Press Releases

CULVER CITY, Calif., December 4, 2009 - Bennett Miller is in negotiations to direct Columbia Pictures' Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A's who rewrote the unwritten rulebook of baseball. The screenplay is by Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin based upon the bestselling book by Michael Lewis. Stan Chervin wrote the first draft of the script. The film will be produced by Michael De Luca, Scott Rudin and Rachael Horovitz.

Moneyball tells the story of Billy Beane (Pitt), who, after being named general manager of the low-ranked Oakland A's, defies a hundred years of baseball convention and even his own scouts, to recruit a new bench of major league players in the most unorthodox of ways. Believing they can outsmart the bigger, better-funded baseball franchises, Beane collects other teams' cutaways and castoffs to create the ultimate underdogs—and as he builds his new team, the A's stage one of the most unlikely winning streaks in the history of professional sports.

Production on Moneyball is being overseen by Matt Tolmach and Jonathan Kadin.

BENNETT MILLER was nominated for the Academy Award® for Best Director for his work on Capote, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman in his Oscar®-winning performance. The film was also nominated for Best Picture.

Miller previously made the acclaimed 1998 documentary-portrait The Cruise, about New York City tour guide Timothy "Speed" Levitch. The film garnered considerable critical praise and notable awards, including the top prize of the International Forum at the Berlin Film Festival and the Emmy Award. The film was released theatrically by Artisan Pictures and will soon be released on DVD by Lions Gate Films.

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For more information:

Steve Elzer
Senior Vice President, Media Relations
Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group
(p) 310.244.7142
steve_elzer@spe.sony.com