Variety
By Glenn Whip
Dec. 14, 2011
First, Bennett Miller had to find a way into “Moneyball.” Then he had to find a way out.
The movie adaptation of Michael Lewis‘ 2003 bestseller about Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane had been kicked around and, eventually, shut down, when Miller pitched his take to Sony, suggesting a redemption story about a man unaware he needed saving.
“Billy Beane is just one of those characters where you peel back the layers and find it’s not about winning a baseball game,” Miller says. “It’s about the pursuit of ambition, yes, but in the pursuit, he comes to understand the thing he was pursuing wasn’t what he originally thought.”
Miller sold Brad Pitt on his vision, retaining the actor who had been attached to the project from its inception.
