Moneyball

[MacGuffin]

Jonah Hill Says He Won't Ruin 'Moneyball,' Feels He 'Earned The Part'
Source: MTV

Jonah Hill has certainly made a name for himself on the comedy circuit with roles in "Superbad" and the upcoming "Get Him to the Greek," but he's a significantly lesser known quantity when it comes to dramatic film fare. But Hill is taking the plunge away from comedy by signing on to star opposite Brad Pitt in director Bennett Miller's "Moneyball," currently speculated to shoot in June.

Hill is well aware that there's some skepticism from fans about his involvement in "Moneyball" as Paul DePodesta, but the actor has a hard time believing that his participation will ruin the film.

"Aaron Sorkin wrote the script, Bennett Miller who directed 'Capote' is directing it, and Brad Pitt is the other star besides me in the movie — and somehow, I've ruined the movie without even having done anything in it," he joked in an interview with MTV News at this weekend's South by Southwest festival. "That's how powerful my crappiness is. I mean, come on."

Clearly, Hill has some confidence in himself when it comes to "Moneyball," as the actor said that he worked very hard to land the role of DePodesta after Demetri Martin dropped out of the movie.

"I earned the part," he said. "Every guy who is in their twenties and making movies was after that part, and it was a very tough thing. I'm really proud to have earned it, you know?"

If nothing else, Hill is very confident in the movie itself, saying that "Moneyball" is going to be well worth the wait.

"It's going to be a remarkable movie," he said. "I couldn't be more thrilled to be doing that next."

[MacGuffin]

'Moneyball' finds actor to play David Justice
Stephen Bishop cast as ex-MLB player in baseball-themed pic
Source: Hollywood Reporter 

Stephen Bishop will suit up as slugger David Justice in Columbia's "Moneyball."

Brad Pitt, Robin Wright, Jonah Hill and Philip Seymour Hoffman star in the Bennett Miller-directed baseball project, which begins shooting in two weeks in Los Angeles. Scott Rudin and Michael De Luca are producing.

Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin scripted the film, which is based on Michael Lewis' 2003 nonfiction book about Oakland Athletics GM Billy Beane and his strategy for building a successful team without paying players enormous salaries.

A longtime member of the Atlanta Braves, Justice played his final MLB season, 2002, for the A's, who made the playoffs that year.

Repped by the Henderson Hogan Agency and manager Margie Weiner, Bishop has appeared on TV's "Grey's Anatomy," "Lost," "Brothers and Sisters" and "Girlfriends" and the features "The Rundown" and "Friday Night Lights."

[modage]

First Look: Brad Pitt & Jonah Hill In 'Moneyball'

After a year of debacles and false start the baseball drama "Moneyball" is finally shooting and we thought we'd never see the day. And here's your first look at Brad Pitt as Oakland A's GM Billy Beane standing next to an unidentified A's team member in the dugout. We assume that's not the coach, because Art Howe is a ) white and b) being played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman. There's also a second look here at Jonah Hill who plays untested Harvard grad and Beane's assistant Paul DePodesta.

The drama behind "Moneyball" is the stuff of near Hollywood legend, though in many ways it's just the typical m.o. of a film's development. David Frankel ("Marley & Me") was first attached to direct, then Steven Soderbergh took the reins and his version of the project had its legs kicked out from under it by Sony head Amy Pascal three days before production was going to start in May of last year. Multiple fingers pointed at different directions of blame, but nothing became too publicly clear other than the auteur being thrown under the bus by the studio. Our main take away, which you can read into how you like, is that Soderbergh and his "Ocean's" star Pitt will likely never work together again.

Five writers worked on the screenplay at one time or another (including Stan Chervin, Stephen J. Rivele, Christopher Wilkinson). Most recently Steve Zaillian (Academy Award winner for "Schindler's List," writer of David Fincher's upcoming "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo") was rehired to rewrite the Aaron Sorkin draft based on the original draft Zaillian had already written (got that?) Sorkin was then supposed to do a polish on the rewrite of his rewrite, but that never happened and was only reported as such to make everything look on the up and up, but several sources close to the project tell us that Sorkin overwrote himself to the point where no one was happy with his final draft including the always important Pitt (and it's a bit of a shame as one Sorkin draft we read was funny and great).

As if the picture couldn't get any more bad press, the film's would-be cinematographer Adam Kimmel was arrested on charges of sexual assault of a minor in May.

Whatever, the thing is shooting, right? A dramedy of sorts and even a buddy picture in one draft we read, "Moneyball" centers on Billy Beane (Pitt) and Paul De Podesta (Hill), the GM and assistant GM that made the 2002 Oakland A's a highly competitive Major League Baseball team (Beane took them to a AL West Division title) using a modern analytical sabermetrics system, despite having a completely budgeted, low-rent team that were initially the laughing stock of baseball early on in their season.

