Adiel Stein and Mike Weinberg with Pete Jones in the infamous El scene, which elicited rage from Chris Moore.

As Pete Jones, the director of Stolen Summer, made his way past a phalanx of press at the Chicago Theater for his film’s gala opening March 12, the television reporters and photographers called out his name. A year ago the native of Deerfield who now lives in Los Angeles would have walked State Street unrecognized. Now his face is known by the more than 10 million people who watched HBO’s documentary series "Project Greenlight."

"What documentary?" said Jones when asked about the HBO show. "Oh, that reality show. What they really did well is that they showed how difficult it is to make a movie but it definitely took liberties with the drama. I think it actually inverted the failure to success ratio."

Jones was the successful winner of the Project Greenlight screenwriting competition, which offered a grand prize of a $1 million budget to produce a movie that would be released in theaters by Miramax Films. His script won out over 7,291 others submitted by aspiring screenwriters who joined an Internet community (www.projectgreenlight.com) launched by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and their partner Chris Moore.

"The goal of the thing was to give someone outside the gates of Hollywood a chance to make a movie," said Keith Quinn, vice president of marketing for LivePlanet (the integrated media entertainment company Affleck, Damon and Moore formed with Sean Bailey).

Stolen Summer is the story of a young Irish Catholic boy named Pete who befriends a Jewish boy with leukemia. The film about family and faith sees Pete try to help his friend get into heaven. During shooting in Chicago last summer Jones and his cast and crew became stars of a 13-part documentary series chronicling the contest and the filmmaking process.

Viewers saw a dramatic series that emphasized budget battles, casting crises, back-stabbing among producers and the problems Jones faced in trying to get the film made on time and on budget.

"A lot of people are going to see this movie that they would have never seen it if it weren’t for the HBO show, so for me to rip on it is just not the right thing to do because it gave me the chance," Jones said.

He’d rather talk up the movie. "I think it’s going to show Chicagoans as Chicagoans," he said. "It’s a south side story. It’s real characters. It’s not this glossy Hollywood vision of how families are. It’s how my family was growing up in Chicago. I think people are going to relate to it when they watch it."

Aidan Quinn and Bonnie Hunt laughing on the set of Stolen Summer.

Aidan Quinn and Bonnie Hunt star in the film. While both actors said the HBO show was great publicity, they wondered why all the good times ended up on the cutting room floor.

"I think it was more of a reality TV show than a documentary," Hunt said. "It showed stuff that actually happened but there were a lot of great, really wonderful cooperative days as well."

"We had so much fun making this film it’s ridiculous," Quinn agreed. "That’s one of the reasons you don’t see me and Bonnie and Kevin too much in it because we were too busy laughing and I guess it didn’t fit into the formula; they were looking for conflict."

Those who watched the series will remember seeing Quinn demanding casting approval or making his opinions known to a crew he obviously felt was inexperienced. Asked how he felt about the way he was portrayed, he shrugged and said, "They cast me and decided how to portray me before they even started filming."

Stolen Summer producer Jeff Balis got the worst of it though. He was shown being fired by Moore in one episode (although he earned a reprieve). "I was definitely the fall guy," he said. "Everything that happened really happened, but the editing was a little creative. Now that I have a little distance from it, I’m fine with it.

"We knew it wasn’t going to be a fluff piece and it was going to be warts and all. It turned out to be warts and warts but it made good television."

The documentary showed things that were emblematic of the greater process, said LivePlanet’s Quinn. "When we dreamed up the concept we knew that every movie set has its share of intrigue and drama and stress and good times." The HBO series doesn’t purport to be a complete recording of history but "it’s a fantastically entertaining television show," he said.

Adiel Stein and Mike Weinberg in the beach scene-climactic for both the movie and the documentary.

Even Jones agreed that it was fun to watch. "It made really good TV. I’m watching the HBO show and saying 'This is good, not the way I remember, but this is good.’ "

Live Planet is considering hosting a second Project Greenlight contest, Kevin Quinn said. "We’d love to do it again. We’re trying to figure out how to make that work with Miramax and HBO."

Jones is ineligible from any future Project Greenlight projects but that hasn’t stopped him from working. "I’m finishing up a script right now. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it with Miramax," he said. One thing he knows for sure is that next time around there won’t be any cameras recording the up and down drama of life on a movie set.

Miramax released Stolen Summer nationwide on March 22.