ALL NEW SEASON PREMIERES TUESDAY, MARCH 15 AT 9:00 PM ON BRAVO

LOS ANGELES — January 13, 2005 — On Tuesday, March 15 at 9:00 PM, in partnership with Miramax Television (”Project Runway”), Bravo will launch the long-awaited third season of “Project Greenlight,” the Emmy nominated and critically-acclaimed filmmaking contest and behind-the-scenes documentary series that chronicles the challenges of first-time-writers and directors given the opportunity of a lifetime. For the show’s third season, partners LivePlanet and Miramax are creating a series and a film that will revolve around a horror genre script (the past two season’s films were based on coming of age stories).

First time director John Gulager will direct the winning script written by screenwriters Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. Horror guru Wes Craven (”A Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Scream”) has joined to produce the film “Feast.”

The series, which will air on Bravo for the first time, consists of nine, one-hour episodes.

“Bravo continues to give viewers real access to the creative process, no matter what area of arts or culture,” said Lauren Zalaznick, President of Bravo. “By tackling a new genre, the new season of ‘Project Greenlight’ really confronts the economic realities of the independent film business.”

“Project Greenlight” gives aspiring filmmakers access to independent filmmaking through an online community, a film, and a television documentary series. “Project Greenlight” holds a contest where an amateur writer and an amateur director get to make an original film together. Miramax Films finances production of the film with a minimum $1 million production budget, and distributes it. The documentary series shows the entire filmmaking process, from the selection of the script, through production and editing, to the film’s release. In addition to the contest, the “Project Greenlight” community provides a forum for screenwriters and filmmakers to work on their ideas and gain knowledge in a peer-to-peer environment.

Last season’s “Project Greenlight” confirmed the public’s appetite to be behind the scenes on a film production by demonstrating an increase in its viewing audience by twenty percent from the show’s initial season in 2002.

Additionally, the series’ producers have been recognized by the Producers Guild of America as nominees for the organization’s 2004 Producer of the Year Award in the category of best Reality, Game and Information series.

“Project Greenlight” is executive produced for Miramax Television by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Moore and Sean Bailey of LivePlanet along with Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz of Magical Elves.

Airing in Canada on CTV this month, Kevin Smith will appear as himself in Degrassi: The Next Generation in a three episode arc. That bit of news was announced in November of last year, along with the fact that ‘Jay’ (Jason Mewes) will also appear in the series. For our fellow Canadians, you can find the programming schedule on News Askew.

There’s also an interesting piece on CTV’s website. The program (and specifically the episodes featuring Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes) will air in the US on Noggin later this year. Degrassi: The Next Generation is set in the famed Degrassi Community School made famous by the original series in the 1980’s. This new series, now its 3rd season, has won national and international awards.

What had this to do with AbbyShot? Well, AbbyShot provided a Silent Bob Coat to CTV’s program eTalk daily. During some of the network’s promotion Kevin’s Degrassi episodes, Jay and Silent Bob did this photo-shoot. Silent Bob (Kevin) is modelling his own coat, the original that was featured in his films. Jay (Jason Mewes) however, is modelling AbbyShot’s officially licensed replica Silent Bob coat! Be sure to also check out the January 30th edition of TV Guide (Canada only). There will be more info about the Degrassi episodes, get your copy quick!

In case you’re wondering, this is one heck of an ‘AbbyShot first.’ It’s the first time that an AbbyShot coat has been photographed next to the original garment that we’ve recreated. Add Jay and Silent Bob to that mix and this definitely one of coolest things we’ve ever put into our humble newsletter. (Come to think of it, we’ve got some new customer reviews on our Silent Bob Coats.) There’s still a few more cold months left this winter, order your Silent Bob Coat today!!