Directed by Bennett Miller ("Capote"), "Moneyball" stars Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Robyn Wright, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Kathryn Morris ("Cold Case") Stephen Bishop and Chris Pratt ("Parks & Recreation." No release date is set for the picture yet, but we would imagine next spring or early fall to capitalize on baseball season (but in the heart of the summer a pic like this would be likely lost).

[MacGuffin]

Trailer

[Pubrick]

Don't know anything about baseball but seems like a pretty good story if true.

Must be why sodonebergh was originally attracted to it, but here it feels like they just did the best they could with the pieces they were left with after he abandoned it. It looks like a conventional baseball "makes you believe again" kind of story, instead of Field of dreams it's Team of dreams, if you build it they will come becomes "if you assemble it you will make money".

Speaking of making money, I don't see this making any outside of America, which from what I understand is typical for baseball movies. But it makes me wonder if Pitt can afford starring in another flop after tree of life. Though if his buddy cloondog can survive the american't and the upcoming alexander payne snoozefest I'm sure he's got nothing to worry about.

[polkablues]

I'm way over the completely overblown and largely fictitious Billy Beane mythology, but I expect this to be an entertaining movie regardless.

[Gold Trumpet]

Yea, Billy Beane may be the most arrogant GM in baseball. The moneyball theory is famous because it was novel and got a book written about it, but the Athletics haven't done shit. The furthest they ever got was to the ALCS in 2006 and my Detroit Tigers trounced them. Other lesser market teams with less money have done better than the Athletics and they all did it with good scouting. However, Billy Beane always will find a way to get in the media and remind people of his supposed brilliance. There are some good national sports writers who spit on this guy's name every time he says something and while I don't go that far, I also don't blame them. It's actually understandable why they do it.

Still, I do want to see this movie because it can be completely fictional and be fun. I also want a movie that actually does try to get a whiff of baseball life today. Baseball has funnier and more unique anecdotes than any other sport and there should be better movies to highlight that.

[Kal]

So nobody has seen or cares much about this?

Thought it was great. Brad Pitt's Jerry Maguire.

[Alexandro]

It was good but critics are overrating this big time. Like Jerry Maguire.

[Sleepless]

For some reason this just strikes me as this year's The Blind Side.

[Ravi]

For some reason this just strikes me as this year's The Blind Side.

Naw, that's The Help.

[Alexandro]

Is actually a smart sports movie, with some great dialogue and very good Brad Pitt performance. Jonah Hill is good too. Pitt's performance is Jerry Maguireish in that it enables him to use all his charisma and acting chops without going to the dark side at any moment.

Phil Hoffman is almost wasted.

I expected A LOT MORE from this film.

[Stefen]

Moneyball is a home run!

But seriously, I really liked this flick. The acting is kind of weak, but it's a fluff film, so who cares? The real stars are the writing and editing. It makes crunching numbers interesting. Wasn't expecting much, just a way to kill an evening, but I was thoroughly entertained. PSH is basically wasted. Figuratively and literally. He does nothing but look drunk and fat through the whole movie. Luckily him and Jonah Hill don't share any screen time, cause, ya know, poor screen.

[SiliasRuby]

I grew up with the Oakland A's so this film hit home to me that many baseball films hadn't ever done before. I think perfect casting all around but PSH is wasted which is sad but I think it was purposely done that way.. This just really hit my heart and I almost started to weep tears by the end. It really made me want to love baseball again.

[Jeremy Blackman]

I'm a bit mystified by all the adoration of this movie. It's average, and there's not much to say about it.

It was marketed (and reviewed) as a sports movie that's not really about sports and doesn't really contain any sports. This turns out to be a complete lie. The big "emotional" moments and supposed narrative climaxes of the movie have to do with winning or losing games, and it's handled with all the trappings of a conventional sports movie. Nothing special.

I actually thought PSH was quite good. He's not "wasted" just by being in a minor role... that's 2/3 of his career. After recently seeing The Ides of March and now this, I'm once again baffled by his ability to just churn out distinct characters one after the other. He's not even taking on different accents or extreme behaviors. They are all very subtle performances, and the differences are small but massive. It's even more mystifying than the critical success of this movie.

Billy Bean's daughter is annoying, and that stupid freaking song she sings is even worse. It's also an anachronism... the song was released in 2008.

As if that's not sufficiently annoying, they had to include Robyn Wright in the cast to meet some unspoken annoyance threshold.

But Jonah Hill was good.