‘Moneyball’ is just the latest project to shoot at Dodger Stadium

Dodger Stadium’s playing host to “Moneyball” should not be mistaken for Frank and Jamie McCourt’s playing hardball over the fate of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

On Monday, hundreds of extras poured into the famous baseball arena to film scenes for “Moneyball,” a big-screen adaptation of Michael Lewis’ 2003 bestseller about the revival of the Oakland A’s and its maverick general manager, Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt.

About 700 extras participated in a variety of baseball scenes, including a 1984 game between the Dodgers and the Mets, when Beane played for the New York team, and a montage sequence set in 2002 that chronicles the A’s memorable season.

Extras who appeared in front of the camera were paid, as called for by union rules. But many of the background extras volunteered to be on the set in exchange for being eligible for prizes.

“Moneyball” is just the latest project to shoot at Dodger Stadium, which over the years has been a popular site among filmmakers, partly because of its grand vistas of downtown Los Angeles and its large parking lots that make it ideal for production base camps.

This year alone, the stadium has been used as a location for 16 productions, including the TV series “NCIS: Los Angeles” and “Criminal Minds” as well as commercials for Wendy’s, Ford and Microsoft. In addition to “Moneyball,” the stadium has been the venue for more than a dozen movies, among them the latest “Star Trek” film, “Fast & Furious” and the current thriller “Takers.”

The stadium, which has relationships with location managers around Hollywood, charges anywhere from $10,000 a day for use of its parking space to $25,000 a day for shooting inside the stadium. Management views the filming activity as an important way to market the stadium.

“We welcome the movie shoots,” said Jill DeStefano, manager of venue sales and services. “We love to have them, and it’s exciting for us.”

“Moneyball,” scheduled to be released next year, almost never made it out of the ballpark. Sony halted production on the film last year, just days before it was to begin shooting.

The move came after Sony Pictures co-Chairwoman Amy Pascal expressed dissatisfaction with the script. Sony then tapped producer Aaron Sorkin (“The West Wing” and “Charlie Wilson’s War”) to revise the screenplay.

Sony began filming the movie, which cost about $57 million to produce, on July 12 and has shot scenes in Los Angeles and Oakland. In addition to Dodger Stadium, locations have included Blair Field in Long Beach, the aviation-theme studio Air Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley and sites in Chatsworth and Malibu.

richard.verrier@latimes.com