Paul Greengrass

[MacGuffin]

Greengrass lines up Iraq movie
'Imperial Life' will be produced by Working Title
Source: Variety

LONDON — "United 93" helmer Paul Greengrass is set to write and direct a movie about the aftermath of the Iraq invasion, based on Rajiv Chandrasekaran's book "Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone."

Like "United 93," the pic will be produced by Lloyd Levin, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner for Working Title Films, and distributed by Universal Pictures.

Greengrass will start work on the project after he finishes "Bourne Ultimatum" for U, which is currently in post.

Chandrasekaran's book, drawn from his own experiences as Baghdad bureau chief of the Washington Post, deals with the chaotic attempts of the Americans to set up a provisional government in the area around Saddam's palace.

Greengrass is again working closely with "United 93" researchers Kate Solomon and Michael Bronner to mould this material into a narrative. Shooting is scheduled for later this year.

According to insiders, pic will be "more scripted" in advance than "United 93," whose screenplay evolved from Greengrass's treatment during the production process.

Greengrass is on the record as scathingly critical of what he sees as America's blunders in Iraq, describing the invasion as "the most calamitous decision of our generation."

[MacGuffin]

Damon, Greengrass re-teaming
Film based on Chandrasekaran's book
Source: Variety

Matt Damon is looking to reteam with Paul Greengrass on an adaptation of "Imperial Life in the Emerald City" for Universal.

Damon, who worked with Greengrass on the second and third installments of the "Bourne" franchise, would play a composite character based on figures in Washington Post scribe Rajiv Chandrasekaran's tome about chaos in Iraq. Endeavor is finalizing negotiations, now down to scheduling issues.

Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are producing for Working Title.

Besides "The Bourne Ultimatum," an August release for U, Damon appears in "Ocean's Thirteen" for Warners. He also has a small role in "Youth Without Youth," Francis Ford Coppola's WWII romance for Sony Classics set for release in December.

Greengrass helmed "United 93" for the studio last year.

[MacGuffin]

Universal Plan A Fourth Bourne Movie
With Greengrass and Damon on board
Source: Empire Online

When Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon were doing the publicity rounds for The Bourne Ultimatum last year, they seemed pretty certain that the wildly successful thriller (now the winner of three Oscars – techie ones, maybe, but Oscars nonetheless) would be the last outing for the amnesiac assassin.

But there was a caveat to that – Damon said he would consider doing one if Greengrass did it; and Greengrass said that he would consider doing another one if Damon did it.

And now it looks like that may be the case, after Universal rather casually and sneakily announced plans for a fourth Bourne movie, with the director and star on board.

The announcement is tucked away in an article about Universal and its upcoming slate on Variety. 'More recently, [Universal's chairman, Marc] Shmuger and [co-chairman, David] Linde landed Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon for a fourth "Bourne" movie, even though the director and star seemed ready to wrap it up after three pics,' reads the sentence in question. And after that, nothing. No more news, or any indication of where a fourth Bourne might take us – or, crucially, when.

At the moment, Damon and Greengrass – rapidly becoming one of the best actor-director teams around – are hard at work on their Universal-backed Iraq-set thriller, The Green Zone. After that, Damon starts work on Steven Soderbergh's The Informant, while Greengrass has several things pencilled into his diary, too, including They Marched Into Sunlight.

So, it's entirely possible that Bourne 4 might not even begin pre-production until 2009 or 2010 at the earliest. But that's still not too early to get excited.

Or should we? After all, the Bourne trilogy is one of the best Hollywood franchises in a long while, and the two Greengrass entries in particular (Supremacy and Ultimatum) pretty much single-handedly revitalised the mainstream thriller. Do we want the dream team to risk sullying their legacy by making a fourth, or are we keen to see Jason Bourne run for his life yet again?

[MacGuffin]

Paul Greengrass goes on a 'Fantastic Voyage'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Paul Greengrass, coming off the Iraq War thriller "Green Zone," is moving into more commercial territory by going on a "Fantastic Voyage."

The director is in talks to direct Fox's long-gestating remake of the 1966 sci-fi thriller which is being produced by James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment

The original "Voyage," made during the Cold War, revolved around a team of scientists who are shrunk to atomic size and sent on a miniature submarine to save the life of a defecting Soviet scientist. The story then followed the biological adventures the team encounters in trying to save the scientist and themselves.

The new take hews closely to the original, minus the Cold War element, and will add snazzy up-to-date special effects and be delivered with the medium du jour, 3D.

The project has seen many directors flirt with it, including Roland Emmerich and Tarsem Singh in recent years.

