Moneyball is a 2011 biographical sports drama film directed by Bennett Miller from a screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin. The film is based on Michael Lewis's 2003 book of the same name, an account of the Oakland Athletics baseball team's 2002 season and their general manager Billy Beane's attempts to assemble a competitive team.

 

Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) wakes up one morning to a harsh new reality: the team he carefully constructed is about to be gutted. His star reliever, best starter and offensive leader are fleeing to teams that offer more money. His best position player is going to the Yankees, who just beat the A's in the postseason. Beane scrambles to field a credible team, but his owner won't raise his budget and his scouting staff is stuck in the past.

 

During a meeting with the Cleveland Indians, Beane notices their GM paying careful attention to the opinions of one Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a chubby young statistics nerd who's brilliant with computers and spreadsheets. Brand has developed a radical new system whereby players aren't evaluated in the traditional way, a system Beane enthusiastically adopts -- a system they dub "moneyball".

 

Columbia Pictures bought the rights to Lewis's book in 2004. After a number of years in development, the film was featured at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival and was released on September 23, 2011 to a box-office success and positive reviews.

 

Moneyball has received universal critical acclaim. As of July 7, 2012, the aggregate review website Rotten Tomatoes registered positive responses in 208 of 220 sampled reviews for a score of 95% and certified the film "Fresh". The critical consensus of the site states that "Director Bennett Miller, along with Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, take a niche subject and turn it into a sharp, funny, and touching portrait worthy of baseball lore".

 

The film was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Actor, Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay.