Michael Grecco, Bravo An upcoming film release and a poorly rated Bravo series leave "Project Greenlight" executive producers Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Chris Moore facing much uncertainty. Click photo for larger image.

As viewers of the most recent season of "Project Greenlight" will recall, Matt Damon came across as the great defender of quality over commerce, fighting a legion of studio suits to try to select the best script and director for the show's third film.

Although Damon's support helped land the eccentric but talented John Gulager the directing gig, he was powerless to prevent Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton's "Feast" from winning the script competition.

Many months after the choices were made, Damon has softened somewhat on his losses.

"Even though, by their own admission, the people who voted for that script didn't think it was the best script, it probably was the smartest movie to choose because it does, in an odd way, give the project the greatest chance of surviving, because the movie might actually make money," says Damon, on the promotional circuit for the upcoming Terry Gilliam film "The Brothers Grimm."

Despite the long delay between the show's completion and the pending "Feast" release (previous "Greenlight" movies were rushed into theaters almost immediately after the shows ended), Damon has already heard what constitutes enthusiasm from Dimension Films bigwig Bob Weinstein.

"Bob's gonna bring it out at Christmas, and he was like (transitioning into a dead-on Weinstein impression), 'I released this movie 'The Darkness' last year at Christmas. It's the worst movie I've ever seen in my life, this [expletive] 'Darkness,' but it's a great slot. 'The Darkness' made 22 million. So I'm putting 'Feast' in the 'Darkness' slot. [Expletive] 'Feast' is 'Citizen Kane' compared to 'The Darkness.' "

The most recently announced release date for "Feast" is Jan. 20, 2006, though it may yet get the Yuletime spirit. Weinstein did release "Darkness," which starred Anna Paquin, last Christmas, over a year and a half after it came out in the rest of the world. The film, budgeted at just over $10 million, managed to make $22 million domestically. As for Weinstein's critical appraisal of the film, it has a robust 95 percent "Rotten" rating at RottenTomatoes.com.

It would be very difficult for "Feast" not to surpass "Stolen Summer" (roughly $119,841 domestic) and "The Battle of Shaker Heights" ($279,282 domestic) as the most successful film in "Project Greenlight" history. However, the transition from HBO to Bravo wasn't a smooth one for "Greenlight." Bravo never figured out how to promote the show and had difficulties keeping it in a stable time period. The resulting ratings were painfully low.

"The show was really good this year and yet we had horrible, horrible ratings," Damon says. "When we were in conversation with Bravo, they were like, 'Look, the show is good,' we got the best reviews of any show on television, and they said, 'But there's a certain number,' and they showed us the number and I'm not a TV guy, but they said, 'Look, this number, no matter what, we can't bring the show back. ... This is just terrible, we can't justify keeping it on air.' "

A recent Emmy nomination in the reality television category may give the show a minor boost, and if "Feast," a creature feature starring Navi Rawat and Krista Allen, can turn a profit, Damon thinks "Project Greenlight" might somehow be salvaged.

"It's up in the air right now," he says. "I suspect if the movie does well enough, maybe Bob would help with it, maybe there's some way to get them all to do it one more time, but it's on a respirator."

(Daniel Fienberg, Zap2it.com)