In a world gone mad... (movie trailer guy voice)

I just stumbled upon semi-old news that Steven Soderbergh is adapting the book Moneyball, a work of non-fiction which describes how Oakland Athletics manager Billy Beane revolutionized the game of baseball through his reliance on sabermetrics. What's sabermetrics, you ask? It's a way to study baseball through the careful analysis of objective evidence, mostly statistics. Yes, Steven Soderbergh is making a movie about baseball...statistics.

And who will take on the lead role of Billy Beane? Brad motherfucking Pitt, that's who. The film also stars alleged comedian Demitri Martin as "Paul De Podesta, a Harvard grad who turned down Wall Street jobs to use his statistical skills to change baseball scouting tactics." But wait. There's more. Bill James, the inventor of sabermetrics and a god to rotisserie baseball geeks everywhere will also be represented in it. Animated. An animated Bill James starring in a Steven Soderburgh directed movie next to Brad motherfucking Pitt as Billy Beane. I am not making this up. Even Darryl Strawberry and Scott Hatteberg are in it. I'll shit myself if Rob Neyer is played by an animatronic version of himself.



Steven Zaillian, whom I love, did the polish for the script, and the book is supposed to be good, so this might end up better than I think. The concept of this being an actual movie, however, is sort of mindblowing. And maybe that's the point? It's also worth pointing out that Soderburgh's latest movie, The Girlfriend Experience, is just now available on Amazon.com's video on demand as a pre-theatrical rental. It stars real life porn star Sasha Grey as a Manhattan escort. From movies about porn stars to movies about baseball stat research. God bless you, Steven Soderburgh.