CAA-repped Greengrass is known for his kinetic action movies that also effectively bring out dramatic and political elements, as exemplified in his "Bourne" films and "United 93." "Zone" was initially seen as a project to perfectly mesh those skills but the $100 million movie has only grossed $31 million, with some blaming the movie's Iraq war-setting as the cause of the poor performance.

[MacGuffin]

Forest Whitaker in Talks to Play Martin Luther King Jr. in Paul Greengrass' 'Memphis' (Exclusive)
Source: TheWrap

With a long awards season on the horizon, Oscar winner Forest Whitaker may be adding another prestige project to his plate, as he's in talks to play Martin Luther King Jr. in writer-director Paul Greengrass' drama "Memphis," an individual familiar with the long-gestating project has told TheWrap.

Now that Abu Dhabi-based Veritas Films and French financier Wild Bunch have agreed to back Greengrass' passion project, it looks like it will be the filmmaker's next movie. An individual familiar with "Memphis" tells TheWrap that Greengrass intends to shoot the movie in a "docu-style" manner similar to how he filmed "United 93."

"Memphis" was originally set up at Universal with Scott Rudin producing, but the project never came together due to several factors including financing and scheduling. Greengrass and Rudin moved on to Sony's Somali pirate drama "Captain Phillips" before they decided to make "Memphis" as an indie movie.

Story follows Dr. King's final days as he struggles to balance his personal life and the civil rights movement while he organizes what ends up being his last protest march in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was assassinated by James Earl Ray. Simultaneously, the FBI, which had been wiretapping King before his death, leads an intense manhunt for his killer.

King's family is developing their own project at DreamWorks and along with his close confidante Andrew Young, they have objected to Greengrass' intended warts-and-all portrayal of King.

Script finds Dr. King depressed about the state of both his marriage and that of war-ravaged and socially-divided America, as well the fear of being marginalized by a new generation of younger black leaders.

Whitaker, who won an Oscar for "The Last King of Scotland," next stars in Lee Daniels' drama "The Butler," which the Weinstein Company will release on August 16. TWC is also behind the Whitaker-produced "Fruitvale Station," which has earned rave reviews at both Sundance and Cannes in advance of its July 12 opening. He also co-stars alongside Christian Bale and Casey Affleck in Scott Cooper's gritty drama "Out of the Furnace," which Relativity will debut on October 4.

[MacGuffin]

BREAKING: Matt Damon In Negotiations To Return As Jason Bourne
Source: Twitch

Is Jason Bourne making a comeback on the big screen? Universal is working hard to make it happen, with Twitch learning that the studio is in simultaneous negotiations with both Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass for both to return to the Bourne franchise. We're told Damon is only interested if Greengrass is directing so there are clearly a lot of moving parts here but if all comes together we could be seeing the return of the director and star of one of the strongest American action franchises of recent years.

And what, praytell, does this mean for Jeremy Renner and his Aaron Cross character? It's not an either / or scenario between Renner and Bourne with Universal planning to continue with the Aaron Cross stream of Bourne films regardless of what happens on the Damon front, with potential crossover / merger of the character's stories to be sorted out if and when Damon signs back up.

[Gold Trumpet]

Win-win for Damon. He can get a big hit and look like he isn't dying for the money because he refused to continue the role unless Greengrass was helming. I have no idea what Greengrass really brought to the series since I think the first is better than the second and close to the quality of the third, but the idea of Jason Bourne is a television series idea anyways. It was going to stay mildly interesting as long as Bourne remained amnesiac. Now he knows his history and can retrace the steps so the series has to imagine Jason Bourne beyond the basic set up. That's going to be hard considering every cliche pitfall it's going to have to avoid.

[MacGuffin]

Paul Greengrass, Scott Rudin Re-Team For Al Qaeda Thriller 'Agent Storm'
BY MIKE FLEMING JR | Deadline
   
Sony Pictures has acquired the hot-button book Agent Storm: My Life Inside Al Qaeda, and it will reunite Best Picture nominees Paul Greengrass and Scott Rudin, who last made Captain Phillips together. Greengrass will develop to direct. The book, by Morten Storm, Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister, hits U.S stores in September.

The tale follows a former Islamic radical (Storm) as he became a double agent for the CIA and British and Danish intelligence. Greengrass and Rudin also are teamed on Memphis, the superb story of Martin Luther King's final march, his murder, and the manhunt waged by the federal agents who dogged Dr. King's every step on behalf of J. Edger Hoover. CAA reps Greengrass.