If I were going to make a list of all the things I dig in this world of ours, somewhere near the top would undoubtedly be movies, baseball and Steven Soderbergh. Which is the reason why I was so bummed when Soderbergh’s “Moneyball” film suddenly fell apart a few months ago.

But it’s also why I’m so excited to tell you some big news: Soderbergh is planning to make a different baseball movie instead.

“Yeah, I have another idea for a baseball movie that actually doesn’t have any baseball in it,” the “Informant!” filmmaker revealed to us recently and more than a bit cryptically. “I am going to see MLB when I’m in New York to talk to them about it.” Read more...

A few months ago, it was one of the most talked about projects in Hollywood. Then “Moneyball” fell prey to script conflicts, a studio that pulled the plug days before cameras were to start rolling and a world-class director -- Steven Soderbergh -- who quit in protest. Since then, the smoke and noise seems to have faded, along with the film itself.

But Brad Pitt is still convinced that he’ll soon suit up and play ball.

“My gut says yes,” the star said of "Moneyball" on Monday, when we caught up with him on the red carpet at the premiere of his August 21st Quentin Tarantino flick “Inglourious Basterds.” Read more...

Those of you who are desperate for summer jobs, or are suffering the sting of a layoff, it might help you to know that not even a superstar like Brad Pitt is immune to unemployment woes. Pitt and director Steven Soderbergh were set to begin shooting "Moneyball" in Phoenix on Monday, but Sony has called a time out and put the film into limited turnaround.

"Moneyball" is based on Michael Lewis’ bestselling book of the same name, which profiled the Oakland A’s general manager, Billy Beane. That's a baseball team, by the way. Beane harnessed the power of computer-based analysis to assemble a crack squad out of one of the smallest budgets in major league baseball. Read more...

Steven Soderbergh is making a big push toward realism in his new movie, “Moneyball,” adapted from the best-selling Michael Lewis book that followed the Oakland A’s and their general manager Billy Beane (to be played by Brad Pitt), who used an innovative, statistics-based approach to build the team’s roster and win the 2002 MLB American League West Division title.

To that end, Soderbergh will be casting real life participants to play themselves, filming at American League ballparks around the country and inserting actual MLB game footage into the film. One area in which the Oscar-winning director will not be striving for realism, however, will be with Bill James, the stats guru who has a key role in Lewis’ book and whose body of work Beane applied to his management of the A’s.

“My current plan is to animate him,” Soderberg revealed to MTV News while promoting his Tribeca Film Festival entry, “The Girlfriend Experience.” Read more...

Contributed by Christopher Campbell

When it comes to “Daily Show” correspondents finding success in the movies, Steve Carell will probably never be beat in terms of box office. But now that Demetri Martin has been cast in Steven Soderbergh’s next film “Moneyball,” the latter comedian has at least already bettered his “Daily Show” predecessor in terms of prestige roles. Martin, who also currently stars in his own hit Comedy Central series, “Important Things with Demetri Martin,” can soon be seen in Ang Lee’s “Taking Woodstock.”

According to Variety, he will go from one Oscar-winning auteur to another by next portraying real-life statistician Paul De Podesta in Soderbergh’s adaptation of Michael Lewis’ non-fiction book about Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane. Read more...

It's a busy day for Brad Pitt! Variety reports the star is in talks to play the lead in "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game," a movie based on Michael Lewis' non-fiction book. "Devil Wears Prada" helmer David Frankel is attached to direct, and Steve Zaillian ("Schindler's List," "Gangs of New York") has signed on to pen the script.

Lewis' book is centered around Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane, who faced the difficult task of trying to assemble a major league team with one of the smallest budgets in baseball. Beane decided that, in the race for the biggest and most expensive players, no one was really doing their research. With the help of some computer geeks, he gathered vast amounts of statistical data, crunched it with sophisticated computer-based analysis, and assembled one heck of a team. Read more...