Adios Moneyball

Scuzz · July 5, 2011, 9:26am

I don’t see how you make an entertaining anything from that book…the book was good but never once while reading it did I wonder who would play Billy Beane in the movie.

Telefrog · July 5, 2011, 11:26am

Activision confirmed that it is indeed Bobby Kotick.

RepoMan · July 6, 2011, 1:36pm

Not only that, but he plays Brad Pitt’s boss.

Hollywood Reporter:

Perhaps his job as CEO of Activision Blizzard – one of the most successful video game companies in the world – just isn’t challenging enough for Bobby Kotick. Therefore, not only is he trying to purchase MySpace and go head-to-head with Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, but he’s also going Hollywood with an acting role in the film Moneyball, which stars Brad Pitt and will be released by Columbia on Sept. 23.

Moneyball is the true-life story of Billy Beane, the inventive manager a decade ago of the underfunded and, as it turns out, underestimated Oakland Athletics baseball team. Pitt plays Beane and Kotick is his employer Stephen Schott, who co-owned the team back then.

Kotick’s role is small and it remains to be seen how much screen time he’ll have after final edits. The part he plays though, is pivotal, and one of his few lines is a perfect setup for the movie, so Kotick appears in one of the trailers.

At the 17-second mark of the trailer, Kotick’s character tells Pitt’s character: “We’re not in New York. Find players with the money that we do have."

Kotick was cast, insiders say, because he’s a friend of director Bennett Miller and “he seemed to fit the role.”

Good God.

Marcus · July 13, 2011, 11:21pm

Saw the trailer for this today and I think it looks great. I am looking forward to seeing it.

sluggo · July 13, 2011, 11:57pm

I absolutely loved the book, and think there’s totally a good movie to be made from it – it’s the story of a guy fighting to improve what he feels is a comically imprecise century-old system and constantly being told he’s wrong – but the trailers aren’t doing anything for me, especially Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, who both seem miscast.

But I’ll hold out hope, because I’m a Sorkin fan. Brad Pitt doing large chunks of Sorkin dialogue? I’m curious, if nothing else.

Marcus · July 14, 2011, 8:52pm

I agree with slugs about the book. There really is a great movie there. I don’t even like baseball all that much but I am finding the book fantastic. I highly suggest reading it even if you have only a passing interest in the sport.