So, 3 days before production for Moneyball was going to kick off production, Columbia Pictures has taken the option to drop it.
Here's the story. Friday, Sony stated that the project was put into some sort of "limited turnaround", meaning that the they have given Soderbergh, the director, a chance to set it up with another studio, most likely Warner Brothers or Paramount.
As FirstShowing stated, the sudden change came after Sony Co-Chair Amy Pascal received a final draft from Steven Zaillian last week, that was vastly different from the earlier scripts that Pascal had gotten behind. She was uncomfortable in how the director's vision had gone in such a different direction from the former drafts, which led her to her brash decision.
So, it appears that, as no new financier has appeared today, at least to my knowledge, the project has been delayed, at the very least. Variety reports that, if a new financier does not emerge today, Columbia will take a look at all options, which not only includes delaying the film, but possibly replacing Soderbergh, or even dropping the project as a whole.
According to various sources, Pascal was concerned on the marketability over seas, as not only is baseball a fairly unpopular sport overseas (which is a horrible concern, as it's not true), and the film has ONLY a $50 million budget, which includes Brad Pitt's salary. Oh, and Soderbergh was going experimental once again.
This is really awful news. I CAN understand it, as a studio has to make some sort of monetary gain, but to shelve a film for such a silly reason like, "oh, we hired Soderbergh, the guy behind Bubble, to do this baseball movie, we totally expected an Ocean's 11". I love Soderbergh as a film maker, and this is one film that has not only an interesting director, but cast, AND source material, that I really hope this film gets picked up by someone. Here's to hoping!
Go see something good!
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