It seems that the film Moneyball, the story of how the 2002 Oakland A’s created a winning team with statistics, is back on track, but with a casting change. It seems as though Jonah Hill will now be playing the role of Paul DePodesta, the young statistician that helped the A’s manager make history, replacing Demetri Martin. This was revealed by Michael Lewis, the author of the source book Moneyball: The Art to Winning an Unfair Game, in a conversation with ESPN columnist Rob Neyer.Hill, in the role of DePodesta, will play a Harvard grad who is recruited by the A’s manager Billy Beane (currently Brad Pitt is cast) to devise a method of building a winning team on a tight budget. The result was DePodesta’s “Earned Run Value” statistical system, allowing Beane to focus more on players’ in-game performance than non-play factors such as attendance.
The switch from Martin to Hill certainly brings a new chemistry to the film, and makes one wonder about the logic behind the change — perhaps conflicting schedules, perhaps the studio wanting to change things up.
Moneyball has already had it’s fair share of change-ups, as it was originally supposed to be directed by Steven Soderbergh, until it was shut down at the last minute by Sony chief Amy Pascal last year. It is currently set with Bennett Miller (Capote) as director, using a new script by Aaron Sorkin.
The film is set to film in June of this year with a 2011 release.
What do you think of this cast change? How will it shape the film?