Real quick now, the other day an info hit the web that made the production on the movie adaptation MONEYBALL halted, Columbia dropped the project because Sony chief Amy Pascal read the latest script and hated the changes that caused the story to be different from the traditional narrative structure of most sports tale. Worried that it might not do well money-wise especially in the international market, she placed the project in a “limited turnaround,” giving the filmmaker the chance to set it up at another studio
Along with that, the options at the time were: replace Soderbergh, or delay the film until Pascal and the filmmaker find themselves in synch on the script or pull the plug completely
According to LA Times, Pascal and director Steven Soderbergh met to see if he was willing to revise his take and change the plan to shoot the film in improv docu style, but the two couldn’t come to an agreement.
Worse yet, Paramount and WB picked up the sign and decided to say NO to MONEYBALL. This move was also motivated by the unfortunate trend that dramas with adult target audiences like State of Play, Duplicity and The International did poorly at the box office this year.
One executive said that with a budget of $50 Million, MONEYBALL would have had to gross more than $100 million at the domestic box office just to break even.
And Sony is already on the hook for the nearly $10 million it has already spent on pre-production and screenplay development.
These are tough economy times, every studio out there is tightening their belts like the rest of us, common folks. Maybe Soderbergh should just put this one in a ‘storage’ for now and return to indie gigs for a while. I thought The Girlfriend Experience was fascinating.
Here’s the official synopsis of the book
“The Oakland Athletics have a secret: a winning baseball team is made, not bought.In major league baseball the biggest wallet is supposed to win: rich teams spend four times as much on talent as poor teams. But over the past four years, the Oakland Athletics, a major league team with a minor league payroll, have had one of the best records. Last year their superstar, Jason Giambi, went to the superrich Yankees. It hasn’t made any difference to Oakland: their fabulous season included an American League record for consecutive victories. Billy Beane, general manager of the Athletics, is putting into practice on the field revolutionary principles garnered from geek statisticians and college professors.”
