Butler's Script Sale of the Week...
March 5th, 2001
Definitely some stuff to keep an eye on this week. Jude Law's pet project EPSTEIN sounds promising. I'm curious to see what the try to do with Doug Coupland's GENERATION X. And THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE Sounds like it could be a cool sci-fi pic. (Hey, ya gotta have hope.)
My pick of the week is, in honor of aspiring screenwriters everywhere, Pete Jones's screenplay STOLEN SUMMER, which won the Project Greenlight competition this week.
Project Greenlight is a competition set up by, among others, golden boys Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. The idea was to have fledgling screenwriters submit their scripts over the internet, which would be judged by their peers. The best screenplays would continue to advance through a number of rounds. The winner gets $1 million to direct his script and have it released by Miramax. In the meantime, HBO makes a 13 episode documentary of the first time scribe/director making his flick.
The winner was, of course, Pete Jones and his screenplay STOLEN SUMMER. I'm hoping there's more to the script than the weak log line that's been released to the trades. "The story of an Irish Catholic boy and his Jewish friend dying of cancer" doesn't quite do it for me, nor does "two young boys trying to understand life and death." I just envision two hours of "Well, in the New Testament God says ..." Hopefully there's a real story here and the fact that Jones beat out 7,000 other entries must be a good sign.
Jones was an insurance salesman living in Chicago who moved to Hollywood three years ago to try to make it as a screenwriter. His saint of a wife supported him and throughout those three years Jones hadn't had so much as a bite for his work. Until now. By this time next year, everyone will know who Pete Jones is and I have to say I'm glad.
The cynic in me says Project Greenlight is just another marketing tool/reality tv gimmick, but the fact that a struggling writer has been plucked out of obscurity and given the chance to make his dream come true makes it a worthwhile venture in my eyes.
Here's to Pete Jones. Good luck, pal.
-- Edward Butler
My pick of the week is, in honor of aspiring screenwriters everywhere, Pete Jones's screenplay STOLEN SUMMER, which won the Project Greenlight competition this week.
Project Greenlight is a competition set up by, among others, golden boys Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. The idea was to have fledgling screenwriters submit their scripts over the internet, which would be judged by their peers. The best screenplays would continue to advance through a number of rounds. The winner gets $1 million to direct his script and have it released by Miramax. In the meantime, HBO makes a 13 episode documentary of the first time scribe/director making his flick.
The winner was, of course, Pete Jones and his screenplay STOLEN SUMMER. I'm hoping there's more to the script than the weak log line that's been released to the trades. "The story of an Irish Catholic boy and his Jewish friend dying of cancer" doesn't quite do it for me, nor does "two young boys trying to understand life and death." I just envision two hours of "Well, in the New Testament God says ..." Hopefully there's a real story here and the fact that Jones beat out 7,000 other entries must be a good sign.
Jones was an insurance salesman living in Chicago who moved to Hollywood three years ago to try to make it as a screenwriter. His saint of a wife supported him and throughout those three years Jones hadn't had so much as a bite for his work. Until now. By this time next year, everyone will know who Pete Jones is and I have to say I'm glad.
The cynic in me says Project Greenlight is just another marketing tool/reality tv gimmick, but the fact that a struggling writer has been plucked out of obscurity and given the chance to make his dream come true makes it a worthwhile venture in my eyes.
Here's to Pete Jones. Good luck, pal.
-- Edward Butler
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