Welcome back to the soon-to-be-renamed BPHUD.com. Feels like there hasn’t been a two-day stretch recently without news about Pitt’s doings. We’re going to start posting goddamn baby pictures soon.
But this is interesting: Columbia wants Pitt to star in an adaptation of Moneyball. Subtitled The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, the Michael Lewis book examined how Oakland A’s manager Billy Beane revolutionized baseball’s strategy for team building. Lewis chronicled the A’s winning ’02 season as Beane used the smallest payroll in baseball to build a team from young players and unwanted older gloves by relying on exhaustive statistical analysis to make his picks.
The story is fascinating and had a lasting effect on the business end of baseball; the ‘right’ and value of Beane’s stretegies are still being argued.
So, sure, let’s make a movie. Studios could proabably learn something. Columbia has American Gangster‘s Steve Zaillian on the script; his work will replace a former draft by Stan Chervin. David Frankel is attached to direct, which is…not the worst decision. OK, he’s the Marley & Me and The Devil Wears Prada guy, but he’s also got Band of Brothers and Entourage experience, and this isn’t an on-field movie. It’s back room business and character interaction; he might have the stuff.
But Pitt? I don’t see it.