Although the ratings for its initial Bravo season were truly horrific and executive producer Chris Moore personally declared the Emmy-nominated show all but dead in a blog entry posted on the show's official website shortly after the spring finale of its third season aired, like many a protagonist in the horror film genre it most recently embraced, the critically-acclaimed Project Greenlight may still yet live on.
ADVERTISEMENT
According to Daily Variety, The Weinstein Co. is "hoping to move forward" with a fourth season of Project Greenlight, which also counts Hollywood stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck among the reality filmmaking show's executive producers. As documented on Project Greenlight 3, The Weinstein Co. is the name of the new entertainment company that acquired the rights to Project Greenlight's third season Feast film (and apparently Greenlight itself) as part of former Miramax founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein's departure from the Disney-owned company.
In addition to Project Greenlight (which had aired its first two seasons on HBO before being dropped by the pay cable network), the Weinsteins also acquired a stake in Project Runway, which will premiere its second season on December 7, as part of their Miramax departure negotiations. Although the company declined to comment on Variety's story, Greenlight and Runway will reportedly be part of an initial Weinstein Co. television slate that will also include TV series adaptations of Sin City and Rounders, two of the many films that Miramax released while the Weinstein brothers were at its helm. The company is also producing Project Catwalk, a previously announced U.K. edition of Runway that will be hosted by Elizabeth Hurley.
According to Moore, Bravo executives were surprised about the content of his final bravotv.com blog entry. "[Bravo] called me after the blog went up and said, 'You know, Chris, we're still thinking about it,' [but] all that means is that right now, while everyone is paying attention, we don't want to say we canceled it" he told Entertainment Weekly in a June interview. "I'm not saying Greenlight is dead forever, but the present configuration is over. I'm not the kind of person who has the balls to ask someone to pay for a TV show that no one watches."
Although he acknowledged that Bravo executives had told him "we can't justify keeping it on air" due to its terrible ratings, Project Greenlight co-creator Matt Damon had been a bit more optimistic about Project Greenlight 4's chances during an August interview with Zap2It.com. "It's up in the air right now," he told the site. "I suspect if the [Feast] movie does well enough, maybe Bob [Weinstein] would help with it, maybe there's some way to get them all to do it one more time, but it's on a respirator."
ADVERTISEMENT
Feast, directed by Greenlight 3 winner John Gulager and starring Navi Rawat, Krista Allen, and Balthazar Getty, had been most recently scheduled for a January 20, 2006 theatrical release date, however The Weinstein Co. delayed the film in September. No new release date has been announced. In the meantime, the film has been playing at film festivals around the country. In addition to Damon, Moore, and Affleck, Feast also counts horror film legend Wes Craven among its executive producers.