Project Greenlight participants
You likely did not see the first episode of Project Greenlight with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon because, well, it premiered Sunday against the Cowboys Giants game. But hopefully you recorded it, or will record future episodes, because it is good, and it has a distinct Lake Highlands connection …
Project Greenlight is “a documentary about what it takes to make a movie,” Affleck tells viewers. It’s a competition reality show wherein hundreds upon hundreds of filmmaking hopefuls submitted short movies — then Facebook audiences, and later, Damon, Affleck, a team of producers and HBO execs, and the Farrelly brothers, choose 20 finalists to pitch their ideas. (Read more about the show here.)
If you recorded it, like me, you might have been watching with periphery interest last night while folding laundry when you suddenly were all: “Hey, it’s that guy!”
Yes, Lake Highlands’ own Kirk Johnson, who Carol Toler interviewed for our August issue, was co-star/co-producer of one of the top-20 pics, a dark comedy called, “Where do you want to eat?”
In episode one, Johnson’s co-producer Ashley Barnhill apologetically explains that she and Johnson broke up, and she submitted the video under just her name. Now she wants him included. (That’s why Kirk Johnson’s name isn’t listed on any of the official top-20 lists.)
“We got the sense that there was a whole soap opera behind that one,” Damon says of the Johnson-Barnhill submission.
Here’s what Johnson told the Advocate about the show (SPOILER ALERT):
“I stand before ye a loser, but it was a great experience and if you tune into the show you’ll be able to watch me flounder through a pitch in front of Mattfleck as well as the Farrelly brothers and a room full of HBO execs.”
Check out Johnson’s entry here.
Information about upcoming PGL episodes here.
