This imaginative, creative and inspiring 'reality' series was created by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Chris Moore. The three men set up a competition via the internet aptly titled, "Project Greenlight" and encouraged aspiring screenwriters, directors and film-makers who wanted a chance to have their dreams and creations turned into an actual film that would be screened nationally, to send in a copy of their screen-plays. Out of an astounding 10,000 plus entries from all around the U.S., the number was narrowed down to 10 where each successful entrant was flown to L.A. to meet with Damon, Affleck and Moore and the head honchos at Miramax Films to try and pitch their ideas.
The next 10 was broken down into the final 3 where the deciding jury spent a grueling 6 hours in a hotel room trying to decide which entrant would be the winner. It was quite obvious that all of the 10 finalists were deserving people, but to break it down to three and decide who the winner out of that bunch would be was really tough. Out of the final three, Pete Jones, a native Chicagoan married man with a young daughter was chosen as the winner.
With Pete Jones behind the camera to direct his first feature film, Miramax Films has agreed to produce his film for $1 million. The question this series will have to deal with is if it is realistic that a project of this magnitude can be kept under that budget.
This series is comprised of 10 episodes and is shown on HBO. It is unfortunate that such a small audience will get to view this extraordinary series that examines the film industry and the people involved at close detail. I feel that every film student throughout the U.S. and the world would find this show to be inspiring, very informative and could benefit quite a lot from "Project Greenlight".
Kudos to Matt, Ben and Chris! This series gets a 10 out of 10!
