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.

Columbia has purchased the rights to the novels and British mini-series “Red Riding” about power and police corruption framed around the investigation into the disappearance of several young girls.  The studio is negotiating with Ridley Scott to direct the film and with Steve Zaillian to write the screenplay.  If they both sign on, it will be their third collaboration after “Hannibal” and “American Gangster”.  While it’s no easy task to condense a six-hour miniseries into a two-hour movie, I was impressed with what this year’s “State of Play” was able to accomplish, although a large part of that film’s success was due to how Jason Bateman chose to pronounce the word “garage”. [Variety]

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…