AllMovie

In the third installment of HBO's reality series Project Greenlight, Pete Jones and the executive producer of Stolen Summer, Chris Moore, continue their pre-production battle to get a bigger budget for the film from Miramax. Jonathan Gordon, Miramax's executive vice president of production, is annoyed about the memos he's gotten from Jones and Moore complaining about the money-saving script changes the company has suggested. One suggestion was to shoot a pivotal swimming scene in a pool instead of in Lake Michigan. Jones again threatens to cry. The casting process continues. Sean Penn turns the film down, so an offer is made to Aidan Quinn. Executive producer Ben Affleck drops by and is told about the changes Miramax has suggested. "Do they have to be kids?" Affleck jokes, referring to the problematic lead roles in the script, "Can they just be short?" Prodded by Jones and Moore, Affleck calls Miramax head honcho Harvey Weinstein. They arrange a meeting to discuss the budget. Moments later, Gordon calls, upset because they went over his head. "You guys suck," he tells them repeatedly, "I can't believe you didn't call me first." Affleck unveils his Chris Moore impression, telling Gordon that Moore said, "Jon Gordon's stonewalling us." Affleck explains that Moore has a penchant for getting "wildly overdramatic" in his memos, joking that he often threatens to kill himself. Affleck talks privately to Gordon, then tells the team that he got them a 1.7 million-dollar budget. Later, Jones finds out that Weinstein didn't want to sell the foreign rights to the film to raise production money, so the number is lowered to 1.5 million dollars. Later, Aidan Quinn expresses reservations about working with an inexperienced director, saying he wants to be involved in casting and wants the length of the shoot extended, meaning another fight over money.