Sony Pictures not in the mood for a game of Moneyball
Pitt was due to take the lead role in Steven Soderbergh's Moneyball
Also In The News
|
Capital/EMI, out now. |  |
Monday, 22, Jun 2009 08:46
Production on Steven Soderbergh's new film Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, has been shut down just days before filming was due to begin.
The Columbia Pictures release, based on a bestselling baseball book, was set to begin production in Phoenix on Monday but has now been placed in "limited turnaround" by Columbia owners Sony.
According to Variety, studio boss Amy Pascal was unhappy with Soderbergh's most recent rewrite of Steve Zallian's script and pulled the plug on Sony's support for the film.
The studio's withdrawal from the film sees Soderbergh and Pitt left to offer the film to other studios over the past weekend, with Warner Bros and Paramount the main suitors.
Should a new financier not be discovered, it is believed Sony could remove Soderbergh from the film while hoping that Pitt does not follow his Ocean's 11 colleague off the set.
Sony's unwillingness to play Moneyball came with just 96 hours remaining until Soderbergh was due to call "Action!" for the first time and followed three months of pre-production for the project.
Based on the Michael Lewis non-fiction tome, Moneyball tells the true story of former baseball player Billy Beane who transformed the fortunes of the Oakland Athletics major league team by fielding less renowned but lower costing players found through a computer system.