JONAH HILL, from comedian to Oscar-Nominee with “MONEYBALL”

Moments after the Academy Award nominations were announced several weeks ago in Beverly Hills, “Moneyball” star Jonah Hill still seemed stunned upon learning of his Oscar nomination.

"I saw it on TV and started freaking out," Hill admitted. "My mom was the first to call and then [producer] Scott Rudin shortly after that. This whole thing... it doesn't feel real yet."

Nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor, Columbia Pictures’ sports-oriented film “Moneyball” is based on the true story of Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) – once a would-be baseball superstar who, stung by the failure to live up to expectations on the field, turned his fiercely competitive nature to management.

Billy Beane’s radical revamping of his team, the Oakland A’s, was a collaborative effort, one that relied on his recruitment of a team of economic analysts who replaced baseball’s hunches and gut instincts with a fresh skew towards science. To capture the essence of the math brains who changed American sports, the screenwriters created a character: Peter Brand.

As played by Jonah Hill, Brand is an Ivy League economist turned unlikely baseball analyst – a guy who in any other field might be among the best and brightest, but in baseball has been relegated to outsider status. It is Brand who keys Beane into one of the main insights behind the “moneyball” concept: that the value of a baseball player isn’t something you can see or sense, but something you find lurking in the numbers. When Beane hires Brand away from the Cleveland Indians with the intention to put his stats-based approach front and center for the A’s – no matter the fallout -- he sets the two men on a collision course with baseball orthodoxy.

“Peter Brand is an outsider,” says director Bennett Miller. “He’s an Ivy League kid with a degree in economics and a perspective on the game that nobody in baseball could possibly have had. Billy plucks Pete from a cubicle in Cleveland and weaponizes him.”

Best known for his comedic performances, Hill welcomed the chance to sink his teeth into a subtle, dramatic performance. He approached the character as a baseball interloper driven by a true love of the game, and a man who grows on the job. “Peter Brand is the kind of guy who really should be a billionaire on Wall Street, except that he loves baseball,” observes Hill. “Because of his background, he judges players in a different way than the system supports. He’s all about the facts. He realizes it’s not about how a guy throws, how fast he runs or what he looks like. It’s about how often he gets on base.”

Yet what seems perfectly logical to Brand, comes across at first to the rest of the baseball world as a threat to a grand tradition. “It’s a natural reaction,” notes Hill. “Any time you try to change the way things are done, people from the previous generations are going to be upset, especially if you’re saying what they’re doing is unproductive. You can understand why they think ‘who is this kid using a computer to tell me who the players should be?’”

While Beane and Brand couldn’t be more divergent personalities, Hill says one attitude unites them. “For both men, it’s them versus the world,” Hill explains. “These are two guys with their backs against the wall who find the guts to fight for what they believe in.”

Opening soon across the Philippines, “Moneyball” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Visithttp://www.columbiapictures.com.ph for trailers, exclusive content and free downloads. Like us at www.Facebook.com/ColumbiaPicturesPH and join our fan contests.

Best Picture nominee “MONEYBALL” soon in Philippine cinemas

Nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor, Columbia Pictures’ critically acclaimed sports-oriented film “Moneyball” is based on the true story of Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) – once a would-be baseball superstar who, stung by the failure to live up to expectations on the field, turned his fiercely competitive nature to management. 

Directed by Bennett Miller (“Capote”), “Moneyball” also bagged nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Jonah Hill), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Sound Mixing.

In 2003, former Salomon Brothers bond trader turned author Michael Lewis, at the time best known for such business and politics bestsellers as Liar’s Poker and The New New Thing, published a book about baseball. Only it wasn’t just about baseball. On the surface, it was about how the under-funded, underrated Oakland A’s took on an unfair system of big-money and powerhouse teams. But it was really about the fascinating mix of men behind a major cultural shift and how a risky vision, born from necessity, becomes reality, when a ragtag team of cast-offs rejected due to unfounded biases, get the chance to finally prove their potential.

