Project Greenlight

Project Greenlight's Stolen Summer: Movie

A young boy in the 1970s is convinced that the only way he'll get into heaven is by converting Jews to Catholicism, until he befriends a rabbi and his son; soon the two young boys start spending time together and the rabbi's son helps his friend think ofways to get into heaven.ways to get into heaven.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG
Release Date: 3-MAY-2005
Media Type: DVD

It's a great relief--and not just to the filmmakers--that Stolen Summer turned out so well. As winner of the first Project Greenlight contest, aspiring filmmaker Pete Jones was plucked from obscurity to direct his winning screenplay for this touching drama, in which young Catholic Pete O'Malley (Adi Stein) learns that there's more than one route to Heaven. During summer vacation 1976, this earnest second-grader learns from his fireman father (Aidan Quinn) that "Jews can't get into [Catholic] Heaven," and decides to earn his heavenly passage by attempting to convert the young son (Mike Weinberg) of a local rabbi (Kevin Pollak). Interfaith friendships develop, and the situation yields heartfelt humor in Jones's compassionate, tolerantly sentimental screenplay. Quinn, Pollak, and Bonnie Hunt (as Pete's mom) are exceptional in well-drawn roles, and for all his first-time jitters and penchant for pathos, Jones earns the opportunity that talent and good luck gave him: Stolen Summer is the kind of sweetly humanitarian film that Hollywood could use more of. --Jeff Shannon

Project Greenlight (Complete Series Plus Film Stolen Summer)

For all of its controversial manipulations of reality, Project Greenlight offers a revealing, pragmatic look at the pressure cooker of film production. Originally broadcast during the HBO 2001 to 2002 season, this 12- part series chronicles the premiere contest--conceived by coproducers Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Chris Moore--that resulted in 30-year-old Pete Jones being plucked from obscurity, out of 10,000 contestants, to direct his winning screenplay, Stolen Summer, as a professionally crewed feature film distributed by Miramax Films (included in this set; see separate review). The series gained notoriety for emphasizing the negative (backstabbing, budgetary battles, onset crises, etc.), but it's also a definitive nuts-and-bolts exposé of the filmmaking process--stripped of glamour, emotionally intense, and daunting to anyone without a steel-plated constitution.

Key personnel emerge as admirably tenacious in their given roles, from the commanding presence of Chris Moore; the frictional yet ultimately cooperative dynamic between executive producer Pat Peach and coproducer Jeff Balis; the rally-the-troops efficiency of 1st Assistant Director Bruce Terris; and many other crucial crew members. Through it all, Jones shows his inexperience but rises to the occasion, earning the respect of those who could easily have dismissed him as a lucky amateur. The series' editorial weaknesses are readily apparent, and the postproduction process (especially the creation of a musical score) is woefully underrepresented, but Project Greenlight is a riveting and altogether encouraging primer for anyone who shares Pete Jones's dream. --Jeff Shannon

Miramax Home Entertainment's Project Greenlight is a 4-Disc collector's series that includes the 12-part HBO hit documentary series, the unveiling of the movie Stolen Summer and more than 6-hours of bonus materials. Project Greenlight began as an Internet competition (staged by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Chris Moore) held to find a script to produce. Out of more than 10,000 entries, former insurance salesman Pete Jones was selected. Jones not only got to direct the film, but was also given a $1 million budget from Miramax Films and a guaranteed theatrical release. The series chronicled how Jones, a first-time director, had to manage the difficulties involved in making his movie.

Project Greenlight 2 (The Complete Second Series Plus Film The Battle of Shaker Heights)

Anyone contemplating a career as a screenwriter or film director--or anyone who simply wonders how movies get made--would do well to watch Project Greenlight 2 from beginning to end. The second season of the HBO reality series, co-created by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and producer Alex Keledjian, follows the creation of Miramax feature The Battle of Shaker Heights from unknown screenplay through various levels of Greenlight competition to first-run theatrical feature with a big, Hollywood premiere. The road to completion, however, runs through hell many times over. Shaker Heights writer Erica Beeney, having survived Greenlight's script contest and intimidating meetings with Affleck, Damon, and various producers and executives from Miramax and elsewhere, is matched with the directing team of Efram Potelle and Kyle Rankin, who have undergone similar trials. With little time to celebrate, the winners moves into production offices in Los Angeles and confront a stark reality: A lot of people are involved in getting a movie made, and very often a writer or director is just one voice among many.

The most interesting backstage dramas in the series take place during pre-production for Shaker Heights, when casting proves to be a nightmare, time runs short, and Miramax starts insisting that Potelle and Rankin take the actors they're told to take. Part of the problem is that the team, new to the big leagues, often look like startled deer. They don't know how to talk to stars or make decisions quickly, they question the need for vital crew members, and they don't understand that in the absence of leadership a panicked studio will take over. Still, everyone gets through intact, and after a couple of episodes detailing Shaker Heights' actual shoot (with stars Shia LaBeouf, Kathleen Quinlan, William Sadler, and Amy Smart), the editing and marketing processes become a new kind of misery, threatening to destroy the film and end careers. It's all very engrossing, and its good to have a DVD of the highly enjoyable The Battle of Shaker Heights (which comes with this set and offers a "jump-to" feature linking select scenes to Project Greenlight background info) to prove, in the end, that all that matters are results. --Tom Keogh

Miramax Home Entertainment along with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Chris Moore present PROJECT GREENLIGHT ... a unique, behind-the-scenes look at the Hollywood filmmaking process that documents all the hurdles and pitfalls encountered by first-time filmmakers as they bring their labor of love to the big screen! This special three-disc collection includes the complete second season of the acclaimed HBO series, extensive bonus material, and the finished theatrically released project THE BATTLE OF SHAKER HEIGHTS -- starring Shia LaBeouf and Amy Smart.