At this year’s Toronto Film Festival, I was able to talk with director Bennett Miller about his new movie Moneyball.  Based on Michael Lewis’ book, the film stars Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, the general manager of Oakland Athletics who helped usher in a statistical revolution to professional baseball.  Jonah Hill plays a fictional character based on Paul DePodesta and Chris Pratt plays Scott Hatteberg.  Moneyball also stars Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright and Stephen Bishop.During the interview, Miller talked about making and editing Moneyball, deleted scenes and what will be on the DVD/Blu-ray, the amount of takes he likes to do, and his preference in film vs. digital.  He also talks about possible future projects, which includes something with Philip Seymour Hoffman.  Hit the jump to watch; here's Matt's review of Moneyball (which I also thought was great).And if you missed them, here's my video interviews with Jonah Hill and Chris Pratt.Bennett Miller

  • Does he enjoy doing press
  • What's the last video game he's played
  • What was making Moneyball like for him and was he aware of all the online reporting about the directors that were interested
  • Casting the movie
  • Editing Moneyball. Says he had ten times the footage than he had on Capote
  • 3:50 - Did he cut out any big scenes or was it a lot of little scenes. Says he cut out entire storylines
  • 4:23 - Will the deleted scenes be part of an extended cut on the DVD/Blu-ray. Says they will be in the deleted scenes section
  • 4:45 - Says he has about 20 minutes of deleted scenes
  • 5:00 - How many takes does he like to do
  • 5:48 - Did they test screen the movie and what did he learn from the screenings
  • 6:50 - Film or Digital
  • 7:33 - What is he going to do next. Says he has two things. One is a book that Phillip Seymor Hoffman found and another one that he's been developing since after Capote

 

 

moneyball-poster