Moneyball Steps Back Up To The Plate; Now Pitching: Aaron Sorkin

Just the other day I said we probably wouldn't run any more Moneyball news for a while, and that turned out to be a big fat lie. Because THR is reporting that Aaron Sorkin (who created the show Sports Night, remember) has signed on to rewrite the film for Sony. Steven Soderbergh no longer has anything to do with the project, and a potential director is yet to be announced. But the studio obviously wants to make good on the $10-14m already spent on the project, so I wouldn't be surprised if we get a name before too long.

Interestingly, this is very much of a piece with the other big Sorkin script we've been talking about recently: The Social Network, aka Facebook The Movie. Sorkin's Facebook script was described as being without structure and directed conflict, and indeed that's very much the case based on what I've scanned so far today. And Soderbergh's draft of Moneyball was described in similar terms; kind of an interesting character piece, but one that wasn't a story in conventional Hollywood terms. Intriguing that Sorkin would be signed to rewrite a script that is in many ways like a draft he just turned in for a different project.

Otherwise, things are much the same. Brad Pitt is still on board to star as Billy Beane, the Oakland A's manager who used non-traditional statistical systems to build the cheapest winning team in baseball. (Not that whatever deal he and Sony have really means anything; I figure it's even odds at best that he'll actually appear in the film when it gets moving.) No word on Demetri Martin, who was set to play Beane's assistant Paul DePodesta. Over the past few weeks, Soderbergh had been shooting interviews with real players to incorporate into the film, but I'd expect those will never see the light of day, unless Sony needs to fill space on the DVD.