Balis looks at Jones blankly, pausing before reading the next line. The camera pans over to a copy of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Judaism," which happens to be nearby.

"'Instead of praying to Jesus, they should pray to Danny,'" Balis reads, a note of incredulity in his voice.

"You guys don't like the term 'Jesus,' so let's call him something else."

"Pray to 'Danny'?" Balis asks again.

"No, just call him 'Danny.'"

"OK, now that you've explained it, I definitely don't understand."

That Jones' script was chosen among 10,000 others probably says more about the quality of material available to "Project Greenlight's" producers than about the caliber of the winner's work. Then again, Damon has remarked that he hoped the documentary would have the feel of "Burden of Dreams" (Les Blank's documentary about the making of Werner Herzog's "Fitzcarraldo") or "Hearts of Darkness" (Eleanor Coppola's documentary about the making of "Apocalypse Now") -- so maybe it says even more about our boys' perverse sense of humor.

"Burden of Dreams" and "Hearts of Darkness" documented what happens to great, ambitious filmmakers when they take on Herculean projects in far-off, war-torn, disease-ridden and otherwise hostile jungles: They lose their marbles and give great documentary footage. Pete Jones' little movie is not set in the jungle and it won't require negotiating with the Philippine government or dragging a steamship from river to river across land, killing a few natives in the process. It is, however, a period piece starring two 8-year-olds that will be shot on location.

Basically, it will be more expensive, more complicated and will involve more red tape than Jones could have ever bargained for. Jones, as you may have already surmised, is no Herzog. He is no Coppola. He is not even anything resembling an Affleck-Damon tag team (a team that has jumped considerably in my estimation not only for being funny, charming and smart, but for exhibiting the foresight and humor to embrace the purpose-defeating Jones compromise with gallantry and equanimity -- so far). In other words, he can still do a lot of damage on very little. Which is great news.

In his (apparently mostly fictional) autobiography, "Kinski Uncut," Klaus Kinski compares his experiences in making "Fitzcarraldo" (a movie about a genius-madman committing a great folly, which was, in itself, a great folly committed by a genius madman) to his experiences working on Herzog's "Aguirre, Wrath of God" (see above). "Once again, our lives are constantly put at risk because of Herzog's total ignorance, narrow-mindedness, arrogance, and inconsideration, which threaten to bring about the collapse of the shooting and the financing ... He's the same decaying garbage heap that he was ten years ago -- only more moronic, more mindless, more murderous ... He's also hired Les Blank, a so-called documentary filmmaker, who thinks of nothing but food."

In their own way, the "Project Greenlight" decision-makers might have been thinking of food themselves -- a plump morsel called Pete Jones, who should do a great job of satiating the sharks.

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