Release date: Spring 2010
The cast: Matt Damon, Brendan Gleeson, Greg Kinnear, Amy Ryan.
The pitch: It’s 2003. The US has successfully occupied Baghdad, and soldier Roy Miller (Matt Damon) is assigned to help seek out weapons of mass destruction hidden in Iraqi stockpiles. Only he finds out much more than his government handlers want him to…
The buzz: Based loosely on Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s non-fiction book about reconstructing Iraq, “Imperial Life in the Emerald City,” Paul Greengrass’ follow-up to The Bourne Ultimatum has been a long time in the making. Filming took a year from start to finish, and the finished result is hotly anticipated, not least because on the evidence of this trailer, it’s essentially Bourne 4: The Iraq Years.
Reasons this could be good: The combination of Greengrass’s trademark shaky camerawork and Damon’s no-nonsense action persona worked to thrilling effect in the latter Bourne movies, and there’s nothing here to suggest it won’t do the same in Green Zone. The trailer throws in enough Bourne-esque teasers – close-impact fist-fights, frantic mobile conversations, heart-racing car chases – to satisfy the action fans, and enough intrigue and nods to contemporary issues to convince as a political thriller. Excellent supporting cast, too.
Reasons this could be bad: By the looks of things, this film is only tangentially related to Chandrasekaran’s book, an in-depth look at the administrative cock-ups of the post-conflict era. While some might think this is a good thing, you have to wonder if the WMD-based plot might be a tad more relevant if the guys responsible were still in power and not thoroughly disgraced already. Hindsight is a marvellous thing, but doesn’t this already feel a bit 2006? Also, the trailer not only appears to give a lot of the plot away, but seems almost too similar to Bourne. So much for Greengrass and Damon moving in a different direction…
We think: “I came here to find weapons and save lives” … and kick ass. Greengrass mastered taut political drama in Bloody Sunday and United 93, and hardcore action in the Bourne movies. Here, at last, is the merging of the two. The British director doesn’t need to change direction – just keep on making great movies. Despite the long gestation period, there’s no reason to suspect Green Zone won’t be one of them.
Music: That’s Alice by Moby over the background, presumably chosen to remind you of the bald singer’s Bourne soundtrack work.
Did you spot?: Jason Isaacs – because I didn’t, and he’s supposed to play a key role in this. Maybe the trailer doesn’t give as much away as I thought…
The odds of you seeing it: Like Christopher Nolan, Greengrass is one of the few directors putting out high quality mainstream cinema which both audiences and critics love. We think you’ll be seeing it the first weekend it comes out.
