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 "Project
Greenlight" started three years ago as a blue-sky concept
of actors and would-be producers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Filmmakers
from out of the Hollywood mainstream would be given the opportunity
to put their talent on the line. A noble cause, and one that made
HBO step up to the plate, but after two heartfelt indie-flicks
that tanked at the box office, the premium cabler lost interest
and passed the baton to basic cable's Bravo.
Bravo debuted
its version of the show tonight with the Greenlight team selecting
a script that producers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck didn’t like
(they were overruled by a couple of guys from Dimension, which
is actually bankrolling the flick). More importantly, horror-meister
Wes Craven didn’t think much of it either.
Damon and
Affleck thought that the whole process illustrated what was wrong
with Hollywood, in that the bottom-line was playing too great
a part in the decision. Their opinion was that selecting a mediocre
script and then producing a movie that tanks leaves you without
even the solace of aiming for something great. (And, let’s face
it, Affleck should know.)
They are
wrong, of course.
Not wrong
in pointing out that this "Project Greenlight" demonstrates
the problems of trying to make it in Hollywood, of course. But
off-target in pinpointing why.
Let’s step
back for a moment.
The show
opened with a bunch of guys sitting around a table selecting the
top three writers from a pool of six. They then went on to select
the top three potential directors. All six nominees were then
invited to Hollywood to meet the producers face-to-face.
The whole
process mirrored the experience that almost anyone is likely to
have in the business: a room of white guys select another bunch
of white guys and hand two of them the brass ring.
Can it really
be true that no black, asian or latino guys delivered the goods?
And are we really expected to believe that not a single woman
made the grade?
Welcome to
Hollywood, kids.
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