Just when it looked like the neophyte filmmaker series "Project Greenlight" was about to hit a permanent red light, a series of factors have conspired to breathe new life into the concept and make it more urgent -- and decidedly more commercially accessible in documenting the movie-production process.

That's right: "Project Greenlight" has gone Hollywood.

Indeed, when audiences see the third season of "Greenlight" sometime in late February, it won't be on HBO but the NBC-owned Bravo, immediately upping the show's potential audience from fewer than 30 million to some 76 million homes. And rather than 13 half-hour installments, the new altered version will feature nine hour-long episodes.

But that's not even the biggest news. The most radical change to "Greenlight's" focus is in its mind-set. The folks behind it at Miramax and LivePlanet -- including famously combative executive producer Chris Moore and fellow LivePlanet principals Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Larry Tanz -- have decided that making movies with first-time writers and directors is one thing, but now, it's time to make something else, too.

Money.

The first two films resulting from the earlier editions of "Greenlight" -- 2002's "Stolen Summer" and 2003's "The Battle of Shaker Heights," both released by Miramax -- seemed to revel in their underdog, "we're-sacrificing-for-our-craft" status. They were nice, little art house coming-of-age films accessible to nearly no one and seen by just as few. "Summer," from writer-director Pete Jones, was budgeted at about $1.6 million and earned a mere $150,000 at the domestic boxoffice in extremely limited distribution; "Shaker Heights," from writer Erica Beeney and the directing tandem of Kyle Rankin and Efram Potelle, upped the budget to about $1.9 million and earned roughly $300,000 domestically in theaters.

In other words, by almost any business measure, the first pair of flicks whose making was documented by "Greenlight" were flops.

But because they were so sparsely released into but a few cities, their tanking was practically preordained and seemed almost to be built into the program's educational dynamic. This is how it is in show business, folks. You work your butt off, get screamed at a lot -- and then your film dies. Get used to it.

But for the new season, bleeding cash is officially out, as the show's backers have decided that there is no crime in earning back one's investment. They've partnered with Dimension Films, hired horror maven Wes Craven to produce new titles and launched production on a genre film: the horror flick "Feast" from fledgling screenwriters Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunston. If all goes according to plan, "Feast" will be released into theaters in April.

With the film's production budget expected to creep north of $2 million, the goal now is to see if "Greenlight" can illustrate the making of a movie that finds its way onto more than 1,000 screens and opens with a real number, as opposed to being dead on arrival. It's a radical concept, but one that those involved claim to be infinitely doable.

The newest season of "Greenlight" began production just after the July 13 announcement of this year's contest winner. Those who have been a part of the show since its inception in 2000 are expressing particular excitement at this idea that dressing a film for success should maybe be part of the equation.

Not that they weren't all proud of "Summer" and "Shaker Heights." It's just that maybe they could be, you know, a little prouder this time with "Feast" -- the horrific tale of bar patrons trying to survive a snowy evening while dodging the attack of a hungry family of flying beasts.

"The first two films didn't do as well as we would have liked," admits Eli Holzman, vp television at Miramax and co-developer of "Greenlight" in tandem with Moore, Affleck, Damon and Alex Keledjian. "But from the beginning, this has always been an experiment. We've learned a lot of lessons along the way."

One of those lessons was that it made more sense to have the screenwriter and director be separate entities. So for Season 2, the contest was split, which meant working with two new, inexperienced, untested commodities (or, in this case, three).
"We had issues with Kyle and Efram in Year 2," admits Moore, who is taking something of a reduced role in the making of the film this year, turning over production duties to Craven while continuing to work as a producer on "Greenlight." "'The Battle of Shaker Heights' could have been very different. We were hoping they'd make a comedy, but it ended up being much more of a drama than we expected."

To guard against any more surprises, Moore and company have instituted a longer prep period for the film in "Greenlight 3," as well as allowed for more tweaking of the script.

