I must admit, I agree with the SF Chronicle’s Gwen Knapp in her column where she avers that the book was not meant to be a feature film.
In fact, the fate of the movie might have been more dramatic than any material “Moneyball” could have provided. What would have constituted the big moments in the film? Billy Beane in a confrontation with old-time scouts, holding up a laptop and saying: “Gentlemen, this is the future?”
You certainly weren’t going to see the players sitting around the clubhouse pondering their disadvantages of small-market status and getting a “Win one for the Gipper” speech from Art Howe.
And here’s another county heard from, TV comedy writer Ted Levine (M*A*SH, Cheers, The Simpsons, etc.):
What puzzles me is how this project got on the fast track in the first place. First off, it’s a baseball movie. They usually tank overseas (as my international readers who are probably thinking of bailing just reading the word baseball can attest). And it’s from a non-fiction book. Here’s what I imagine was the pitch. You tell me if you’d buy this.
One more piece, slightly more favorable, which includes a link to a draft of the actual script.
is available on Amazon.com,
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wow…thanks for the link to script. I was wondering how a movie based on Moneyball book would ever work out?
I’m no movie buff, but I was kind a hoping the focus would be on Billy Beane’s golden prospect status and failure to transfer the potential into production…..with an emphasis on the dark side of too much thinking.
If I understand correctly, he drove himself crazy thinking up ways to turn slumps into streaks. I don’t know…that seems like a fairly decent premise for a baseball movie…especially if his front office thinking revolution was indeed as revolution. I don’t know. Was it? There seems like alot of plots around the change.
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