Project Greenlight Season Three Finale

Even though I posted on Gulager earlier, I hadn't been watching Project Greenlight, but now I've caught a few episodes -- and the finale last night. They do a good job with that show. It isn't slick like other reality shows, but the drama is very real (reel?).

To catch up those out of the know: Hoping to actually make money in theaters, Matt & Ben and producer Chris Moore select, with help from Wes Craven, to do a horror movie for this year.

Making the Movie Tip

The antepenultimate episode of Project Greenlight's Season Three featured a great lesson: One of the actors didn't want to cut his hair for continuity, because he needed it long for his next movie, a Stephen Spielberg dealie. Instead of haranguing him, the producer, the director and several crew members all got the haircut he was supposed to have. He was sufficiently shamed, but in a good-natured way, and submitted to the haircut.

The chosen director, John Gulager, begins as an inarticulate schlub with a good reel. He ends up directing the most commercial of the Project Greenlight movies and getting a little confidence in himself. Even so, because of the Miramax/Disney divorce, there's a chance the little zom-com Feast is going to get lost in the shuffle. (In the show, Harvey and Bob are like gods, whose words only come filtered down through messengers.) This is further complicated by an audience test screening that, though full of laughs and scares, scores poorly.

Feast must have some serious commercial prospects, because the Weinsteins pick it as one of a handful of films they'll take to the new company. They also give money for re-shoots. That's what's known in Hollywood as a happy ending.

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