'Moneyball' on deck with Webb, Miller? (BIZ)

By Nancy Tartaglione

Is "Moneyball" finally about to take the field? The Risky Business blog reports that several directors have met with star Brad Pitt, studio execs and/or producers over the past weeks. Although Sony has made no formal offers, a number of names have surfaced, including Oscar nominee Bennett Miller ("Capote") and "(500) Days of Summer’s" Marc Webb.

With Steven Soderbergh off "Moneyball" and a newly-rejiggered script, Sony is keen to move forward.

Lately, Miller has been developing "Foxcatcher," a real-life tale about a schizophrenic member of the DuPont family.

Webb is currently attached to a remake of the Danish thriller "Just Another Love Story" and has met on Universal's remake of "Jesus Christ Superstar."

Back in June, days before production was to begin, Sony called an abrupt halt and put "Moneyball" into limited turnaround. Soderbergh shopped his reportedly artier, documentary-style new version to other studios, but Warner Bros. and Paramount passed so the director threw in the towel and walked away from the project.

In July, the studio summoned Aaron Sorkin to polish up Steve Zaillian's original script, which was what Sony thought Soderbergh had in mind to begin with.

Brad Pitt is still on board to star as Oakland A's manager Billy Beane, based on Michael Lewis' book of the same title.

BIZ surmises that given all the starts and stops on the way to getting "Moneyball" made, nothing is a sure thing, "but with a number of conferences now taking place on the mound, it may not be long before someone starts throwing heat."