Brad Pitt's Moneyball

Steven Soderbergh and Brad Pitt were getting reading to start filming "Moneyball" on Monday in Phoenix, when Columbia Pictures decided to abandon the project.On Friday, Columbia Pictures head Amy Pascal placed the picture into "limited turnaround," giving Soderbergh the chance to set the pick up at another studio, with Warner Bros and Paramount the prime targets.

With a new deal not yet in place, Columbia will take tomorrow to re-examine where to go from here with Moneyball. There are several options, including delaying the film until Pascal believes she and Soderbergh are on the same page, replacing the director or, the worst-case scenario, pulling the plug on the project altogether.

This is not the first issue Moneyball has run into. While the baseball-themed flick has been approved by Major League Baseball itself, it follows a format that is less than mainstream and rarely a huge success in theaters.

Soderbergh has hired Pitt to play the lead character, Billy Beane, but is also utilizing live interviews with actual athletes, including Daryl Strawberry and Lenny Dykstra, and interspersing the vignettes throughout the movie.

"Moneyball" is based on the bestselling Michael Lewis book about a ballplayer-turned-Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane (Pitt) and his attempt to field a competitive team on a slim payroll. His system, known as "Earned Run Value," allowed Beane to evaluate valuable players he could hire at low cost.

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