by Josh Grossberg
(from E!Online)
Aug 6, 2002, 2:30 PM PT
If you were one of those people who watched amateur filmmaker Pete Jones stumble through the minefield of big-time movie-making in Project Greenlight and thought you could do better, well, now's your chance.
Oscar-winning pals Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, the driving forces behind the original Project Greenlight, are teaming with HBO and Miramax for another round. Like the first installment, the new Project Greenlight will involve a screenwriting contest followed by the production of the winning entry, all chronicled in a behind-the-scenes documentary series.
However, unlike the first edition, in which the then-unknown Jones was chosen out of 10,000 entrants on the Internet, this year's version will field two winners: one screenwriter responsible for the script and an aspiring director who will helm the project. The two winners will be forced to work together.
"A great number of filmmakers who would have liked to participate in the first Project Greenlight contest told us they didn't enter because they were either writers or directors--but not both," says Chris Moore, Project Greenlight's executive producer. "With this revision we hope to give even more aspiring filmmakers a chance. Contestants can enter as writers only, as directors only, or they can enter both contests."
The added element will make the selection process even more difficult this time out.
About 7,300 scripts were submitted to projectgreenlight.com for 2000's competition. After which, peer reviews helped narrow the field down to 250, then 30, then a final 10. From there, Damon, Affleck, Moore and a handful of Miramax execs chose Jones after reading the finalists' screenplays, watching a short biographical video on why they thought they should win and screening a two-minute scene they directed from their own script.
After an all-nighter, the judges picked Jones, a former insurance salesman, whose script, Stolen Summer, told a tale of two young boys, one Catholic, the other Jewish, who try to understand death and figure out how to get to Heaven. He was given a $1 million budget and a guaranteed distribution deal with Miramax.
His travails as a first-time filmmaker were documented on HBO's 13-part series, which was recently nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Nonfiction Program.
While the HBO series earned plaudits, Jones' Stolen Summer was panned by critics as a trumped-up Afterschool Special. The film tanked at the box office, pulling in only $120,000 after playing on just 13 screens for just two weeks, according to the Internet Movie Database.
Still, that didn't dissuade producers from green-lighting a second Project Greenlight.
"We were incredibly proud of the results of the first Project Greenlight, and we're thrilled that our partners at HBO and LivePlanet continue to share our passion for the project," says Miramax cochairman Harvey Weinstein, whose company is again putting up a minimum $1 million budget for the next film.
Adds Weinstein: "And Pete Jones did a great job of proving, once and for all, that there are undiscovered filmmakers out there who deserve to be heard and will dazzle all of us if given the chance."
Whatever you say, Harvey.
With Project Greenlight being split into two categories this year, wannabe directors must submit three-minute directorial samples, while screenwriters will submit their screenplays.
No word yet on whether Damon and Affleck will consider a role in the next film.
But the duo is gearing up for more integrated media projects along the lines of Project Greenlight. Their LivePlanet outfit, which recently agreed to do the interactive fall series Push, Nevada for ABC, just clinched a deal with Disney to do more conventional films (i.e., no amateurs allowed--at least not yet).
The second Project Greenlight contest kicks off on September 19 and runs through October 2. A DVD box set containing the first Project Greenlight series and Stolen Summer is due in stores September 24.
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