BuzzSugar

Weekend Reading: What the Heck Happened to That Brad Pitt Baseball Movie?

BuzzSugar — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 07:30:28 -0700

Last weekend, the entertainment industry was shocked when Sony pulled the plug on Steven Soderbergh's baseball movie that was going to star Brad Pitt - just days before the movie was supposed to start shooting.

Based on a bestseller by Michael Lewis, Moneyball was going to be a feature-length film about the true story of Oakland Athletics' general manager Billy Beane (Pitt) who put together a successful baseball team based on a new way of measuring a player's skill via stats. It might sound kind of dry, but having read both the book and an early, leaked version of the script, I can vouch for it being a compelling story. So, I'm officially bummed that this project appears to be stuck in development hell and may never hit the big screen.

High-profile projects with big-name stars and directors don't get swiftly killed all that often - so what the heck happened? Two articles this week shed some light on the whole debacle, and they're fascinating reads if you're interested in this project and/or the inner workings of the Hollywood studio system.

First, Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal gives her side of the story in this LA Times piece. Apparently, Soderbergh made some drastic, last-minute changes to the script:

"I've wanted to work with Steven forever, because he's simply a great filmmaker," Pascal told me today. "But the draft he turned in wasn't at all what we'd signed up for. He wanted to make a dramatic reenactment of events with real people playing themselves. I'd still work with Steven in a minute, but in terms of this project, he wanted to do the film in a different way than we did."

For more on what happened with Moneyball, just read more.

Then there's this New York Times article that fills in details on some of Soderbergh's changes, some of which were made to make Major League Baseball happier with the film's accuracy:

What baseball saw as accurate, Sony executives saw as being too much a documentary. Mr. Soderbergh, for instance, planned to film interviews with some of the people who were connected to the film’s story. The executives, who had just seen disappointing results from The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and Year One, rebelled.

As of now, the film is mostly considered dead, though there's thought that a different director could come in to make a movie out of the version of the script that Sony originally approved. After reading the stories, do you think Soderbergh was in the wrong for making the last-minute changes? Or do you think Sony got too skittish about a movie that still could have been good? And if Moneyball ever does get made, would you go see it?

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What to TiVo: Sunday

BuzzSugar — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:50:33 -0700

Fox has repeats of The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and Family Guy
NBC is new with Merlin and has The Bourne Supremacy
CBS has repeats of Million Dollar Password, Cold Case, and Without a Trace
ABC has repeats of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers and Sisters
Lifetime is new with Army Wives
HBO has repeats of True Blood

Buzz's Big Fat American Movie Quiz

BuzzSugar — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:30:12 -0700

Happy Fourth of July! Today I'm bringing back a fun quiz that features a hodge-podge assortment of trivia questions pertaining to movies that feature the Fourth of July, or reference Independence Day, or just have "American" in the title. They all relate to this patriotic July holiday somehow. Really, they do.

Source

Take the quiz

Rewind: This Week's Buzz

BuzzSugar — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:30:45 -0700

Neil Patrick Harris already conquered the Tony Awards and now he might host the Emmys! I would so love that.
Hey, since it's the Fourth of July and all, head over to my poll about what kind of humor you prefer: American or British?
I'm also curious to know whether or not Star Trek should get an Oscar nomination for Best Picture now that there are 10 slots in the category.
Ally McBeal is coming to DVD here in the US for real! That is all.
Lots of interesting trailers out this week, like a funny one for The Informant starring Matt Damon, one for the comedy Couples Retreat, and one for the indie film The Assassination of a High School President.
Some cute young ladies heading over to Gossip Girl for guest appearances next season: Hilary Duff will play Olivia Burke, a movie star who comes to NYU seeking a normal college experience, and Joanna Garcia has the role of Bree Buckley, "an irreverent, slightly evil Miss America type" who comes from a conservative Southern family but is politically progressive herself.
Finally, there's talk of a Kris Allen/Adam Lambert duet - does this interest you?

Do You Watch Fireworks on TV?

BuzzSugar — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 07:30:54 -0700

It's the Fourth of July! Time for sparklers, barbecues, and, for most of us, fireworks! Surely you'll go see live fireworks if possible, but what if it's not possible? Or what if you're feeling lazy? Would you tune into a fireworks show on TV? Or just skip the whole sheBANG (get it?!)?