Project Greenlight on Bravo

[trekgeezer]

I anybody else watching the new season of this that just started a couple of weeks ago. Wes Craven joined with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon this time to pick the director and writers.

They are making a horror movie called Feast written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan.  The director is John Gulager (yes, son of Clu).

Right now it looks like a train wreck with Gulager trying to get his Dad, brother, girlfriend and other family members into the cast.  The poor guy is way out of his league and can't tell the execs his vision of the film, so they cut the budget. He's getting into it with the casting director and no one else has much faith in him.

The script (which Wes Craven basically said was crap) is having to be whittled down because of budget constraints (someone said the first script would cost $20 million to do right).

I just find the whole thing informative about how a modern movie gets made.

[Killer Klown From Outer Space]

I have to say I will be going to see Feast when it comes out. It sounds like a promising movie with a very good plot  !

[blkrider]

This is definitely the first of the Project Greenlight films that I'm halfway interested in seeing.  I think if it were done right, it would do much better than the first two films.

I believe the guy could do well if he could just articulate his ideas better, though his troubles in the casting sessions are a bad sign.  But maybe it's just that he already knows who he wants.  His relatives and buddies are mostly experienced actors if I remember right, so it's not necessarily a bad move, but his bosses won't like it.  
 
It all really hinges on the script.  If they can't fix that, it won't matter how the movie is directed, it will still stink.  

I saw the first Project Greenlight but didn't bother with the second.  What the first one really showed was how difficult it was and how much work went into even a mediocre movie.  It gave me newfound respect for just about anyone who tries to get a movie made, and even more for the few who manage to make good movies.

[Fearless Freep]

Reading about The Making of 'Forever Evil' can be a lot of fun, and very educational

[Mr_Vindictive]

I caught the first episode and said the hell with the rest.  Gulager's sample work was quite good, but I have a feeling he's just not going to do well with Feast.  And who would want to?  It's just a rip off of From Dusk Till Dawn and others of the modern monster ilk.

I have a feeling it will be worse than the past seasons of Greenlight.

[blkrider]

As far as the movie not getting off the ground?  I could see that happening too.

[Mr Hockstatter]

I watched the first episode last night.  'Fraid I never made it past the part where the guy had the tantrum becuase he wasn't getting everything his way.  "I didn't get into project greenlight to make B horror movies..."   It's like, I just listened to my own children whine and complain all day because they don't always get their way, and now I'm supposed to watch more of it on TV?

[blkrider]

I missed the first episode, except for the very end of it.  Sounds like a good thing, or I might have skipped the rest of the series.

[Scott]

Sounds like an interesting show. I'll try to catch it TrekGeezer.

[h.p. Love]

The final episode was last night. What footage the series revealed seems pretty good. A highlight of the last few episodes was when the lead actress (a real prima dona) showed up cerifiably drunk.

The point I wanted to mention here is about last night's test screening. Shots of the audience showed a lot of scares and laughs. All of the involved producers, etc. seemed really surprised and pleased. But then the score sheets came in and a lot of people had a problem with the lack of an explanation of the monsters' origin. I don't seem to remember any good explanation in Night of the Living Dead or The Birds or many others. This reminds me of people annoyed by not knowing what is in the Pulp Fiction briefcase. (Maybe it's their missing imagination.) If the victims in the movie don't know, I don't need to know. Radiation? Meteors? Ok then, on with it already.

Maybe the version of Feast did need more explanation. Who knows. But the screen test showed how the film is a product and an art form susceptible to test audience input. The more corporate things are, the more they are compromised or messed with. I myself think it's pretty hokey to explain everything and wrap things up neatly at the end. I often like WTF endings. I also like knowing that I will never know what was in the briefcase.

[odinn7]

I saw inside the brief case.    

****SPOILER AHEAD*******

What it contained was the list of movies that Scott plans to watch over the next few years and blueprints of his movie watching room.

[Mr_Vindictive]

This was my first season of really sitting down and watching Project Greenlight.  I've caught previous seasons, but only in bits and pieces.

Now, I know I posted a few months ago saying that I wasn't going to follow it this season, but I ended up watching every episode and I was quite surprised.  Gulager turned out to be a good director, it's just that nobody had any respect for him.  From the test audience's recations while watching the film, I would say that Bob and Harvey have a winner on their hands no matter what the scores said.

I hated the fact that the audience didn't like the film due to the fact that they didn't know where the creature came from.  Who cares!?  Things are always scarier if unkown.



As for the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, I have a very detailed explanation of what was in it, but it'll take a while to post.  But, if someone wants to know then I'll hijack the post with an explanation

[odinn7]

"As for the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, I have a very detailed explanation of what was in it, but it'll take a while to post. But, if someone wants to know then I'll hijack the post with an explanation"

Well, I already briefly covered it but if you feel you need to...

[Mr_Vindictive]

-----Spoilers-----


Marcellus Wallace's soul was in the briefcase.  In the beginning when he's talking to Bruce Willis in the bar there is a VERY tight shot of a band-aid on the back of his neck.

Say Marcellus sold his soul to the devil and it was extracted from him via the back of his neck.  Say the white guys that Samuel L. and Travolta see about the briefcase are demons (white devils?).  Samuel L. spouts out the bible verse and their lives are saved in a miracle.

Then, Travolta refuses to believe that it was a "miracle of God".  Later, he is killed by Bruce Willis and Marcellus get's his payback for selling his soul by getting tagged by Zed.

I know it's convoluted but it's what I honestly believe is in the case.

[odinn7]

You got all that just from watching that movie? That is deep. Damn, when I watch a movie, all I see is the movie. I'm so lame...