Columbia 'puts Brad Pitt's latest film on ice'

Columbia Pictures has put Brad Pitt's latest film Moneyball on hold just days before shooting was due to commence.

The Stephen Soderbergh-directed pic was supposed to begin filming today in Arizona, but it has now been put into "limited turnaround" after last-minute changes to the script were made, E! Online reports.

Pitt was due to play lead character Billy Beane in the baseball-themed story of Oakland A's general manager's successful attempt to put together a club on a budget by using computer-generated analysis to draft his players.

The project will now be on hold until the issue is resolved, which could reportedly result in a new director being appointed or the film being scrapped all together.

Pitt will next appear on cinema screens in Quentin Tarantino's latest offering Inglourious Basterds with Diane Kruger, Eli Roth and Mélanie Laurent.

The film follows a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" who are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis during the Second World War.