COMMENTARY | Brad Pitt had quite a week on both personal and professional fronts. With his latest film, “Moneyball,” set to open in North America Friday, Sept. 23, Pitt’s promotional tour included a stop at the Toronto Film Festival. The film, popular enough to warrant two screenings in Toronto, had ticket holders waiting in line for more than an hour to secure the best seats, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Based on the bestseller by Michael Lewis, “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,” the movie follows Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane as he struggles to compete against teams with much deeper pockets. Brains triumph over bucks in this sports movie, as Beane uses a computer to analyze statistical information about the players. Beane fashions a winning team out of affordable talent others overlooked, and makes his well-heeled competitors seem comparatively incompetent.
Early reviews are mostly positive, although the same cannot be said for Pitt’s unfortunate characterization of his five-year marriage to Jennifer Aniston as boring and fake. According to Cover Media, Pitt told Parade magazine that he tried “to pretend the marriage was something it wasn’t,” and fell into a funk of dissatisfaction and ennui.
Apparently, though, Pitt is a real gentleman: the kind who knows better than to throw a lady under the bus. Once he realized that the media were spinning his comments as a criticism of Aniston, he was quick to set the record straight. In a statement issued to Hollywood Life, Pitt said, “It grieves me that this was interpreted this way. Jen is an incredibly giving, loving, and hilarious woman who remains my friend.”
He then put the blame for his funk squarely where it belongs: on himself. “The point I was trying to make is not that Jen was dull, but that I was becoming dull to myself – and that, I am responsible for,” he insists. Great save Brad! A man who respects his ex and takes responsibility for his own life; too bad we can’t clone him.
Next up for Pitt? His production company, Plan B, is putting together a movie based on the zombie novel “World War Z” by Max Brooks, son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft. Director Marc Forster (“Quantum of Solace”) came on board in time to supervise final edits to the script, according to MTV News.
“You want to try to avoid the cliché, try to make something interesting that hasn’t been done before,” Foster explained.
Pitt will star as a United Nations representative trying to figure out how zombies began taking over the world. As the human population dwindles, Pitt works to preserve his own life while continuing his research. We’ll be rooting for you, Brad!