Actor and film producer Brad Pitt and the actors of 'Moneyball' agreed at the film's premiere that the movie is much more than a baseball movie or an underdog story.
'It's more reminiscent for me of what I loved about the '70s films', Brad Pitt told reporters at the premiere, in an interview provided by Columbia Pictures. 'Again, there are some big universal themes here that go well beyond the underdog story. Ideas of value and how we rate ourselves successfully or as a failure, they bring up some interesting questions'.
'I think it's important that everyone who sees it who is not a sports fan, to me says it's a movie about underdogs and a movie about being undervalued and not a movie about baseball', Brad Pitt's co-star Jonah Hill agreed. 'It uses baseball as a beautiful aesthetic backdrop and that's about it'.
'Moneyball' hits theaters on Friday, September 23 and is based on a true story. Pitt plays Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland A's baseball team, who utilizes a new method of scouting players that mostly involves analyzing game statistics. Hill portrays his assistant, Peter Brand, while Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the team's manager, Art Howe.
The cast returned to Oakland for the premiere, which was held at the Paramount Theater and they did press interviews at the Oakland Coliseum, where the Oakland A's play.
'This was our big goal, to come back here and open it up', Pitt said at the film's premiere. 'The people of Oakland stayed up all night with us for weeks on end to re-create the games, so it's really special to bring it back here. I'm anxious to see the reaction'.
Brad Pitt said that the film had an air of authenticity to it, thanks to director Bennett Miller's decision to use real athletes.
'Bennett Miller's mandate - get real baseball players, it looks like the real thing, it is the real thing and to bring in real scouts and let them put things in their words and so-on and so-forth has really paid off - there's a nice authenticity to it, I think', Brad Pitt said.
The 'Moneyball' story was based off of the book of the same name, which Pitt admitted wasn't the most riveting of sources.
'It was a difficult one to complete, due to the complex material', Brad Pitt told the San Francisco Chronicle. 'Economics and sabermetrics isn't necessarily nail-biting stuff, edge-of-your-seat kind of movie entertainment'.
Producer Brad Pitt is currently filming the zombie invasion movie, 'World War Z', where he recently rescued a woman from being trampled on-set.
Brad Pitt, his partner Angelina Jolie and their six kids have been renting a 16th-century mansion in the Scottish countryside while Pitt films the movie, which is slated for a December 2012 release.
The movie 'Moneyball' was released on September 23. Watch a trailer below.
