As one-fourth of LivePlanet productions—the company that boasts Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as founders—Chris Moore came to be known as a minor reality television star when he produced Project Greenlight for HBO and Bravo. The result of Project Greenlight’s three seasons were three distinctly different films, one of which—The Battle Of Shaker Heights—was an early starring vehicle for human art project Shia LaBeouf. Though it’s been nearly a decade since Moore has brought the ambitions of young writers to the small screen, and then a bigger, wider screen, Starz has optioned a new series from Moore, The Chair.
Likely to have all the intensity of sitting and watching something, The Chair will give two filmmakers the chance to produce a film—the catch being that they’ll be drawing from the same script, though all casting decisions, rewrites, and titles will be each director’s own. Both films will be released in theaters and on Starz, and whichever film gets more positive marks from digital viewers and has a higher box-office gross will see the director walk away with $250,000. In turn, The Chair’s second-place finisher will end up living that coming-of-age story in what will surely be a special feature on the DVD release of their film.