Columbia Pictures has chosen to abandon the film project Moneyball.
According to Variety, president Amy Pascal has been weighing her options after reading filmmaker Steven Soderbergh’s revised script, originally written by Steven Zaillian. Pascal was not any more impressed by the rewrite.
Filming was set to begin this week in Phoenix with Brad Pitt as part of the cast.
Pascal has given Soderbergh the chance to present the project to other film studios. If none decide to grab it by today (June 22), Columbia Pictures is considering replacing Soderbergh, with the hopes of Pitt remaining attached to the film. Another option would be for the studio to drop the project entirely.
Moneyball was inspired by the non-fiction book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis. The story follows Billy Beane, owner of the Oakland Athletics, who without financial backing, turns to sophisticated software to recruit new players.
In the meantime, we can next see Brad Pitt in the highly awaited Inglorious Basterds on August 21. As for Steven Soderbergh, he has just wrapped up shooting The Informant with Matt Damon, opening on October 9. The filmmaker will also take on the dramatic musical Cleo, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones.