Guest Author - Sandy Mullins
If you are a budding writer or just love movies, you might have heard of Project Greenlight. If not, Project Greenlight is one of those special projects that help inspiring moviemakers get their start. Project Greenlight origins go back to two child hood friends and budding now famous screenwriters and now famous actors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. The story of these two men is legendary, they want to act and unable to get rolls, they write their own screenplay and act in it, winning an Oscar for Best Screenplay (Good Will Hunting).
Years down the road they team with Chris Moore and Miramax Film and Television and created a contest to help other inspiring writers get there break. Project Greenlight started back in the fall of 2000. They received over 7,000 entries and through long process narrowed it down to 250. Project Greenlight narrowed it down to 30 then sponsors narrowed it down to the top ten. The final ten get to shoot a scene from their screenplays. Then the field is narrowed to three. Then down to the winning screenwriter gets to make his movie, From start to finish the process takes four months, HBO shows the final winning moments and the rest is shall we say history. The winning movie was Stolen Summer, staring Aidan Quinn and Bonnie Hunt
Year two they added a director to the contest making it two contest in one. There were other changes in the numbers in the elimination process. Year two winning movie was Battle of Shaker Heights (Kathleen Quinlan & Amy Smart) being the
This year, year three of Project Greenlight Affleck, Damon, and Moore are joined by horror film expert Wes Craven and as you can imagine the subject is horror films.
You can catch Project Greenlight on Bravo’s website, broken down into different videos such as: Previews, Top 10 Directors, Top 10 Directors Scenes, Top 6 Screenplays. Then catch all the episodes on Bravo starting Sunday, March 13 with repeats from Season One.
So if you love movies, watch Project Greenlight to see who wins this years contest and if you missed the previous years catch the Project Greenlight marathon.
Project Greenlight Website
Project Greenlight Schedule on Bravo
