This morning, shooting was set to start on the movie Moneyball starring Brad Pitt and being directed by his good friend Steven Soderbergh. Well that isn't going to happen now. Despite the fact that three months of camera interviews and all the pre-production had been completed, Columbia Pictures yanked the plug and told everyone not to bother to show up for work this morning.
Stars jerk studios around frequently and cancel at the last minute, but I can't remember the last time someone like Brad Pitt was attached to a movie which was being directed by an A list director and the studio pulled the plug. The movie was only going to cost $50M. That might seem like a lot, but really it's nothing when you have those two attached to the movie.
The President over at Columbia is going to look mighty foolish if it goes to another studio and makes a bunch of money. I mean we are talking about keeping your job kind of decision that went into this. Now, if only someone would get wise and not sign onto the philosophy that you need to remake every movie from the 1980's.
They are just about to start shooting a Red Dawn remake and I really don't know why. The movie was great. Not perfect or once in a lifetime-ish, but it had so many people who were the 80's in crowd and I don't know why you need to mess with a good thing and fill the roles with unknowns.
Anyway, I guess now Brad and Angelina will have an extra six weeks together. I hope all those donations they made in the last week were not contingent on Brad filming this movie.
Take it over to Warner Brothers - they'd be happy to make it, especially after the success of the Ocean's movies.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Brad has a pay or play deal. Or whatever that contract is that even if the movie doesn't happen he gets paid.
ReplyDeleteoooooooooh....try to get the inside scoop as to why, enty! *hopes for juicy dirt*
ReplyDeleteBUT A MICHAEL LEWIS BOOK..THE MAN IS MAGIC....YUP SOMEONE IS GONNA GET FIRED..
ReplyDeleteAmy Pascal (head of studio?) kicked it to the kerb because the script had moved far away from the film she agreed. That's a brave decision.
ReplyDeleteI just feel sorry for the crew. They're the ones that get hosed in situations like this.
ReplyDeleteMe too Paisley. These are people with families, who just knew they were going to have work for the next six to eight weeks---then this comes at the last minute. god, that must be tough. hope they get it picked up quickly, for their sakes.
ReplyDeleteits a great book, but i dont see in any way how it becomes a movie ... its nonfiction about baseball geek and finance stuff
ReplyDeletems wonderland: I heard that, too. The last rewrite on the script was about a week ago and Pascal didn't like it.
ReplyDeleteAs for the crew, I'm fairly certain union rules protect them, no?
Unions wouldn't protect a crew in a situation like this. The guys who were part of pre-production would get paid for that work, but otherwise they're out of luck.
ReplyDeleteThis happened to someone I know during State of Play when Brad Pitt decided he didn't like the script (which was fine for Helen Mirren and Ed Norton). Russell Crowe replaced him, but the early November shoot got moved to late January and Ed Norton dropped out because he was scheduled for something else. The crew was unpaid during this time delay.
I DO NOT want a remake of Red Dawn, it is a classic. I found it here a few months ago and will pick up the DVD someday soon.
ReplyDeletehttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-712036695027727306