So yes, we’re bordering on “Moneyball,” overkill [ed. “bordering, hmm, yes…]. And when we said if Steven Soderbergh’s off the baseball drama “we no longer care,” we lied. We thought about it a bit amongst ourselves and thought, “OK, if this thing’s going to possibly go forward. Who would be a good choice or fit?” After all there is still a good and workable Steve Zaillian screenplay that can be presumably reworked to mollify the MLB and various parties, no?
Spike Lee wants to do a Jackie Robinson biopic, but that history of baseball and racial integration story seems far too off the path of this stats, metrics drama. Plus if he had his choice, the Robinson biopic would probably come first and anything else baseball related could kill it. Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden directed the baseball drama, “Sugar” earlier this year, but their take was probably far too socio-political for studios and they surely don’t want to repeat themselves either.
Who else could take over? Here’s some picks who could take to the mound.
1. George Clooney
Many factors work in Clooney’s favor as baseball is in his blood. For one, he was considered a prospect for Ohio’s major league team the Cincinnati Reds when he was a teenager. Baseball was a childhood dream. In 1999 he was set to star in ”The Catcher Was a Spy,” playing real-life baseball player/international spy Morris ”Moe” Berg, but obviously that never came to pass. His love for baseball is such that Peter Guber, a Mandalay Entertainment chairman, who owns the Ohio minor league team the Dayton Dragons, offered him a contract to play in 2008 (though, yes, that might have been just a playful hometown shout out, Clooney spent much of his childhood in that state). Obviously he’s pals with Brad Pitt, which would smooth over any number of obstacles, plus he’s already directed a football movie (“Leatherheads” and one terrific film, that had some similar procedural overtones, “Good Night And Good Luck”). But just as importantly, who better than Clooney to understand Beane as a smartest-guy-in-the-room character, since that exemplifies so many of the characters he has played? He worked with Soderbergh on the “Ocean’s” trilogy, so he likely would have some understanding of the intent of the latest draft of the screenplay, and possibly how to fix it. More importantly his production company did just move over to Sony where “Moneyball” is set up. Easily the best choice out there, Soderbergh could executive-produce and everyone would be happy.
2. Peter Berg
He’s already turned one bestselling sports nonfiction book into a successful film in “Friday Night Lights.” Heck, he turned that into a truly fantastic TV show. There’d be some irony in Berg going from Buzz Bissinger’s book to Lewis’s as the former is quite outspoken in his disagreement with the latters worldview. And while “Hancock” may not be everyone’s cup of tea, there are some striking parallels between the titular character and Billy Beane. Both are pariahs not fully understood even by the closest to them, the public’s opinion of them based largely on their latest result. Plus it could save Berg the embarrassment of having to adapt a board game (“Battleship”) into a feature-length movie.
3. Tony Gilroy
He’s only directed two films, but both has decent-sized budgets and major film stars. Several of “Michael Clayton”‘s character traits fit Billy Beane. Both were high-ranking employees (not owners) whose job entailed making sure things got done, even if they didn’t always have as much of something (information, money) as they would have liked. And both did their best to game the system. Gilroy’s movies tend to focus on a behind the scenes look at a firm, which naturally fits in well with this story. He’d probably want to rewrite the script, though, which might not be the worst thing aside from costing a shitload more.
4. John Lee Hancock
If you can look past “The Alamo,” you’ll see the man who has already directed one baseball movie based on a true story. And if the room doesn’t get a little dusty when you watch “The Rookie” then you just might have a little robot on you. But more to the point, he’s also directing “The Blind Side” starring Sandra Bullock, Kathy Bates, and Tim McGraw, due out this fall. The film is based on a Michael Lewis nonfiction book of the same name (don’t let people fool you, though it raises some interesting points about football and the left tackle position specifically, it isn’t exactly the football version of “Moneyball”).
5. Bryan Singer
Before the superhero movies (which, admittedly, don’t directly relate to “Moneyball”) there was a little film called “The Usual Suspects.” If Singer is looking to return to those roots, he could do worse than to stop here. In a sense, “Moneyball” is about how Billy Beane figures out to pull a fast one (or a series of fast ones) on the rest of the league. The more you view it as a long con or a caper, the more Singer becomes an intriguing choice to create a stylish version of the events. Plus on an2005 episode of the TV show “House” (Singer is the show’s executive-producer) — a baseball episode titled, “Sports Medicine” — the “X-Men” filmmaker appeared as the person directing a baseball player character in a anti-drug ad. Sounds like he might be a fan of the national pastime.
Let it die you say? Hey, better this than “Major League 4” (which is actually been rumored as as a possible project moving forward) any damn day of the week.