Now, Lewis’s book has been adapted into a feature film, “Moneyball,” starring Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, the A’s General Manager – the man who would have to think differently and reinvent the rules if his team was going to compete. “Moneyball is a classic underdog story,” says Pitt, who also serves as a producer of the project. “They go up against the system. How are they going to survive, how are they going to compete? Even if they do groom good talent, that talent gets poached by the big-market, big-money teams. And what these guys decided was, they couldn’t fight the other guy’s fight, or they were going to lose. They had to re-examine everything, to look for new knowledge, to find some kind of justice.”

At first glimpse, Lewis’ best-selling and groundbreaking book does not lend itself to a film adaptation. The book is a study of inefficiencies and oversights within the markets of the game of baseball and features case studies of undervalued items, (players, strategies, tactics), using analyses of statistics and theories. But at the center of it all is Billy Beane on a quixotic quest and as his story unfolds, something unexpected happens. His pursuit of a championship leads to something larger and more meaningful. The hallways and front offices of the Oakland Coliseum become an unlikely setting for inspiration and redemption. 

Lewis’ book sheds light on the hindrances of groupthink and how irrational intuition and conventional ‘wisdom’ have dominated institutions throughout history. Challenging a system invariably provokes a fight. The film Moneyball builds its foundation from the experience of one man who chooses to take on that fight. Piercing through the layers of statistics, the film finds the quieter, deeper, and more personal story of Billy Beane, which bristles with moments of self-doubt and real life courage.

“Whenever a book is adapted into a movie, there are two possibilities: either the filmmakers stick to the book, or they make up their own story,” says Michael Lewis. “With `Moneyball,’ frankly, I wondered how they were going to do it, because the book doesn’t necessarily have a single narrative or the kind of dramatic arc you usually see in a movie. So it was truly tough to crack the code and get it right and it was an extremely pleasant surprise to see that Bennett and the screenwriters did the impossible – not only did I love the movie, but I was stunned by how well it represents my book. It is honest and true to what happened with Billy and the A’s and what they achieved.”

Bennett Miller adds, “I wasn’t interested in the tropes of sports movies. I’d rather not end a film with a hero carried off on the shoulders of teammates in a stadium where fans are screaming their heads off, champagne corks flying, trophies, fireworks, and all of that. I prefer the quiet triumphs, that might not burn as bright but deeper and more lasting, where you see someone struggle internally and then come out the other side to realize something has changed within them.”

“Michael Lewis likes stories about unconventional thinkers,” says Miller. “That’s what Moneyball is – a story about a character whose past and whose circumstances lead him to and require him to think differently. I like that you have a character who takes a risk not just to make something of himself, but more so to understand something about himself. Billy is trying to do something more meaningful than simply win baseball games – only even he doesn’t really understand that until he starts to turn things around. All of a sudden this baseball season, which is a David versus Goliath story, becomes not just one competitive man’s desperate attempt to win games. It’s really a trial, an attempt to prove something that would, if proven true, explain in part why his life turned out the way it did, which is a thrilling idea.” 

Opening soon across the Philippines, “Moneyball” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Visithttp://www.columbiapictures.com.ph for trailers, exclusive content and free downloads. Like us at www.Facebook.com/ColumbiaPicturesPH and join our fan contests.

BRAD PITT wins BEST ACTOR for “MONEYBALL”

The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFC) has just chosen Brad Pitt as this year's Best Actor for his soul-searching performance in Columbia Pictures' baseball drama, “Moneyball.” The award catapults Pitt as a veritable contender for more acting trophies come awards season this coming February.

In his review of the film, critic Richard Corliss of Time Magazine, writes “Brad Pitt does sensational work... he exudes pure movie-star authority...His performance is a canny portrait of leadership — part genius, part crazy guts, part dumb luck — and worthy of moving Pitt up to the playoff round of Oscar finalists for Best Actor. We'd put money on it.”

