During the past year, Deerfield native Pete Jones has won the “Project Greenlight” screenplay contest, directed his first movie, become the admired/ridiculed star of an HBO series and seen his work embraced at the Sundance Film Festival.
Now he was back in Chicago, where “Stolen Summer” filmed last summer. That night the movie (which opens Friday in Chicago and a few other cities) would have its official premiere at a packed Chicago Theatre.
In the morning Jones, “Project Greenlight”/”Stolen Summer” producer Chris Moore and the movie’s adult stars Aidan Quinn and Bonnie Hunt were ready to play Monday morning quarterback, dissecting the HBO show that they felt misrepresented them; grumbling about Miramax’s plans to stick a “Project Greenlight” recap before each “Stolen Summer” screening; and reflecting that they actually had a great time making a movie they love.
Tribune — Was “Project Greenlight” a good way to make a movie?
Jones — For these guys it’s different. For me it’s the only way I got a chance to make a movie, so, yeah, it’s the best way to make a movie.
Moore — I think it’s a really hard way to make a movie. It’s hard to be under that kind of attention and know that we are making that kind of TV show.
Quinn — For me there were three tough days out of the 25, and those three days were what all the episodes were about. And I just think it’s unfortunate. It certainly makes the process more difficult for making a film.
Hunt — It was a reality TV show. It was not a documentary, in my opinion.
Quinn — But also we can’t look a gift horse in the mouth. There’s no way we could have gotten this amount of publicity for this budget [of] a film even with it being as good as it is.
Moore — I do think the idea of a contest and letting people who don’t normally get a way to break into Hollywood is a good idea.
Tribune — Did you ever feel the quality of the movie was being sacrificed for the quality of the television show?
Jones — Artistically, no.
Moore — I think there was time wasted trying to hide from the cameras when you wanted to have a really serious conversation. And as a producer, every minute counts, and if people are being conscious about it or worried about it, that’s bad. There were a couple of moments where people were screwing up where part of the conversation was, “Don’t yell at me about this in front of the cameras.”
Quinn — I had people say to me, “God, what about that director you had to work with?” I said, “What are you talking about? He was great.”
Moore — (The show) was meant to be a celebration of what it’s like to make a movie . . . and now I’m the guy that walks around and screams at people for a living.
Tribune — (to Moore) You were producer of the TV show as well, so when you’re saying, “Oh, they portrayed me as a screaming guy” . . .
Moore — There was a moment in time on the television show where I was outvoted by the powers that be because I wanted to do much more. . . . Unfortunately, HBO and Miramax television felt that that was not a very good television show.
Hunt — You did a great job, Pete, under all that pressure.
Moore — Ironically, and this is what happened at Sundance, the movie is so much better than what anybody thinks the movie’s going to be from watching the show that it’s almost the ultimate revenge.
Tribune — What’s the film’s official title? Miramax’s press stuff says “The Project Greenlight Movie: Stolen Summer.”
Jones –When the title comes up, it just says “Stolen Summer.”
Moore — And they’re not showing the thing tonight.
Jones — Yes! Yes!
Tribune — What was that?
Jones — (muttering) I don’t know. Go see the movie on March 22; you’ll know what we’re talking about. (Everyone laughs)
Jones — They decided that when you get in the movie theater, to remind everyone what “Project Greenlight” is, [you’ll see] a two-minute, three-minute synopsis of the TV show.
Tribune — You didn’t want this.
Jones — No. Logically, it doesn’t make sense. Logically, you can’t explain it to me marketing-wise why you need to show it before.
Moore — I do think we should avoid this comment, though. I think we should let Miramax do their marketing thing and not create a controversy about it. . . .
“Project Greenlight” has a name now of its own. So Miramax isn’t wrong to talk about “Project Greenlight” and do whatever. It’s just we were hoping there’d be that final moment at the end of this process where you just get to sit there and watch the movie.
Quinn — The movie stands on its own.
Moore — The last 45 seconds of it is me yelling at people.
Tribune –What’s the one thing you’d want to change most in a “Project Greenlight 2”?
(At press time, “Project Greenlight 2” plans remained up in the air as Miramax and Moore’s production company, Live Planet, continue to haggle.)
Quinn — I think that it reflects accurately what happened, the documentary part. Other than that it was a fantastic experience.
Jones — Pretty much same thing. . . . Show mistakes because, hell, they were there, but show the warmth if there is warmth and show the successes if there are successes. When I go to speak to colleges or high schools or something and people come up to me that want to be filmmakers and go, “After I saw what you went through, I don’t want to get into it now.” And I’m thinking, “Ahhh, they missed the boat.”
Hunt — [Pick] somebody over the age of 60. It would be nice to see some guy who worked his whole life in another career but always underneath felt he was a filmmaker and got the opportunity to make a movie. . . . In Hollywood, that’s never going to happen. They don’t take meetings with people over 50.
Moore — I wish that the dramas and the things that people saw were more creative and more collaborative than they were logistical. We’re going to try a lot of different things if we get to do it again, the most direct one being separating the directing and the writing, having two contests. . . . I think moviemaking is really about storytelling, and I don’t think the things that happened in “Project Greenlight” were about telling good stories. They were about organizing, and they were about people’s personalities or whatever, and it’s a great thing when you tell a great story and people respond to it. It’s awesome.
