Television actor Stephen Bishop will play slugger David Justice in Bennett Miller’s forthcoming adaptation of Michael Lewis’ “Moneyball.”
Justice was an outfielder and designated hitter who was recruited by Athletics’ assistant GM Paul DePodesta for a final season in 2002 as an experiment on the effect of age with hitters. His success seemingly argued that hitters retained their abilities. Interestingly, Steven Soderbergh’s earlier iteration of the Lewis adaptation would have seen Justice play himself with comedian Demetri Martin playing DePodesta.
Instead, Miller’s film now has Bishop co-starring along side Jonah Hill as Podesta, Brad Pitt as General Manger Billy Beane, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Team Manager Art Howe and Robin Wright as Beane’s wife. Steve Zaillian is producing “Moneyball” and also evidently rewrote the script, which has now seen a revolving door of talent involved including Aaron Sorkin. Shooting on the project begins this month.