com...ing-rally-for-moneyball/

 

Basically he wants to play Beane, he would be fantastic in that role, and he hopes the film can still get done.

 

As an aside, I had a friend of a friend who got a degree in set design and moved out to Hollywood. He says it's not uncommon for people to not work for a year because they get hired for films that look like they will get made and then get scrapped. This movie was days from starting the shoot when it got put on the burner. Will be an interesting story to follow.

[RockCoCougars]

I just don't 'get' Billy Beane. Why should there be a movie about him? What has he won? He inherited a bunch of young talent with the A's, got lucky taking two college pitchers high in the draft and won a bunch of games- for a time. Anybody could have won with Hudson, Zito, and Mulder in their prime. What have they done since those guys left? More recently, he's given away Haren and Harden for basically nothing.

[kramnoj]

Why should there be a movie about him? What has he won?

 

He had a 102 win team in 2001 that lost to the evil Yankees in the LDS 3-2. He lost Giambi to those evil Yankees. He then put together a team with a $40M payroll that won 103 games. But he still lost in the LDS, this year to the Twins.

 

It's a story about doing different things than the establishment and having success, but not being able to get complete success. It's the story of that season and the idea, not about Beane's tenure. If you read the linked script, it's easy to see how this works as a movie.

[PeaveyFury]

They're fortunate to have Pitt linked to the project and championing for it- I get the feeling that if it was say, Jim Caviezel set to play Beane, this thing would have been shelved already.