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It's the Hollywood Cinderella story. Two childhood friends share an apartment in Los Angeles, struggling to break into acting. Unknown after years of hard work and tired of bit parts, they write their own script and star in it. Not only do they get recognized, they become famous and win an Oscar for Best Screenplay. A dream? Hardly. It's the true story of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. And it is this fairy tale come true that inspired them to team up with American Pie producer Chris Moore, and Miramax Film and Television, to create a contest and community that would open the industry to aspiring writers who need a big break to jump start their dreams.
The first Project Greenlight screenwriting contest started in the fall of 2000. This first ever fully web-based screenwriting contest received over 7,000 original script entries. Starting with a peer based selection process the contestants were short listed to 250. By submitting a short bio video, those 250 were then narrowed down to 30. Contest sponsors read the top 30 and whittled it down to ten very excited finalists who got to shoot a scene from their screenplay. Those scenes decided the top three who participated in a rigorous three-day interview process with Matt, Ben, Chris and other panel members.
After a grueling four months from submission to selection, HBO caught the winning moment on their Project Greenlight series. After days of highs, lows, and much nervous waiting, Pete Jones was awarded a $1 million budget to shoot his winning script, Stolen Summer. Through HBO's documentary series, the country saw Pete's journey from script to screen.
From Chicago boy to Jay Leno guest! March 28th, just six months after uploading a script and crossing his fingers, Pete Jones found himself in the Jay Leno hot seat, hyping his film and smiling for the camera. Ben and Matt's goal of giving a newcomer the same opportunities they made for themselves had come true.
It all comes down to opening night. The red carpet premiere was at Sundance, a perfect locale for an independent heart warmer like Stolen Summer. Pete Jones was welcomed with open arms and the overwhelming click click of paparazzi cameras. The film was also warmly received and got raves from audience and media alike.
Starring Aidan Quinn and Bonnie Hunt, Stolen Summer is an endearing slice-of-life period piece that tells of a friendship between a Catholic schoolboy and the young rabbi's son he's determined to convert. Set in Chicago in the 70's, Stolen Summer resembles Good Will Hunting in that it explores loyalty and friendship in a working-class world.
This time, the PGL creators learned from the first contest and made a few significant changes, the main one being splitting the contest into two: screenwriting and directing. The director contest was created to add a new depth to the creation of the winning movie, a depth that made the winner not a winning person but a winning team.
Like the first contest, the screenplay contestants were narrowed down to 250 through a peer based review process. Then to 50. The top 50 shot a bio video and it went down to ten lucky finalists who were flown to Sundance for interviews with the review panel: Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Moore, Eli Holzman and Merryl Poster from Miramax, and Curt Andrews from Blockbuster.
The directors submitted three minute scenes. As with the screenwriting contest, the directors were narrowed down to 250 from online reviews. Then the contest went offline so that the sponsors could choose the Top 50. Ten emerged from that who were then asked to shoot a scene created by PGL. Using this scene and other criteria, the top four were named and flown to Sundance for interviews with the same review panel.
On January 18, 2003 PGL named the winners, Erica Beeney (Screenplay Contest Winner) and Kyle Rankin and Efram Potelle (Director Contest Winners).
The HBO series on the making of the film, The Battle of Shaker Heights aired beginning June
22, 2003 and the movie was released theatrically in August.
Much like the second contest, PGL 3 sought both a screenwriter and a director through two concurrent contests.
The writers submitted a feature length screenplay online. The screenplay contestants were narrowed to a Top 1000 based on the results of an online peer review round. The scripts were then read offline by third-party reviewers hired by Project Greenlight and narrowed to a Top 100. The Top 100 were read and rated by the Review Panel which included Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Moore and Wes Craven. The Top 5 were then named, given extensive script notes from the Panel and asked to revise their screenplays based on these notes. The scripts were re-read by the panel members and the Top 3 Finalists were named and flown to out to Hollywood for two days of meetings with the Director Finalists and the Review Panel.
The directors were asked to send in a three-minute scene of their choosing. The scenes were reviewed by third-party viewers hired by Project Greenlight. The Top 250 were named and asked to submit a 3 minute bio video. The field was then narrowed to the Top 50 directors and their scene submissions and bio videos were reviewed by the Review Panel. At this point we were down to the The Top 10 Directors. Each Top 10 Director was given an identical scene assignment which challenged the contestants to be creative, while still following all the assignment parameters. At last we arrived at our Top 3 Director Finalists who were then flown out to Hollywood for meetings with the Screenplay Contest Finalists and the Review Panel.
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