Last June, Steven Soderbergh’s adaptation of Michael Lewis’ book Moneyball fell apart only three days before shooting was set to begin.  With Brad Pitt as the lead, Moneyball focused on the true story of how the Oakland Athletics became a competitive team by relying on statistics rather than the higher payrolls of their competitors.  It’s unlikely for a film to reach production so soon with a big name director and star and have the plug pulled at the last minute.  However, even though Soderbergh has moved on to other projects (including another one about baseball) Sony Pictures is still looking to move the process forward and meeting with several directors including Marc Webb ((500) Days of Summer) and Bennett Miller (Capote).  Hit the jump to see if someone can finally hit this movie.

Right on the heels of his upcoming Matt Damon comedy “The Informant!”, director Steven Soderbergh has jumped onto a new project of a different sort. “Knockout” tells the story of a girl from the slums who is given a second chance at life in the ring, although it will be more akin to a James Bond film than “Million Dollar Baby”. Gina Carano of mixed martial arts fame is set to star. More on her and the project after the jump.

The saga of “Moneyball” continued today as Sony announced that Brad Pitt is still attached to star in the big screen adaptation of Michael Lewis’ baseball book.  After unceremoniously pulling the plug on the Steven Soderbergh helmed project just days before filming was set to begin, Sony has not only kept the film in development but has now enlisted the great Aaron Sorkin to redraft Steve Zaillian’s original script.  More after the jump…

In some surprising news, Variety is reporting that Sony has just ditched Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming adaptation of Michael Lewis’ best-selling book “Moneyball” starring Brad Pitt.  Apparently, Sony Co-Chairman Amy Pascal put the film into “limited turnaround” after reading Steven Zallian’s latest version of the script which Pascal says differed wildly from earlier versions and she was no long comfortable with how Soderbergh’s vision had changed the project.  In this limited turnaround, the film is now available for Soderbergh to take it to another studio, with reportedly Paramount and Warner Bros. in the front-running.

The film was set to begin filming tomorrow but on Friday, Pascal saw the latest script and that’s when everything was thrown out of whack.  From Variety:

If a new financier doesn’t emerge by today, Columbia will re-examine options that include replacing Soderbergh (and hoping Pitt doesn’t ankle), delaying the film until Pascal and the filmmaker find themselves in synch on the script or pulling the plug.