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Good Will Hunting to Greenlight: Chris Moore on what inspired Project Greenlight
By Chris Moore
As we are getting ready for the launch of the Project Greenlight TV show, I thought I would step back a bit and give you all an insight into WHY Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and I got involved with Project Greenlight.
For Matt, Ben and me this project means a great deal and it satisfies a number of goals for us.
Project Greenlight's meaning comes from the fact that we still remember so clearly how awesome a feeling it was to get the call from Miramax that GOOD WILL HUNTING was finally going into production. Robin Williams signed on, the budget was approved, and we were off to start shooting. It was exhilarating, scary and challenging. We had been through some hard times, and had been patient for three years trying to make the movie the way we wanted. That day was so satisfying and great that we thought maybe we could give some other folks a day like that.
That day we also felt relief, because for those three years and the three years before we had felt so outside of Hollywood. Even though I had been an agent and Matt and Ben had acted in some projects, we were not truly inside the gates of Hollywood. Getting in those gates was hard for us, even though we were working in Hollywood. So when Miramax finally made the move to make our movie we felt like "YES! We are in!" Having such a great feeling that day, and the wish to give other people a chance were two reasons we wanted to do Project Greenlight.
Another feeling the day of the Miramax call was fear. "Holy shit, they are going to let us make our movie! We better not blow this." That feeling was overpowering. Ten minutes of "Yeah baby!" and another 18 months of "Holy cow." For all you struggling filmmakers out there - be careful what you wish for. Project Greenlight the TV show is devoted to watching a person get his or her dream and seeing if they can handle it. One of the reasons we thought this would be so compelling is that everyone loved the story of Matt and Ben almost as much as they loved GOOD WILL HUNTING.
Will the contest winner turn his or her shot into a career? Will they fail under the pressure? Will their life change, or did they just win a contest? Project Greenlight would be an opportunity to give someone their big break in Hollywood, combined with the drama of "alright you got what you asked for, don't blow it." We thought this would be awesome TV. Luckily for us, there were three other points we thought we could make with Project Greenlight.
The first thing was to prove that there were other people out there who just needed their break. The Internet was far enough along that we could do a big, open contest without having to read all the scripts ourselves. So we said, "Let's show everyone that there is someone we could find over the Internet, voted on by the Internet community and supported by total strangers, who deserved to make his or her movie as much as anyone inside Hollywood." Then Hollywood might open the door more often and give more people a chance.
Secondly, when I moved here from Easton, Maryland, I could never explain what I did for a living to anyone. I know it is hard for anyone to explain what making a movie is really like. So an 11-episode show on a great, uncensored network like HBO could clear up some things. Combine that with this website and we hope to deliver the whole picture.
Thirdly, we wanted to show people how hard it is to make a movie. I am sure you have bought a ticket, sat through an awful movie and walked out saying "How the hell did that movie get made? Who the hell thought that was a good movie or even a good idea for a movie? And even worse, they spent 75 million dollars on it? What are they, idiots?" Well, those of us making movies for a living say that often too. Hopefully Project Greenlight will shed some light onto those questions.
So here's our experiment: Hold a contest to find a person just like you, a person who wants to make movies or just loves movies and is thinking, "I could do better than that." Where we are now: We found a person and gave them their break. Now you can tune in, log on, and watch them suffer.
I have to say that we are not alone in this project and it would have never been a reality without Miramax Films' Jon Gordon and Meryl Poster, who are both on camera and who put their own hearts and time into this project. There would definitely be no Project Greenlight without Miramax TV. Eli Holzman and Billy Campbell have been champions of this from the start and still are fighting the good fights for this to be a success. HBO was our network of choice and Chris Albrecht, Carolyn Strauss and Sarah Condon deserve the Big Balls Award for agreeing with us that people would find this documentary TV show compelling. They even gave us an awesome timeslot on Sunday nights right after SEX IN THE CITY. So please support these two companies by seeing Miramax movies and subscribing to HBO.
Finally, Jim Koch and Robert Hall from the Boston Beer Company, brewers of the great American beer Sam Adams, deserve a big thank you. They met Ben and me and said, "You know, this crazy film contest and TV show and movie sound really cool." They jumped on board and weathered some real storms with us, and we would not be here without them. So thank you boys, and everyone who enjoys drinking beer should go out and buy a six-pack of Sam Adams and watch HBO.
Seriously, Project Greenlight is a passion project, one we are all doing because we believe in it. Miramax Films, Miramax TV, Sam Adams and HBO all think it is a cool, fun project and most importantly, one worth doing. So please tune in to the show on December 2nd at 10 PM on HBO, watch the movie when it comes out, log on to this site, down a couple Sam Adams, and get caught in the Project Greenlight vortex for 13 weeks this winter - and come out the other side happier and smarter. We all did.
Thanks for reading . . .
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