"We're going to make smarter use of our time and money," he says. "One of the things we found doing 'Greenlight' the past couple of years is that watching a TV show about a movie you can't really understand wasn't very helpful in marketing the movie itself. Consequently, we averaged having 7 (million)-10 million people watching the show and had a movie seen by fewer than 100,000 people.

"That's why we decided to do a genre picture," Moore continues. "The hope is that the audience will understand in a much clearer way what it is we're doing and, hopefully, get psyched to come see it.

By definition, with a genre picture, you get less confusion, but that also means there are certain things we've got to deliver on. If you have vampires, you better make damn sure they look like vampires."

This time, the marketing of the movie will be a central part of the "Greenlight" process. It was more of a problem when the show ran on HBO, which has no commercial advertising and strict rules about what can and cannot be included in the framework of the shows aired, as far as sponsorship goes. But on the ad-supported Bravo, the show now will be rife with sponsorship packages, product placement and integrated marketing.

Even so, the total budget for the show is under $5 million, according to Holzman. Adds Tanz: "One of our goals is simply to make 'Greenlight' as a whole commercially successful. Now, we've taken steps to make that happen. We've upped the number of homes we're in with Bravo and may even get a shot on NBC like Bravo did with 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.' We're also working with advertisers to promote the show."

But Tanz denies any charge that "Greenlight" has sold out.

"No, it's about the show evolving to being one that shows how to succeed in filmmaking, as opposed to just making the movie," Tanz says. "Giving unknowns a chance to make their movie is a great thing. But if the movie isn't successful commercially, then maybe we're not giving them as much of a chance as we thought we were."

And if by chance this latest film still doesn't justify a major release, then Moore says it might not be released at all. "Unlike with the past 'Greenlights,' we have no guaranteed theatrical release this time," he says. "The film has to test a certain score, or it goes straight to video. The Miramax and Dimension guys don't want to be forced to spend marketing money if the film doesn't warrant it. And if we get a bad test, that may kill the release."

Test marketing on "Greenlight"? "Oh, yeah, we're planning test screenings," Moore says. "It should be a fun process to have our winners go through. I mean, now they can be even more stressed out. I'm really looking forward to that."

The fact that "Greenlight" has a hot new home in Bravo is what makes all of the tweaking possible. HBO declined comment, but there is word that the pay cable network might have gone forward with another season after the show had built buzz and ratings in its second season (and built antagonist Moore into a cult star). Still, some say the show fell victim to cutbacks in the wake of the increased expense to produce such bread-and-butter series as "The Sopranos" and "Six Feet Under."

Observes Moore: "HBO probably would have done it again. But I think they might have changed the budget a little bit. And given the struggling filmmaker spirit of 'Project Greenlight,' the target audience probably doesn't have the money to subscribe to HBO, anyway."

Enter WMA vp Adam Sher, the agent representing the production company Magical Elves and its principals, Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz, who served as co-showrunners on Season 2; this time, Elves is back, with Cutforth set to run the newest edition. Sher shepherded the show to Bravo, whose executives "really got it," he says. "We'd seen how they marketed 'Queer Eye' and were impressed. We're very excited to be with them."

Says Bravo senior vp programming and production Frances Berwick: "The thing that sold 'Greenlight' to us was the fact that they wanted to make a movie this time that was commercially successful and made money. That, in our mind, made it a significantly different spin from the first two and a good fit for us."

The commitment to produce nine hours -- up from six and a half for the first two "Greenlights" -- doesn't faze Lipsitz. "We shot almost 3,000 hours of footage to get 13 half-hours last time, so I'm not too worried about being able to fill the time," she says. "There were story lines I'd have loved to include last time that we didn't have time for. Now, we will."

The focus this year changes in Lipsitz's mind to "being really about the process of making a movie, as opposed to last year, when it was about the writer and director coming together and their whole relationship."

While its mission and goal might have changed, however, "Greenlight" remains at its core a dream factory -- at least in the grandest sense of the term. Believes Sher: "In a town where everyone has the dream of being a star or a writer or director, it's the perfect wish-fulfillment program."