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...

Just look at Gina Carano, the mixed martial artist who graces ESPN The Magazine's new
Body Issue. What do you see? A category-defying athlete, a woman who maybe perfectly embodies the term scary-attractive? If you're Steven Soderbergh, you see the star of your upcoming spy thriller, 'Knockout,' who you want to turn into a version of one of the iconic heroes of recent cinema.

"Why can't I make her Jason Bourne?" Soderbergh asked during a recent interview with MTV News. Read more...

"It would be sexual harassment in any other business." That's what Matt Damon had to say about Michael Douglas's "chapstick" comment, a reference to the Liberace biopic the two will star in. Douglas will play the famous singer/showman and Damon, his gay lover. The duo will be under the direction of Steven Soderbergh, whose Damon-starring quirky comedy "The Informant!" hits theaters today.

In the video below you can hear Damon talking about his work with Soderbergh at last week's Toronto International Film Festival, where MTV's Josh Horowitz got to sit with him. Beware listeners: there are some sizable "Informant" spoilers in the latter half of the video, so hit stop at around 1:00/1:10 if you want to remain pure.

We don’t like intellectuals. You, the person reading this right now, and me, the dude writing, might have a fondness for them. But we, the lot of us living in North America, don’t have a whole lot of time for intellectuals. This is by no means a modern development. More of an essential American personality quirk going back a few hundred years. We like smart people, no doubt. Admirers and detractors alike in this country have always celebrated brilliant satirists and social commentators, from Mark Twain all the way up to Jon Stewart.

They make us laugh though, so they’re disqualified. Comedy often helps us forgive, and sometimes negate, intellectualism. Without it, though, we view dispassionate reason in matters of politics and ethics as weaknesses or haughtiness. This is especially true of liberal-minded entertainers. An actor and filmmaker doesn’t understand the common man’s values, the naysayers contend, so their intellectual approach to moral or political issues is invalid. Not with Ronald Reagan, though! But Reagan was no intellectual. There’s the catch. And that's why Matt Damon interests me. Read more...

One of the big releases this week, something I'm very much looking forward to seeing later today, is Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant!" Star Matt Damon was at the Toronto International Film Festival last week promoting the flick, and MTV's Josh Horowitz got a chance to sit down and talk to him. While the Soderbergh flick was obviously the topic of the day, Josh got to squeeze in a little bit about Damon's involvement in the next "Bourne" movie.

There are apparently no concrete plans in place just yet, but Damon did say that he'll be meeting with "Bourne Ultimatum" director Paul Greengrass and series producer Frank Marshall in New York City next month to talk about what's next for the super-spy. As Damon tells Josh in the video below, "we'd love to do it... but we've got to do it right."

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Before diving in with the coming week's releases, let's take a quick look at last week's. I think the poll results usually paint a pretty telling picture of who is reading this blog. The weekend's big box office winner, Tyler Perry's "I Can Do Bad All By Myself," failed to pick up a single vote in the poll. "Sorority Row" took top spot in the poll (70% of your votes), followed in a distant second by "Whiteout" and "9," which were basically tied, at 15% and 13% respectively.

My takeaway is that you readers are on the younger side -- ie below 30, or at least not yet parents -- and that you prefer spectacle to schmaltz. That's definitely an overly broad generalization, but I do find the fact the weekend's biggest earner, by quite a wide margin I might add, didn't even pick up one vote in last week's poll. Now, let's take a look at what's in store this week... Read more...

Just because Steven Soderbergh isn't able to push on with "Moneyball," it doesn't mean that the "Che" director won't look towards sports for his next feature film -- in fact, he's got his eye on the world of mixed martial arts.

According to Variety, Soderbergh will direct MMA fighter Gina Carano in "Knockout," a spy thriller fully financed by Relativity Media with a script from "The Limey" screenwriter Lem Dobbs. The movie marks Carano's on-screen debut as a leading lady, but the plot won't focus on the fighter-turned-actress's day job -- as it turns out, "Knockout" has a lot more in common with Jason Bourne than Chuck Liddell. Read more...

I feel like a hole in the time-space continuum ought to open around this image. You've got Jason Bourne (ie Matt Damon), "Quantum Leap" protag Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) and "The Soup" host Joel McHale looking very serious over their diner food in Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant!," based on the 2000 book by Kurt Eichenwald.

In the movie, Damon stars as Mark Whitacre, former company man VP-turned-corporate corruption snitch. Whitacre worked for years to gather evidence of price-fixing against ADM, an Illinois-based agri-business. He remains the highest-ranking executive officer to ever blow the whistle on an employer's corrupt practices. Hit the jump for the intrigue. 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...