I haven't followed the series, so I'd had no idea the screenplay for the film at the heart of it was by Philip Gelatt. That said, I'm also bummed to hear that the film didn't turn out well, as I've liked what I've seen from the writer in question (including They Remain, which he also directed). But, as you say, if a director doesn't feel drawn to a screenplay, that seems like a sign that the full process might not go terribly well...
I watched seasons 2 and 3 and found them endlessly fascinating and infuriating and was curious about this new season. Not sure I need to watch but I keep hoping they can figure out a way to make this set up work better because it’s such an appealing concept.
"hey kid, you've always dreamed about being a director-for-hire on a low-budget film you have no connection to, with a script you don't like, and a studio that wants to constantly meddle with it, right?"
I really always want to like Project Greenlight but since the first inception I've just been disappointed. Luckily we've had some expansive behind-the-scenes documentary recently that scratch the itch for me but I keep rooting for them to figure out the mix one day. If they were committed to the money and time idea I'd love to see them follow multiple filmmakers in one season. Better chance one of the final products would be good and you can see the differences in a good vs underwhelming movie set--which actually may not be that different at all!
The adage is that all you have to do to make a good movie is avoid the million ways to make a bad movie. This whole series seems like a growing museum of those million ways. They could at least add a tag to it: The Making of a Movie You'll Barely Think About Once.
I forget if it was Stolen Summer or The Battle of Shaker Heights that had the ongoing war between screenwriter and the random director that hated the script (maybe that's every season). But I'll always be thankful for the season that gave us Feast because everyone loathing the project and it going on to be the only "successful" property is such a weird concept up there with "Star Wars was never profitable."
Season one was Stolen Summer, the director wrote the screenplay. Shaker Heights had a woman screenwriter teamed up with two VFX dudes to direct her coming of age story. Disaster either way.
Fun fact: I wound up meeting and interviewing one of the directors of Shaker Heights, Kyle Rankin, for a Ringer story I did on Cinestate, which was soon after scandalized and shuttered. At the time, they were launching a new label and web operation called Rebeller and I was there for the last day of Run Hide Fight, its school-shooting-Die-Hard, which would up being exclusive to The Daily Wire+. Wild times.
Amazing! And thanks for writing about PGL. I saw the first season about 15 times because I was living in a place with only a small tv vcr combo and only had tapes that my mom taped for me off of HBO.
I thought "Why is this person we set up to fail failing?!" was the funniest line in this piece until I encountered "I will have drowned face first in my own drool." Well done, sir.
I remember the excitement of the first PGL... For some reason I thought it was on Fox then (maybe my memory has American Idol artifacts around this show), but I guess it was always on HBO. It seemed like an interesting idea, until the movie came out...
PGL had two seasons on HBO before shifting to Bravo for the third season and then went back to HBO for four and five. Interestingly, the best movie, Feast, was made for Bravo. It wasn't great or even that good, but it delivered the goods on appropriately modest stakes.
I've never heard about PGL until now, but considering this review and the movies that came out of this project, I'm not sure it's worth investing the time in it. Even though the initial concept is very appealing -- yet the trailer for this latest season looks underwhelmingly dull.
I haven't followed the series, so I'd had no idea the screenplay for the film at the heart of it was by Philip Gelatt. That said, I'm also bummed to hear that the film didn't turn out well, as I've liked what I've seen from the writer in question (including They Remain, which he also directed). But, as you say, if a director doesn't feel drawn to a screenplay, that seems like a sign that the full process might not go terribly well...
did you actually watch Gray Matter?
I did. It’s brutally boring.
I watched seasons 2 and 3 and found them endlessly fascinating and infuriating and was curious about this new season. Not sure I need to watch but I keep hoping they can figure out a way to make this set up work better because it’s such an appealing concept.
"hey kid, you've always dreamed about being a director-for-hire on a low-budget film you have no connection to, with a script you don't like, and a studio that wants to constantly meddle with it, right?"
I really always want to like Project Greenlight but since the first inception I've just been disappointed. Luckily we've had some expansive behind-the-scenes documentary recently that scratch the itch for me but I keep rooting for them to figure out the mix one day. If they were committed to the money and time idea I'd love to see them follow multiple filmmakers in one season. Better chance one of the final products would be good and you can see the differences in a good vs underwhelming movie set--which actually may not be that different at all!
The adage is that all you have to do to make a good movie is avoid the million ways to make a bad movie. This whole series seems like a growing museum of those million ways. They could at least add a tag to it: The Making of a Movie You'll Barely Think About Once.
I forget if it was Stolen Summer or The Battle of Shaker Heights that had the ongoing war between screenwriter and the random director that hated the script (maybe that's every season). But I'll always be thankful for the season that gave us Feast because everyone loathing the project and it going on to be the only "successful" property is such a weird concept up there with "Star Wars was never profitable."
Season one was Stolen Summer, the director wrote the screenplay. Shaker Heights had a woman screenwriter teamed up with two VFX dudes to direct her coming of age story. Disaster either way.
Fun fact: I wound up meeting and interviewing one of the directors of Shaker Heights, Kyle Rankin, for a Ringer story I did on Cinestate, which was soon after scandalized and shuttered. At the time, they were launching a new label and web operation called Rebeller and I was there for the last day of Run Hide Fight, its school-shooting-Die-Hard, which would up being exclusive to The Daily Wire+. Wild times.
Amazing! And thanks for writing about PGL. I saw the first season about 15 times because I was living in a place with only a small tv vcr combo and only had tapes that my mom taped for me off of HBO.
I remember that story, and was not surprised that Dallas Sonnier ended up heading Daily Wire's film division post-Cinestate cancellation
I thought "Why is this person we set up to fail failing?!" was the funniest line in this piece until I encountered "I will have drowned face first in my own drool." Well done, sir.
I remember the excitement of the first PGL... For some reason I thought it was on Fox then (maybe my memory has American Idol artifacts around this show), but I guess it was always on HBO. It seemed like an interesting idea, until the movie came out...
PGL had two seasons on HBO before shifting to Bravo for the third season and then went back to HBO for four and five. Interestingly, the best movie, Feast, was made for Bravo. It wasn't great or even that good, but it delivered the goods on appropriately modest stakes.
Feast was really fun! This is the first time I'm learning that it was a Project Greenlight movie, though.
I've never heard about PGL until now, but considering this review and the movies that came out of this project, I'm not sure it's worth investing the time in it. Even though the initial concept is very appealing -- yet the trailer for this latest season looks underwhelmingly dull.