Brad Pitt's in demand

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For both a baseball pic and a new take on The Odyssey

Two different studios have offered Brad Pitt two films at once: Columbia wants him for baseball pic Moneyball and Warners is tempting him with The Odyssey. In space.

Yes, we said in space. Let’s tackle The Odyssey first, shall we? Warner Brothers has set up an intriguing adaptation of the epic Greek poem The Odyssey, with Happy Feet’s George Miller writing and directing, reports Variety .

Not content with swords and sandals the last time Pitt and ancient Greek poet Homer were combined in a film (that would be 2004’s Troy, adapted from the writer’s other master work, The Iliad), Warners plans to set this one in a futuristic region of outer space.

Miller (still also attached to the endlessly developing Justice League pic) is writing the script, which will take the tale of Odysseus returning home and rethink it with a sci-fi angle. Pitt’s Plan B company is producing, and he’ll likely star if he approves the script.

Moneyball

Then there’s Moneyball, over at Sony, which according to Variety , has Steve Zaillian adapting from Michael Lewis’ non-fiction tome for The Devil Wears Prada’s David Frankel to direct.

Lewis’ book, Moneyball: The Art Of Winning An Unfair Game follows baseball club manager Billy Beane, who built a team on a low budget using computer analysis to pick players.

The book has been sitting in the studio archives since it was optioned in 2004 and there’s been at least one other script written. But Sony hopes that Zaillian’s draft will get Pitt to sign on.

Both projects will have to wait for Pitt’s hectic schedule to open up – he’s just started work on Inglourious Basterds for Quentin Tarantino.

And lest anyone forget , Brad Pitt and epics set partly in space haven’t exactly mixed well in the past- there are a few lines in Darren Aronofsky’s frown that can attest to that.

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