"What Product do you Want to Moneyball?"

CULVER CITY, Calif., Sept. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Columbia Pictures' Moneyball, in theaters September 23, is teaming up with Quirky, a social product development company, to invite the Quirky community to invent and create a brand new game-changing product in 24 hours, it was announced today by Dwight Caines, president, Worldwide Digital Marketing for Sony Pictures and Ben Kaufman, founder of Quirky. 

Quirky will solicit ideas from the Quirky community and Twitter followers by asking: What product do you want to Moneyball?.  The best idea will be selected for rethinking and redesigning. On September 18, the games begin when Quirky's design team develops a product prototype live in 24 hours with the help of its online community. The final prototype will be unveiled at the film's premiere on the red carpet on September 19.

Commenting on the announcement, Caines said, "Moneyball is all about finding the better way, building the better mousetrap, and seeing value where nobody else sees it.  That is what Quirky and its inventors are doing every day – they see the way things have always been done, and stop to ask themselves why.  This community is built around the Moneyball concept and Quirky is a perfect fit for this film."

The Moneyball Quirky Project will begin at O.co Coliseum on September 18, where Jonah Hill will throw out the first pitch as the Oakland A's take on the Detroit Tigers.  After narrowing the product ideas, conducting market research, and choosing the winning product concept while at the stadium, The Moneyball Quirky Project will quickly move to San Francisco's 111 Minna Gallery, where the Quirky team will work through the night to refine the product's functionality, engineering and branding, and create a full-scale prototype.

"We're thrilled to give Quirky inventors a chance to Moneyball a new product and can't wait to see what they come up with," said Ben Kaufman , Founder and CEO of Quirky.  

Columbia Pictures' Moneyball is based on the true story of Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) – once a would-be baseball superstar who, stung by the failure to live up to expectations on the field, turned his fiercely competitive nature to management.  Heading into the 2002 season, Billy faces a dismal situation: his small-market Oakland A's have lost their star players (again) to big market clubs (and their enormous salaries) and is left to rebuild his team and compete with a third of their payroll. Driven to win, Billy takes on the system by challenging the fundamental tenants of the game. He looks outside of baseball, to the dismissed theories of Bill James, and hires Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a brainy, number-crunching, Yale-educated economist.  Together they take on conventional wisdom with a willingness to reexamine everything and armed with computer driven statistical analysis long ignored by the baseball establishment.  They reach imagination-defying conclusions and go after players overlooked and dismissed by the rest of baseball for being too odd, too old, too injured or too much trouble, but who all have key skills that are universally undervalued.  As Billy and Peter forge forward, their new methods and roster of misfits rile the old guard, the media, the fans, and their own field manager (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who refuses to cooperate. Ultimately this experiment will lead not only to a change in the way the game is played, but to an outcome that would leave Billy with a new understanding that transcends the game and delivers him to a new place.  Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, is directed by Bennett Miller.  The screenplay is by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin.  Story by Stan Chervin.  Based on the book by Michael Lewis.  The producers are Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz, and Brad Pitt.

For more information on The Moneyball Quirky Project please visit moneyball.quirky.com.

About Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation.  SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production, acquisition and distribution; television production, acquisition and distribution; home entertainment acquisition and distribution; worldwide television networks; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of entertainment in more than 142 countries. Sony Pictures Entertainment can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.sonypictures.com.

About Quirky
Quirky is a social product development company that brings two brand new consumer products to market each week through its online collaborative platform. Quirky's community of 100,000 members weigh in on every aspect of product development from logo to logo to industrial design. quirky shares its revenue  with the influencers who help bring each product to life.  Since its launch in 2009, quirky has collaboratively developed 170 new products. Quirky has its own show on The Sundance Channel about the powerful process of making invention accessible.  For more information on "Quirky" on Sundance Channel, please visit www.sundancechannel.com/quirky/.  Quirky's 24 year-old Founder, Ben Kaufman is a pioneer in open-source collaborative development and speaks all over the world on design, co-creation and social product development.  Quirky and Ben Kaufman are redefining the way people think about product development.

SOURCE Sony Pictures Entertainment