Soderbergh and Pitt grab the Moneyball

Steven Soderbergh is negotiating to helm the film Moneyball, based on a book by Michael Lewis titled Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, according to Variety.

The book tells the story of Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland A’s who used a sophisticated computer analysis system to piece together a team that regularly contended for the World Series despite a payroll dramatically lower than larger payroll rivals such as the Yankees. With the heavily publicized salaries of players for teams like the Red Sox and the New York Yankees, baseball insiders and fans assumed that the best talent deserves and gets the biggest salaries. However the book’s author argues in the book that little-known numbers and stats matter more, and discusses Bill James and his annual stats newsletter, titled Baseball Abstract, along with other mathematical analysis of the game.

Brad Pitt has apparently been interested in the project since last year, when Steve Zaillian was attached to adapt the book.