Moneyball might not have sucked

Jun 24, 2009 | Andy | 11 comments

They also cut the bathhouse scene with Jim Hendry and Gord Ash.By now you’ve probably heard that the “Moneyball” movie starring Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, Scott Hatteberg as Scott Hatteberg, Gary Coleman as Joe Morgan and Chris Burke as Michael Barrett isn’t going to be made after all.

The movie was to have started filming this past Monday, but late last week, Sony Pictures, citing a “limited commercial appeal” and high ($57 million) budget pulled the plug.  Director Steven Soderbergh was going to shoot it with an “improvisational style” which likely would have sucked.  Soderbergh starting getting “artsy” after he directed the only two good movies he’s ever done “Out of Sight” (where he made Jennifer Lopez seem like a competent actress) and “Traffic” (which still has that disturbing scene with Erika Christensen getting the stuffing banged out of  her by her drug dealer), and every movie he’s directed since then has been mediocre or worse.

The only reason this is bad news, is that thanks to our buddy Kevin Kaduk at Yahoo’s Big League Stew, we can all read the script that was originally approved by Sony, and it’s actually really good.

So download the script and print it off, drive to an Applebee’s order a mojito and read it while your hot waitress writes her number on your coaster.

Hey, it works for Billy Beane.

11 Comments

  1. Jarritos
    Jarritos on June 24, 2009 at 3:34 pm

    Report back to me when… I don’t know. When it makes sense.

  2. HoHoKamper
    HoHoKamper on June 24, 2009 at 4:15 pm

    Word on the street is that Soderbergh wanted to use an animated icon in the movie to represent Bill James, and that the little character would pop up throughout the movie to explain some of the technical terms. Frankly, I don’t see any way that idea could have possibly sucked.

  3. Sammie
    Sammie on June 24, 2009 at 4:32 pm

    Your mom’s a moneyball.

  4. Soderbergh
    Soderbergh on June 24, 2009 at 5:51 pm

    What about Schizopolis? The Limey? My Solaris remake? Fine films all.

    I deserve to be strung up by my balls for Erin Brockovich, though.

  5. Wow
    Wow on June 24, 2009 at 9:08 pm

    Screenplay is definitely win.

  6. Movie Fan
    Movie Fan on June 25, 2009 at 1:27 am

    I really disliked pretty much everything about that long, stylized jerky hand camera 24- style editing jlo having movie traffic

  7. Cathy Zeta-Jones
    Cathy Zeta-Jones on June 25, 2009 at 9:11 am

    J Lo wasn’t in Traffic. I was. And I’m younger than her! (I’ve been lying about my age for 20 years.)

  8. Reading Comprehension
    Reading Comprehension on June 25, 2009 at 10:22 am

    Apparently I am not #6’s strong suit.

    Read it again, numbnuts. He’s saying JLo was in “Out of Sight”, a different Soderbergh film.

  9. Reading Comprehension
    Reading Comprehension on June 25, 2009 at 10:23 am

    D’OH.

    #7, not 6.

  10. Sammie
    Sammie on June 25, 2009 at 12:00 pm

    Your mom’s a JLo.

  11. The Cubs
    The Cubs on June 25, 2009 at 3:05 pm

    Moneyball might not have, but we sure do.