Moneyball novels were published in 2003 and soon became phenomenal books in sports circles. In the second year, SONY bought the right to adapt the film and commissioned the little-known screenwriter Stan Chervin to write the first draft of the script. The
book was then transferred to the novel fan Brad Pitt. He was very interested in the subject matter, but he was not sure whether he should accept it or not. This version is both commercial and
joyful. It is very different from the original appearance of the novel . In 2007, Pitt agreed to star, but Chervin had to get out... SONY asked Steve Zaillian, an award-winning screenwriter, to write the second draft. David Frankel, who made vulgar comedies, was kicked away soon. The new candidate was another big man-the director Steven Soderbergh
Soderbergh of the Academy Awards was very passionate about this project and had the urge to make a new sports movie. It means that the filming should be both visually stylized and fun (for example, the father of data Bill James is presented in animation); he made major changes to Zaillian's book according to his own ideas, but the new ideas that emerged at the last moment completely angered SONY. : Soderbergh is determined to take the half-documentary path, interspersed with real interviews with the parties in the film,
you should know that the budget of the film at that time was set at 60 million US dollars; and checking the box office history, you know that baseball movies are by no means a box office panacea. There are only two movies of the same genre in North America with 100 million in the past 100 years. In
June 2009, SONY Chairman Amy Pascal and CEO Michael Lynton resolutely pulled the plug-facing a powerful figure like Pitt, this is definitely not an easy decision. At that time, there were only 3 days left before the official start-up, and Soderbergh had already shot the second set of material for nearly 20 days-a lot of live interviews
After spending 10 million, SONY agreed to let Pitt and Soderbergh go to another studio to try their luck, the so-called "turnaround", but no one took over and the project was officially shut down. In most cases, this also means The film was completely aborted.
Fortunately, Pitt was very unhappy. He really wanted to play Billy Beane, the character who defeated the prejudice. Fortunately, Pascal was unhappy. She was really optimistic about this material and decided to give it again. A chance
was that another SONY project, The Social Network, had already started shooting. Both projects happened to have the same producer-Michael De Luca. Pascal invited TSN's major producer Scott Rudin and gold medal screenwriter Aaron Sorkin to participate, and Pitt himself joined the production team at this time.
The budget for the rebirth project was cut to 50 million, including 10 million that has already been spent. , And Pitt's salary of 10 million +; the remaining is less than 30 million, which is peanut money for the studio production.
Before agreeing to take the job, Sorkin called Zaillian, who was on vacation in Rome Pantheon Answered the phone next to the temple. Zaillian hoped that Sorkin would not dismember the script, and asked Sorkin how he would react if he changed it. He replied: "I will burn the studio."
Sorkin is a big fan. He also played in the TV series Sports Night in the late 90s. It made sense; the studio originally only signed him for 3 weeks to write some new plays, and then added another 3 weeks, but in the end Sorkin did it for a full year and a half. The earliest page number was written at the Boston Hotel when I was shooting TSN. When I returned to Los Angeles, and work continued, Pitt would ride a motorcycle to his house for interviews, followed by a large group of paparazzi. Pitt talked to Sorkin about his love for the role-driven films of the 70s.
By this time, the director's vacancy had not been filled. After SONY threw out a lot of names, it was Pitt who gave advice, so let's find Bennett Miller-if you want to go back to the source, this is still the idea of Pitt's friend Catherine Keener
Miller is famous for his pickiness. He made a documentary and a feature film Capote only after his debut for more than ten years. Having dealt with Pitt before, he considered for three full weeks before agreeing to direct, during which time he read the original and three versions of the script. On the way to Los Angeles, he still doesn't live in worry, can those powerful gangsters let him go to shoot?
Miller himself is not a diehard baseball fan. The idea he gave to Pitt was to subvert the genre and make a non-traditional sports film; Pitt agreed that it would be a Trojan horse movie: the outside is a Hollywood entertainment starring Brad Pitt, but the inside is After the unexpected anti-traditional
Miller took over, he asked Zaillian and Sorkin to continue to rewrite the script separately, and then send the results separately to Miller, who will re-edit; for the two major screenwriters, this is somewhat aggrieved, but also kind Fresh challenge experience
As for the crew members, Miller wants to find some filmmakers who have independent senses like him to join this studio. Production
photographer Wally Pfister just finished the super blockbuster Inception, but he made his debut as a news film and collaborated with Nolan. The beginning is also an independent film like Memento. The two have the same idea and it is easy to shoot. Let the film tell the story in a way of observation rather than telling it bluntly. Pfister was able to pay tribute to the big idol Gordon Willis in Moneyball, without shame: when shooting the only baseball scene, he even turned off half of the lights on the stadium to deliberately outline the chiaroscuro contrast in the field. The
production designer Jess Gonchor was used by the Coen brothers. He also agrees with Miller's philosophy of striving for truth. Due to budget constraints, important scenes such as the team’s locker room, gymnasium, coach’s office, and video room were all built on SONY’s studio, but the realism was not reduced at all; for the same reason, the eight different away games that appeared in the movie were all at Dodge Stadium. Filming, dressing up so many scenes, but filming time was only three days, Gonchor’s team made it mission impossible; for the Liverpool boss interview scene, the crew only got permission to shoot for the Red Sox’s home game for one day. It happened to catch up with the rain, and the gloomy sky became The perfect footnote of film aesthetics
When Soderbergh was in office, he originally planned to find Scott Hatteberg and David Justice himself to play two important players; Miller is not so hard-core, but he also recruited a group of players, scouts, referees, managers, court administrators, and professional actors to form actors. The lineup, to pursue the authenticity he cares about most.
Relying on Miller’s previous work, Philip Seymour Hoffman, who took the actor, took advantage of the gap in the schedule, took the initiative to call Miller to ask for the role of coach Art Howe; Jonah Hill was asked to play the fat genius because Miller knew him well. I want to get rid of the image of comedy, and I will be fully involved in the play. As for the role of daughter, Kerris Dorsey was chosen after dozens of trials, because Xiao Nizi sang the most important The Show as a director.
After 13 months of goosebumps , Moneyball finally officially launched. The 58-day main filming period was smooth sailing; but the post-editing was a heavy task, because Miller still faced hundreds of historical materials; SONY gave 12 weeks. Miller categorically rejected the editing schedule for Miller. In the end, Miller spent nine months editing, during which he did not forget to let the two screenwriters continue to refine the script
. The hard work that was not commercial enough would be torn apart by the studio; unexpectedly, the chairman of SONY and senior officials unanimously recognized his efforts, and the same was true for the subsequent preview audience.
On September 23, 2011, Moneyball was finally over. After seven years of long screen adaptation, the North American box office of 74 million has been ranked 6th in the history of baseball movies
. For me, this is a landmark sports film-at least, I have never seen Ren Ren. The climax of a sports movie happened. . . . . . General manager's office during the transfer period
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