Very odd. Was Steven Soderbergh wowed drunk by the “Avatar” footage he saw recently because dude has a peculiar idea about using VFX for his would-be straight-forward sports story, “Moneyball.”
Based on the book, “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,” the story details the Oakland A’s innovative concept to building a winning ballclub and their then-unconventional approach, created by stats guru Bill James.
Brad Pitt plays Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, who used James’ advanced statistics guide to create his winning team (we wrote a whole post about the book that some of us are very familiar with).
Anywho, Soderbergh doesn’t want to cast an actor as Bill James. He’s got an… unconventional idea. “My current plan is to animate him,” Soderbergh told MTV. Wait, how does that work? “We have this sort of oracle character that appears throughout and declaims various issues and he’s essentially supposed to be Bill James. He’s your host in a way…. The background will be real but the person who is supposed to be him will be animated.”
Apparently the film will have a realistic tone (obviously, baseball), with a bit of… flare. “It needs a gimmick,” Soderberg said. “It needs something to make it not Masterpiece Theatre. His writer voice is so big, I thought to literalize it is going to actually harm it. I need to make his voice funny and when he comes on you’re happy to see it.”
Hmm, we’ll trust him for now, but it does seem kinda weird. So far, the only other name in the cast is Demetri Martin (who is apparently playing a Harvard grad who uses his statistical skills to change baseball scouting tactics) and Steve Zaillian is evidently doing a script polish on a screenplay started by Stan Chervin and Rachael Horovitz. Shooting will presumably start later this year when casting is finalized.