Welcome to the Matt Damon Column

Terry Gilliam's $75m Brothers Grimm kicks off its 17-week shoot in Prague today, with Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Lena Heady, Peter Stormare and Jonathan Pryce in the main roles.

The shoot will travel around the Czech Republic for the next two weeks, with Czech castle and cathedral towns such as Krivoklat, Kacina, Kutna Hora and Ledec doubling for the 19th-century German countryside.

MGM and Miramax, via its Dimension subsidiary, are teaming up on the fantasy production, which casts Damon and Ledger as Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the fairy-tale brothers, who in Gilliam's version are "Jake and Will," two 19th-century con artists who meet their match when they encounter an actual curse. Gilliam, Ehren Kruger and Tony Grisoni wrote the screenplay.

Robin Williams is no longer on board, and recent negotiations with Nicole Kidman for a small part failed to pan out, a source on the set told Screen Daily.

Charles Roven and Daniel Bobker are producing, with John D. Scofield as executive producer. Director of Photographer is Nicola Pecorini, Gabriella Pescucci is handing costume design and Guy Hendrix Dyas serves as production designer. Prague-based upstart production service company Reforma Films is overseeing services for the shoot, which is based at Prague's Barrandov studio complex, together with Etic.

LidRock is a mini enhanced CD which contains two tracks from Farris' album which will be given out free to over 3 million consumers affixed to the lids of the fountain drinks purchased when attending Regal Cinemas, United Artists Theatres, Edwards Theatres and select Hoyts Cinemas during the peak movie going month of July.

From the CD-ROM, consumers can also enter a chance to win VIP trips to Universal Theme Parks and to the Hollywood premiere of "Stuck On You" starring Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear, scheduled for a December release by 20th Century Fox.

A photo of Farris covers the CD label but her multimedia content shares space with commercial clips of "Stuck on You," a comedy starring Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear, and Universal Studios' theme park rides.

Heir 'Bourne': Greengrass at sequel's helm
British helmer Paul Greengrass, who wrote and directed the critically lauded "Bloody Sunday," is in negotiations to direct Universal Pictures' "The Bourne Supremacy," the sequel to the 2002 film "The Bourne Identity." Production is expected to begin at year's end. Tony Gilroy adapted the sequel, which is inspired by Robert Ludlum's second novel in the "Bourne" series. Gilroy also adapted the first installment. Matt Damon will reprise his role as Jason Bourne, a man on a search to find out his real identity as he evades the CIA and assassins. This time, the story centers on a Chinese vice premier supposedly slain by Bourne. Frank Marshall, Paul Sandburg and Patrick Crowley are producing the film. Universal executives Ally Brecker-Shearmur and Matt Jackson are overseeing the project. Greengrass, repped by CAA, directed such films as "The Theory of Flight" and "Resurrected." (Zorianna Kit)

You're a young movie director in a torn T-shirt, scruffy sideburns, and rectangular glasses. You enter the ''Project Greenlight'' filmmaking contest, and one evening, home from your day job, MattandBen call on speakerphone to tell you you're a finalist.

Amid classic Damon-Affleck banter, the pair asks you to join them at the Sundance Film Festival, where ''Project Greenlight'' sponsor Miramax Films has taken a massive mountain lodge. Days later, by a fireplace the size of a multiplex marquee, with Matt puffing and Ben preening, you detail your passions and dreams to a rapt Miramax posse. And in the corner of your eye: Isn't that J.Lo sneaking downstairs for a snack? Without makeup?

You're in heaven, OK? But only for the briefest of moments. Because the day after you are named a winner, in front of a packed Sundance audience, you will begin to suffer from tension and confusion. You will begin to feel Mira-maximum insecurity.

In its second season, ''Greenlight'' has been improved in a few important ways -- and not just because MattandBen are more prominent, or because Miramax kingpin Harvey Weinstein appears in a cameo, although these insider bits are always amusing. The contest now selects a director and a screenwriter, instead of a single director-screenwriter, and so there are more characters and conflicts. Inevitably, the separation of writing and directing duties creates more of a personnel spark -- or a lack of spark, which has its own weird undynamic dynamic.

Also, this season's winning script is more promising than last season's ''Stolen Summer.'' It makes all the backstage battles seem more worthwhile.

The Matt and Ben interview itself was really good (and really long) so I've taken the liberty of breaking it down into bite-sized chunks for you...

As you may or may not have known, we auctioned off a chance to take part in this interview on Ebay, with the proceeds going to Kidd's Kids. A couple ended up claiming that prize with a bid for over a thousand dollars, and they decided to let their 11-year-old son Townsend have the honor. His first question was, "At what age did you both start acting?" and while he probably could have just looked that up, we won't hold it against him. Ben and Matt's answers, for the terminally curious, were 8 and 12, respectively. (Ben said he actually qualifies for Actor's Guild pension in a year or two, and joked that he's thinking about retirement.)

Townsend's next question was something along the lines of, "What advice do you have for me as I'm getting into showbiz?" Amazingly enough, Ben, Matt and Chris Moore (the producer of "Project: Greenlight") all answered with the same thing... "Just stick with it." The "amazing" comment was sarcastic simply because that's the advice most given to anyone who asks a question like that.

