Wednesday evening, Entertainment Tonight aired the premier showing of the trailer for the "Moneyball" movie due out in theaters September 23, 2011. We've posted the clip after the jump, with the trailer starting just after the 40 second mark.
For the few sports fans who have not heard of Moneyball in some form or fashion, it was a book written by Michael Lewis about the ways in which Oakland Athletics GM Billy Beane worked to take advantage of inefficiencies in the market for baseball players (no Joe Morgan, it is NOT a book by Billy Beane). While the A's have yet to win a championship under Beane, they experienced a run in the '00s that was quite impressive given their payroll limitations.
The movie stars Brad Pitt as Beane, in a casting decision that Beane's wife has to enjoy at least a little bit. Jonah Hill fills the roll of assistant GM Paul DePodesta. Demetri Martin had originally been cast to play DePodesta but there was a change at some point to Hill. While there is no physical resemblance between Hill and DePodesta, Hill is an entertaining actor at times so hopefully that carries over into this role.
The movie was shot in numerous locations including extensive shooting at the Oakland Coliseum so there will be a realistic feel to the film for A's fans. Whether it will be a good movie remains to be seen. Michael Lewis had a later book, The Blind Side, turned into a movie but that also had a distinctly human element to it in the story of Michael Oher. While there are human elements to Moneyball, it does not approach The Blind Side in that regard. We'll see what kind of dramatic license has been taken by director Bennett Miller and writers Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin.