Now Pinch-Writing On 'Moneyball,' Steve Zaillian

Steve Zaillian is back in the lineup on Moneyball, the Columbia Pictures baseball film based on the Michael Lewis book. If you recall, Zaillian wrote the Moneyball draft that had the studio  ready to put the baseball film into production—until a Steve Soderbergh rewrite detoured the film about Oakland As general manager Billy Beane into docudrama territory and the movie was unplugged the weekend before shooting began. Zaillian was unavailable when Sony was ready to try again, and the studio brought on Aaron Sorkin, who had just finished The Social Network for the studio. Insiders roundly credit Sorkin’s work for making the film a go, with Brad Pitt, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jonah Hill and Robin Wright committed. But director Bennett Miller wanted to bring back three scenes from the Zaillian script. Since he completed his own adaptation of the Stieg Larsson novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Zaillian was available to return. Sorkin is still firmly in the picture, though, and will do a final polish before production begins July 12.