Kellie tried to violently steer the interview in whatever direction she wanted it to go a couple of times, the first being when she abruptly brought up their TV show, "Project: Greenlight." (In case you've never seen it, this is the show where people submit movie scripts and then one is chosen to be made into a movie while documentary cameras film the entire thing) Ben and Matt then went into some detail about how they put their heads together to pick a script, and how this year they're going to have the writer and director be two people instead of one guy like they had last year.

The other time Kellie tried to shove the interview in a specific direction was when Townsend was all set to ask another question. "Ask Chris Moore a question this time," she insisted. Luckily Kidd jumped in and reminded her that his family paid a lot of money for him to ask whatever questions he wanted to whomever he wanted, and so the boy asked Ben and Matt who their favorite actors and actresses to work with were. Both of them said that their favorite actors were each other, and both of them said that their favorite actress was Jennifer Lopez. "I think if you mention J-Lo's name we're supposed to hang up on you," Kidd said, referencing the similar threats that Ben's people have been throwing at us all week long.

Couple more tidbits...
Matt Damon is set to start shooting "Ocean's Twelve," the sequel to "Ocean's Eleven," very shortly.

``Project Greenlight'' is irresistible and riveting as it sheds light on how a movie gets made. Inevitably, the movie is only a smidgen of the story. The creative work fades behind all the creative backbiting and maneuvering.

Last season, however, Affleck and Damon's involvement in ``Project Greenlight'' faded next to the bad-guy role played by their business partner, producer Chris Moore. Moore turned into the heavy, putting up more red lights than green, as he threw his weight around, hiring and firing.

This season, Moore has even more heft in the series. He looks like he's put on a few pounds. And he's no kinder or gentler.

Executive producers Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are out to sully the fantasies of aspiring filmmakers everywhere with a second season of everyone's favorite film-set soap opera. The trauma of making a low-budget indie will be more evenly distributed this go-around: Instead of naming just one writer-director winner, as in the first-year competition, the second contest yields a winning team of two directors (Kyle Rankin and Efram Potelle) and one screenwriter (Erica Beeney). According to Damon, ''this year [there] will be more creative debate between the writer and director'' than in the original ''Greenlight'' (i.e. more bitter power struggles and pretentious conversations about creative vision). HBO also promises there will be a ''new twist'' on last year's premise. Could it be that the resulting feature film, ''The Battle of Shaker Heights,'' will be watchable? -- Liane Bonin

Finally, the native New Yorker recently finished filming his first movie, "Stuck on You,'' a Farrelly brothers flick starring Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear, who play conjoined twins. Valentine plays the obsessed ex-boyfriend of Damon's character's girlfriend and picks a fight with the twins, not knowing they are attached. The movie opens in December.

Be part of a phone interview with one of Hollywood's most dynamic duos, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. On Thursday, June 19, 2003, Matt will be calling the morning show from Prague and Ben from L.A., and they will both be talking to Kidd Kraddick In The Morning. If you live in the DFW area you will have the opportunity to be in studio with the morning show during the phone interview. The question is, will you be there jumping in with your own questions? All proceeds from this item go to Kidd's Kids, a 501 (c) (3) organization that takes children with special medical needs to Walt Disney World in Florida. For more information visit www.kiddskids.com.

Lena Headey, Peter Stormare and Jonathan Pryce have joined the cast of The Brothers Grimm, a supernatural film centered on the fairy-tale authors, Variety reported. Headey (Possession), Stormare (Minority Report) and Pryce (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl) join previously announced leads Matt Damon and Heath Ledger in director Terry Gilliam's film, which starts shooting June 30 in Prague.

Ehren Kruger (The Ring) wrote the script, an action-adventure fantasy in which the brothers battle a real magical curse after a history of trading in hoaxes. Richard Ridings and Mackenzie Cook co-star, the trade paper reported.

This isn't the first movie Mendes has worked on with some sexy leading men--in fact she's gotten pretty lucky so far. She confesses who she's liked the most up to now: "Has to be Matt Damon, who I'm working with right now on the Farrelly brothers' Stuck on You. I'm also obsessed with Ewan McGregor."

Mendes admits she's stuck on Damon.
"Matt is one of the most incredible people I've met in the industry. He has such a warm heart and he is completely unaffected by the business.
"There is a true innocence to him you don't find very often in Hollywood."

HL: Right now I'm about to work with one of my favourite directors, Terry Gilliam.
PC: What's the movie that you're working with Gilliam on?
HL: The Brothers Grimm, you know, the guys that wrote all the fairy tales.
PC: What's your role?
HL: One of the brothers.
PC: Has the other brother been cast?
HL: Matt Damon, and Robin Williams will be playing Trivedi.
PC: Matt Damon, he's a good guy.
HL: He is fantastic, a lovely, lovely guy.
PC: He is such a charming and unaffected individual.
HL: Smart guy, too.
PC: When do you go into production on The Brothers Grimm?
HL: Late May, early June.

Was Matt Unfaithful?
Hogwash! That's what sources say to rumors that appeared in the tabloids alleging that Matt Damon, 32, got too friendly with local ladies while filming Stuck on You in Miami recently. One source described Odessa Whitmire's man as a "good boy."