Despite Stops and Starts, Sony Still on Track to Produce 'Moneyball'

Despite seeing the departure of its lead director, the baseball-themed movie "Moneyball' is still in production at Sony Pictures, albeit with some major changes.

According to Daily Variety, the film, about Oakland A's manager Billy Beane, has lost Steven Soderbergh, and gained Emmy winning writer Aaron Sorkin.

The development follow Sony's dismissal of Soderbergh for altering the script to the film, a decision Sony Pictures head Amy Pascal objected to.

According to the studio, Soderbergh's version was designed as more of a pseudo-documentary, which Pascal believed would not appeal to theater goers.

As a gesture to the "Traffic" director, the film was put in "limited turnaround," meaning other studios could bid on it, yet so far it hasn't received interest from other studios and therefore Sony is holding on to the project.

With Sorkin at the helm, the script for "Moneyball" will remain faithful to the version Sony Pictures wanted. A script is expected to be produced this August.

The decision to hire Sorkin follows a spate of buzz about an upcoming movie based on Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg.

Although the drama surrounding "Moneyball" is recent, Sony has had a long-held interest in making a film based on the Michael Lewis book of the same name, dating back to its optioning of a script in 2004. That script was penned by Stan Chervin.