The NYFC also gave Best Screenplay honors to writers Aaron Sorkin (“The Social Network”) and Steven Zaillian (“Schindler's List”) for their work on “Moneyball” which they adapted from the non-fiction book by Michael Lewis.

“Moneyball” is based on the true story of Billy Beane (Pitt) – once a would-be baseball superstar who, stung by the failure to live up to expectations on the field, turned his fiercely competitive nature to management. Heading into the 2002 season, Billy faces a dismal situation: his small-market Oakland A’s have lost their star players to big market clubs and is left to rebuild his team and compete with a third of their payroll. Driven to win, Billy takes on the system by challenging the fundamental tenants of the game. Ultimately this experiment will lead not only to a change in the way the game is played, but to an outcome that would leave Billy with a new understanding that transcends the game and delivers him to a new place.

Manohla Dargis of The New York Times is all-praises for the actor, writing “Brad Pitt gives the quintessential Brad Pitt performance. It’s hard to imagine anyone but him in the role. He’s relaxed yet edgy and sometimes unsettling, bristling with tamped-down fury...”

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly, describes Pitt as an actor who “has aged like a fine wine...beneath his funny, exhilarating, tossed-off strut of a performance, he gives Billy a deep river of self-doubt, as well as a need to prove himself that never quite comes out and shows itself.”

Finally, Kenneth Turan of Los Angeles Times, affirms “Pitt does wonders with a role of a good guy in a tough space, a man who combines the confidence and charisma of the former professional athlete but with an unexpected questioning nature. This is low-key star power at its best.”

Opening soon across the Philippines, “Moneyball” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Visit http://www.columbiapictures.com.ph for trailers, exclusive content and free downloads. Like us at www.Facebook.com/ColumbiaPicturesPH and join our fan contests.

Box office report: 'Real Steel' is the champion with $27.3 mil

Real Steel showed what it was made of, as the robot-boxing action drama won the weekend with an estimated $27.3 million. That’s the strongest opening ever for a boxing-themed picture, beating Rocky IV‘s $20 million debut in 1985 (when not adjusting for inflation).

DreamWorks’ $110 million film, which was released by Disney’s Touchstone Pictures, scored a superb “A” rating from CinemaScore graders. That bodes well for the movie’s box-office stamina, especially since there are no other major family films hitting theaters until Puss in Boots pounces on Oct. 28.

Unsurprisingly for a movie about mechanical fighters beating up one another, Real Steel skewed male — 66 percent of the audience according to Disney. It also attracted a younger crowd, with 44 percent under the age of 25. The PG-13 movie’s respectable opening must also come as a relief to star Hugh Jackman, who hasn’t had a non-X-Men film open to more than $20 million since 2004′s Van Helsing.

In second with $10.4 million was the political thriller The Ides of March. The R-rated film — which George Clooney directed, co-wrote, and co-stars in along with Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood, and Marisa Tomei — particularly appealed to older women. According to Sony, 58 percent of the audience was female and 60 percent was over the age of 35. The $12.5 million movie earned a “B” grade from CinemaScore participants, which is a bit lower than expected considering its awards buzz and positive reviews. The Ides of March will need to hold up well the next few weeks if it wants to keep its Oscar hopes alive.

The rest of the top five consisted of prior releases that all dropped around (a very commendable) 35 percent from last week. In third place, the family film Dolphin Tale slipped 34 percent for $9.2 million, pushing the film’s cumulative tally to $49.1 million. The Brad Pitt baseball drama Moneyball, a critical darling, grossed $7.5 million for a 38 percent decline. And the well-reviewed cancer comedy 50/50, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen, fell 36 percent for $5.5 million.

In limited release, the why-does-this-movie-exist horror sequel The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence stitched together a decent $54,000 from 18 theaters, with most locations only offering late-night showings.

1. Real Steel — $27.3 mil

2. The Ides of March — $10.4 mil

3. Dolphin Tale — $9.2 mil

4. Moneyball — $7.5 mil

5. 50/50 — $5.5 mil

Source: Entertainment Weekly | John Young