HBO Red-Lights "Greenlight"

Wed., Nov. 26, 2003 1:10 PM PST by Kimberly Potts

Everyone returning to HBO for another season, step forward. Sopranos, check. Curb Your Enthusiasm, check. Project Greenlight, not so fast...

A third season of the filmmaking competition series, a joint project between Miramax and Oscar-winning pals Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, won't be back on the cable network.

The surprise news came Wednesday courtesy of the Hollywood Reporter. But HBO's cancellation could be a boon for Bravo, which, E! has confirmed, is in talks to pick up the reality series.

"We believe in Project Greenlight and are currently reevaluating its distribution options," a Miramax spokesperson told the Reporter.

Reps from HBO and Live Planet, the Affleck-Damon venture that coproduces Greenlight, were mum on the show's fate.

The show, conceived by the Good Will Hunting buds as a way to help aspiring filmmakers get their projects into theaters, has so far produced two seasons of addictive TV, one DVD box set and two big-screen releases: 2002's Stolen Summer and last August's The Battle of Shaker Heights, both box-office disappointments.

Though distributor Miramax would likely disagree, raking in big bucks at the box office wasn't necessarily the point of the show, however. Fans tuned in each week for the chance to go behind the scenes on the day-to-day production of a Hollywood movie, from script meetings and filmmaker squabbles to the casting process and the often stressful realities of staying within budgetary and time constraints.

Or, to put it bluntly, who among us didn't look forward to the weekly antics of Greenlight producer Chris Moore, an Affleck and Damon Live Planet partner whose straightforward, sometimes brutally honest opinions rubbed filmmakers the wrong way? The brusque, but likable Moore won such a fan following that, after the first season of the show wrapped, Affleck launched "The Chris Moore Challenge," a lighthearted contest that gave viewers the chance to submit their best impersonations of the hot-tempered Moore.

In fact, it's reportedly Moore's reluctance to sign on as producer of a third Greenlight feature that gave HBO pause on, well, greenlighting another season of the series. American Pie producer Moore is currently executive producing the next Live Planet theatrical release, Waiting..., a comedy starring Ryan Reynolds, Jay Mohr, Busta Rhymes and Anna Faris, and coproduced by Project Greenlight's Jeff Balis (a frequent target of Moore's ire in Greenlight).

The crystal ball on Greenlight's future also looks murky when it comes to the continued involvement of Affleck and Damon, whose on-air time dwindled from season one to season two, save a big cameo when Affleck and J.Lo showed up on the Shaker Heights set during a season two episode. Shaker Heights the movie, by the way, hits DVD on December 9, while a season two DVD box, featuring the aforementioned Bennifer pop-in, is rumored to be in the works for next winter.

As for Bravo, Project Greenlight would fit nicely into the arts and entertainment network's line-up, which already includes reality offerings like the monster hit Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Inside the Actors Studio, as well as the new Celebrity Poker Showdown and the upcoming offerings Underexposed , a show produced by Will & Grace's Sean Hayes in which two new wannabe Spielbergs are pitted against each other in a short-film-making contest each episode, and Project Runway, a Miramax-backed, fashion-themed take on Greenlight.

Now that sounds like a perfect Project for J.Lo.