LPWire: Project Greenlight Receives Another Greenlight

'Project Greenlight' Receives Another Greenlight

Miramax, HBO and LivePlanet Announce Second Season of Emmy Nominated Hit Series

New Contest Begins on September 19th -- Opening the Back Gate to Hollywood For Even More Filmmaking Hopefuls

Miramax, HBO, and LivePlanet today announced the launch of the second installment of "Project Greenlight," the filmmaking contest, feature film and warts-and-all behind-the-scenes filmmaking documentary TV series that chronicles the challenges of a first-time-filmmaker living the dream of a lifetime by directing their own film. The film and series will be executive produced by Live Planet partners Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Sean Bailey and Chris Moore and the film will be released by Miramax Films with the series to air on HBO.

This year's filmmaking contest is scheduled to begin on September 19th 2002. Check the website http://www.projectgreenlight.com for further details.

"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," said Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein. "Matt, Ben, Sean, Chris and the teams at Miramax TV and HBO delivered a compelling, dramatic insiders view of the filmmaking process while giving something back to the community. 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."

Second Contest to Feature Two Winners.

While the original contest selected only one writer/director to bring his or her vision to the screen, the new contest will be open to both writers and directors individually with two winners -- an amateur screenwriter and an amateur director -- to be selected to partner in making the winning film.

"'Project Greenlight' owes a lot of our early success to our community -- people who wanted to enter the contest, took the contest seriously, and were loyal to the TV show on HBO. We expanded the contest because we think this format is more in line with the roles of a screenwriter and director working on a film," said Chris Moore, CEO of LivePlanet and Executive Producer of "Project Greenlight." "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. 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."

Ready, Set, Action in September!

The two contests -- one for writers who will submit screenplays and one for directors who will submit three-minute directorial samples -- will kick-off the second "Project Greenlight" and will run concurrently with submissions to be accepted from September 19th through October 2nd 2002. As with the first "Project Greenlight" contest, Miramax will release the picture and guarantee a minimum budget of $1,000,000 with Affleck, Damon, Bailey and Moore on board as Executive Producers. Submissions will only be accepted electronically via the web with Official Rules, details and entry forms available exclusively at http://www.projectgreenlight.com. As with the first contest and in keeping with the democratic spirit of the project, entrants will be obliged to read and review fellow contestants' submissions in order to narrow the pool and participate in the selection of the winners.

The first contest began in September 2000, quickly becoming the largest filmmaking competition in history with over 10,000 aspiring filmmakers submitting screenplays in hopes of receiving the chance to make their film with a $1,000,000 budget from Miramax. Chicago native Pete Jones won the contest with his screenplay, "Stolen Summer," and went on to direct his first film with an HBO audience following every step of the process. The freshman writer/director's picture was selected to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and was released by Miramax in March 2002. The recently Emmy nominated series chronicling Jones' trials and tribulations premiered in December 2001 airing on Sunday nights on HBO. A 4-disk DVD box-set featuring the 12 original "Project Greenlight" episodes as well as the film "Stolen Summer" and over 6 hours of never-before-seen bonus material will be released on September 24th.

"If you're planning on entering 'Project Greenlight' or you've been thinking about it," adds Chris Moore, "get started now -- finish that script or that short film because September will be here before you know it and the better prepared you are, the better your movie will be."

--Posted August 6, 2002
Source: Miramax