THE ARTS | Reshaping ideas, expressing identity
10 June 2008
Young Filmmakers - Ben Affleck and Matt Damon
According to the Project Greenlight Web site [www.projectgreenlight.liveplanet.com], it's the Hollywood Cinderella story. Two childhood friends struggle to break into acting. After years of hard work, they write their own script (Good Will Hunting), star in it, get recognized, become famous, and win an Academy Award for best screenplay. It's the true story of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and it 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. The first Project Greenlight screenwriting contest (PGL1) started in the fall of 2000 and received more than 7,000 original scripts. The contestants were short-listed to 250, then narrowed down to 30 and finally to ten very excited finalists who got to shoot a scene from their screenplay. The top three participated in an interview process that awarded Pete Jones a $1 million budget to shoot his winning script, Stolen Summer.
Within months Jones's completed film, starring Aidan Quinn and Bonnie Hunt, premiered at Sundance, and Jones was on the promotion circuit telling national audiences about his film. In a series that has been nominated for an Emmy three times, HBO documented the journey from script to screen, and Affleck and Damon's goal was realized. Chris Moore said about PGL1, "The show helped people see how hard it is to make a movie, how stressful it is to make your first movie, and finally how rewarding it is when you show it to your first paying audience." PGL2 in 2003 and PGL3 in 2005 expanded into new film genres, giving a professional venue to two more groups of would-be filmmakers.
In their own stellar careers, Affleck (at left, in above photo) and Damon have come a long way from the undiscovered roommates who dreamed up that first screenplay. Damon has played Jason Bourne, a fictional undercover CIA agent, in three films; appeared in Ocean's 11 and its sequels; been nominated for an Oscar for Good Will Hunting; and recently appeared to high acclaim in the hits The Good Shepherd and The Departed. Affleck has also been busy. He has acted in four films released in 2006 and 2007, including Hollywoodland and Smokin' Aces, and he is writing, producing, and directing Gone, Baby, Gone, due out in 2007.
From the June 2007 edition of eJournal USA.
