'Moneyball' trailer looks good
Actor Brad Pitt leaves "The Tree Of Life" premiere during the 64th Annual Cannes Film Festival. (May 16, 2011) Credit: Getty Images
That Michael Lewis' book "Moneyball" can even become a movie is impressive. That the trailer for the movie, due in September and starring Brad Pitt as Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane, looks good is even more impressive.
For those of you who don't know the backstory, here's a quickie recap: Beane has to operate with an extremely tight budget in Oakland, so he looks for new ways to evaluate players and maximize their value.
That's an extremely oversimplified explainer to an operating system that revolutionized baseball in the early 2000s.
The movie also stars Jonah Hill in a refreshingly non-jocular role. He plays Paul Brandt (a fictional person), a recent Ivy League graduate who helps Beane with his computer-generated analysis. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays A's manager Art Howe. Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin co-wrote the screenplay, and Bennett Miller ("Capote") directs.
Watch the "Moneyball" trailer below.