Project Greenlight: Season Three (merged) (1 Viewer)

[teapot2001]

All I remember hearing Chris say was how he wanted to pretend he never heard about John's wanting to fly to NY, how he would fire John, and how John should worry about other things.

I'm not sure what else John should be concerned with at this stage. Casting is very important, and once John knows for sure if his family could be in the movie or not, then he will have a better idea of what kind of movie he will be able to make.

~T

 

[Chris]

There is a point one of the writers makes in the blogs that wasn't conveyed in the show.. that apparently, John made the point that, hey, on a 20 day shooting schedule, the need to get across what he wanted very quickly was of utmost importance.. and doing that with people he had never worked with would be even more difficult in a short shooting schedule.. the writer makes the case that, hey, John basically thought there would be no way to get his methods across to people he'd never met in such a short time frame.

That's an interesting argument. It basically says: to build chemistry amongst a cast as well as the cast & a director in such a short time was something John felt was going to be damn near impossible.. which is not an unfeasible viewpoint.

 

[teapot2001]

I'm 90% supporting John's wanting to cast his family. He clearly sees them in the roles and he knows how to work with them. That will make things a lot easier for him to make the movie and will probably make the movie better. Hey, Orson Welles cast people he knew for Citizen Kane who were unknowns in Hollywood. I thought it was a great idea for him to shoot a test scene with his family, but to others it probably seems like a joke because he's a nobody. What harm would that have done? John could've shot it on his own time with his family and it wouldn't have cost anything.

Are some minor stars really going to make that much of a difference? They sure didn't help the first two Project Greenlight movies, and they haven't helped a lot of other movies. I think for this type of movie, if it's good enough, people will see it no matter who's in it.

~T

 

[TravisR]

Whether his family/friends are the right actors or not, one of the studio guys (or was it Chris Moore?) nailed it. John wants the security blanket of his family with him. Maybe that's the right way for him to do his best work but either way that was dead on assesment of the casting 'situation'.

 

[MickeS]

I agree with Chris above. To let John use actors he is familiar and has a previous working relationship sounds like a good idea. Yes, they are his family, but so what? Everyone involved have said that they are good actors, and the others mostly seem to be against it because they don't want him to be able to bring family in.

And what the hell was Krista Allen doing there. Gotta say that John's girlfriend did a much better audition than her.

/Mike

 

[Chris]

I'm not even sure what's wrong with the security blanket bit. Many directors use the same actors over and over and over again. David Mamet may as well just pencil in "William H Macy" in every one of his films. The Coen Brothers often use repeate casting. Directors tend to do so because they find it easier to work with the same people... there isn't anything really "new" about that technique at all..

 

[Jason Walstrom]

It's funny that every season the Casting is where the biggest stress is derived from. I'd like to see the way casting is supposed to be done. Since the casting director let us know that this is not how the game is played.

 

[Patrick Sun]

The reason casting is a big issue is because of Dimension's need for the marketability of the film, and having some actors/actresses that have some bits of buzz/juice attached to them over a cadre of no-names is the more palatable choice for the studio. Gulager comes across as so inflexible, with such a closed mind on the subject of casting, and not even wanting to consider the RP/nepotism aspect of casting friends and family in a studio production shows a deep need for the familial and a comfort level that supercedes the needs and demands for the project/film at hand.

 

[Chris]

But let's be honest.. how much "Buzz" is there really for Henry Rollins? Are people sitting at home going "holy crap! This film has Henry Rollins in it, I have to go!"

Drafting his family seems like "oh, bad idea" but for the budget they are on, why not? I can't think of anyone of any significance in a Troma picture.. and Blair Witch Project didn't have any names.. nor did Clerks. Those kind of things should be examples for PGL. This is a film in which the idea is to "catch some buzz" with basically nobodies. It does happen; there are foreign films that come into this market that have a cast of nobody actors.. and manage to make money.

I'm not saying cast his whole family (and I've seen the final cast via IMDB) but I am saying, compared to what they got, I'm not sure how much real improvement there is in interest on the audience.. I'll have to wait and see how it comes together.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Did you not see how CBS kept telling us "The O.C.'s Shannon Lucio" would be in Spring Break Shark Attack" during the NCAA tourney games, or during their prime time shows a week ago?

For those who know who got cast courtesy of IMDB:

At least Navi Rawat also has a little "The O.C." buzz, and she's a semi-regular on "Numb3rs", and, well, Krista Allen is a b-movie starlet courtesy of the Emmanuelle films she did, but would rather forget that period in her life.


If all the main characters were from Gulager's stable of friends and family, and none were all that recognizable from a pop cultural point of view, who's going to get excited about "Feast"? Keep in mind that this is a Dimension-financed production, not an "indy" production where actor name recognition isn't as easily to come by if this was a Blair Witch or Troma film.

 

[Chris]

Patrick, just a minor comment:

Oh yes, I'm not saying cast his whole family; and Clu did get a role. And I think that Navi Rawat is a good choice, and I'd take her.. but for the roles he was after, I'm not sure what kind of upgrade value they really got. And as far as Krista Allen goes, her current work in "Unscripted" is the latest thing I've seen from her, and I guess if the role is to turn this into a tits-and-slasher flick, then she's a good pickup; though she seems to lament her soft-core work now, her acting talent, is, IMHO, non-existant

 

[Doug Schiller]

They could be making a movie about churning butter and he want all of his family in it. He won't even consider anyone else, that is my problem with it.

PG is to blame for this mess. I said the same thing last year.
Have it in their contract what they can or can not do. A contest winning, wedding video director should have very little to do with casting. And if he has a problem with that, he didn't have to sign on.

 

[Chuck Stephens]

This got sure me excited about this movie. I couldn't believe it when I saw him. I was like "Is was that Henry Rollins?".

The problem that Gulager is showing in these first episodes is that he is way too inflexible about casting and his wanting to cast most of his friends and family is just ludicrous. I can see maybe one or two who show some promise but his comment about his brother being one of the greatest actors on the planet just shows how out of touch and in over his head this guy is.

 

[John Mansor]

They played the first episode on Sci Fi last night. I guess they are using cross promotion on a genre channel.

 

[Benson R]

I see the Miramax people as being very two faced here.

At first they are worried, that John isnt a leader and doesnt take charge and assert himself.

But when he starts to assert himself during the casting process they make it clear he is not in charge.

 

[Jason Walstrom]

so does John Gulager wash his pits before every meal?

 

[Doug Schiller]

Has there been a new show this week?
My DVR keeps recording last week's episode and it wasn't on Tuesday night (I think).

 

[Dave Gorman]

It's on tonight (Thursday 4/7) at 9pm Central (10pm for you).

 

[Patrick Sun]

4/7/05

That casting director really got her way, didn't she?

Rona looked so confused sitting there listening to Gulager's ideas.

I can imagine the writers go ballistic after all the re-writes that happened without their input.

That monster ding-a-ling was pretty scary in a different way.

Overall, still a fascinating trainwreck to watch. Can't wait for next week!

 

[Chris]

Talk about a complete fraud. "John, you can't cast your family because you like them, nepotism is bad"

"oh, I went behind the director and producers back to cast someone that not just John didn't like, but the Producers also thought was bad"

(same here, I looked at her tests and thought: this is not right, she's way to pop-tart for the role, having read the script)

As to the screenwriters.. har har.. they ask them to do re-writes "uh, why don't you just do that on your own, we're kind of busy working on this Highlander Script" they get back and don't like the changes.. wah wah... waaaah

Great ep; looks like next week could be entertaining, with John having a meltdown and walking out to his car to pout