Soderbergh directs Pitt's MONEYBALL

By Matt Holmes /

Has star power won in Hollywood again? Back in October, we reported that Brad Pitt had signed on to star in MONEYBALL, an adaptation of the true life story of Oakland A€™s manager Billy Beane, who assembled a contending baseball club on a small budget by employing a sophisticated computer-based analysis to draft players. Back then it was to be directed by David Frankel (THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA) but now comes word from Variety that Stephen Soderbergh has entered talks for the project. Has Pitt forced Frankel off the film so he can once again work with his director on the OCEAN'S movies? Steve Zaillian (AMERICAN GANGSTER, SCHLINDER'S LIST) has adapted Michael Lewis book for Columbia. Presumably Pitt will play the coach and it's one of the more conventional projects the actor has signed himself too recently but it does continue his new desire to only work with the top directors in the industry (Fincher, Tarantino, Malick, Coens). The movie will be Soderbergh's next after his ambitious rock opera CLEO (about Anthony and Cleoptra) fell apart after star Hugh Jackman bailed on the Egyptian epic. I predicted he did so because of the failure of AUSTRALIA and for his desire to not take a risk as his next project though the trades claim it was over scheduling and financial conflicts. Looking forward to this. Ever since MR. AND MRS. SMITH, Pitt has really made a conscious change in his film career to pick projects that will challenge him as an actor and films based off stellar scripts. This is just the continuation of that. Can't wait to see it.

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