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March 15th, 2005 @ 12:26 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Melissa Trembath, Alonso Duralde

  • This week’s Entertainment Weekly magazine has a cover story surrounding the Miramax breakup. There’s
    some small mentions of Kevin’s assocation with the company, but it’s a very educational piece where you can learn about
    the wonderful dynasty that Harvey and Bob have created. Pick up the issue — Or stick around, we’ll have a scan soon.
  • Here’s a long comment regarding Ben taking from director Mike Binder and their upcoming film
    “Man About Town” that we think sums things up quite well:
“I wrote it. ‘Man About Town’ is actually a movie I wrote for Steven Spielberg to direct and I developed it with Steven Spielberg and he decided not to do it and I went out and did it myself. And it’s a movie about a talent agent who’s wife has an affair with his most important client and-it’s really a movie about a man who’s wife cheats and has to figure out a way to forgive her cause he’s in love with her and he can’t just leave her. He just has to figure out some path to forgiveness and he’s very good in the movie. The client is Adam Goldberg and John Cleese is in it and Gina Gershon. I’m in it; I’m the Jew agent.”

The movie may or may not resuscitate Affleck’s career, but Binder isn’t worried. “I feel it cause I’m not stupid. But I don’t feel pressure on myself. Plus, he delivered. When we started working on the movie, he wasn’t quite in the situation he was in. We started working on this movie back in September and we committed to it last March. And ‘Jersey Girl’.

I’m not gonna-there’s just too much actor of the moment thing going on with the studios. I think he’s a good actor; Ben’s a bad actor in bad movie and a good actor in good movie and who isn’t. Some people are lucky they don’t do that many bad movies. But also, if you look at the choices Ben’s made, to work with John Woo, to work with Marty Brest who I would do anything to work with Marty Brest, to work with Kevin Smith who he had worked with before, and the ;Surviving Christmas; script was great, I wanted to direct it. I didn’t get the job. So he made choices I understand, they just didn’t work out. And I also think that he had a bit of a backlash. And listen, the guy won the Oscar at 24; he’s 32. He needed to stumble and he’s not going anywhere; this guy is going to be around for a long time. He learned a lot from the last 2 years; trust me. He loved this movie and he wanted to go with us up to Sundance. I’m more worried about my career than his.”

  • And speaking of Affleck, he and Damon’s PROEJECT GREENLIGHT premieres TONIGHT (Tuesday) on BRAVO.
    You can also catch it on AOL. They tackle the horror genre this year, so our interest is piqued. However, we’re hoping
    the censored nature of Bravo doesn’t take away from the realness that HBO brought to this project. Here’s the
    press release.
PREMIERE EPISODE TO AIR FREE ON THE WEB AT AOL.COM AND ON AOL SERVICE FOR ONE WEEK WITH WEEKLY PREVIEWS AND SIMULCAST OF SEASON FINALE TO FOLLOW ‘PROJECT GREENLIGHT’ PREMIERES TUESDAY, MARCH 15 AT 9:00 PM ET/PT

NEW YORK — March 10, 2005 — As the acclaimed filmmaking documentary series “Project Greenlight” debuts on Bravo on Tuesday, March 15, America Online will offer the entire premiere episode free on the Web simultaneously with its West Coast broadcast airing at 9:00 PM, PT/12:00AM, ET, as well as throughout the week. The episode will be available to view online through the AOL.com Web site (aol.com/television) and the AOL service (AOL Keyword: Television). Throughout the season, America Online will also post weekly episodic clips from the series, and will simulcast the season finale on May 10.

“Online streaming is the perfect medium to drive consumer awareness and sampling simultaneously,” said Jason Klarman, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Bravo. “It complements our overall efforts to drive viewers to the premiere, transforming the content into the perfect buzz-making vehicle.”

“We are always looking for creative new ways to extend and enhance the viewing experience for our substantial online audience, and this ‘Project Greenlight’ initiative is a terrific example of this effort,” said Patricia Karpas, Vice President and General Manager, AOL Television. “By offering on-demand access to the premiere and finale, along with weekly clips of each episode, we can provide Web users the opportunity to engage with this acclaimed program even if they’ve missed it on TV. We’re pleased to support the ‘Project Greenlight’ mission of discovering young filmmakers and to celebrate the winners of this prestigious challenge.”

“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. The documentary series shows the entire filmmaking process, from the selection of the script, through production and editing, to the film’s release. 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 on to produce the film, “Feast.” The series, which will air on Bravo for the first time, consists of nine, one-hour episodes.

It’s great to see the always animated Chris Moore on board again. He’s such a joy to watch. You can bet we’ll be tuned in for all nine.
Tons more info and exclusive vidos are available over at the Bravo site.

  • We’ll be back with more regular updates this week, including new audio of Kevin on UK radio, and
    exclusive audio of another of his LA radio spots last week. Also, the long-awaited script review of Jason Lee’s new
    sitcom pilot. That and much, much more. See you again real soon.

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