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Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon have a great working relationship after working on three films in theBournefranchise. After their success withThe Bourne SupremacyandThe Bourne Ultimatum, Greengrass intended to utilize their Bourne fame to make an action thriller based on the 2003 invasion of Iraq.Green Zonewas a film that Greengrass made out of rage, after being betrayed by the government.
While Damon opposed the Iraq war right from the beginning, Greengrass was initially a supporter of the war. He shared that he listened to former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s speech and believed the cause to be right. However, Greengrass realized along with others that the war was not what it seemed to be.
Paul Greengrass’s $100 Million Film With Matt Damon Was A Response To The Government’s Betrayal
Paul Greengrassmade the 2010 action thriller filmGreen Zonebased on Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s account of the 2003 Iraq invasion in his bookImperial Life in the Emerald City.He cast Matt Damon in the lead rolein the film as a US Army Chief Warrant Officer and leader of the team assigned to search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
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The film explores how Damon’s character Roy Miller uncovers the truth behind the mission after he finds that his intel is inaccurate. During an old interview with The Guardian, Greengrass opened up about his war-based film. Greengrass shared that he intended to bring the audience of theBournefilms toGreen Zoneby castingMatt Damonin the lead role.
Damon in real life was against the war, but Greengrass had a different stance initially. He shared with the outlet that while he did not like going to war, Tony Blair had convinced him of the UK government’s reasoning to invade Iraq. He shared withThe Guardian:
I didn’t like going to war. It was obviously deeply uncomfortable and problematic, but I remember when that big march happened [London, February 2003], I said I wasn’t going on it because I’d listened to Tony Blair and, in the end, I believed him. He obviously knows stuff that we don’t know, I thought. Well, how wrong was I?
Greengrass felt betrayed by the government’s decision. Reports later emerged that the former PM had disregarded warnings of risk in his decision-making process. While he did not accept all the criticisms ofhis actions, Blair later expressed“more sorrow, regret, and apology than you can ever believe”(via The Guardian).
Paul Greengrass’Green ZoneHelped Him Express His Rage
Paul Greengrass shared that he dived into a fact-finding mission to uncover the realities, during which he came across Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s book. He wrote a fiction that closely followed reality as written by Chandrasekaran. Greengrass had a lot to unburden in the film and even made a dossier titled,How Did We Get It So Wrong?.
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Greengrass wanted to make a“small, austere” film at first, but he decided to scale it up to the level of hisBournefilms to take his message across to the younger audiences. Greengrass added that he had to express his sense of affront and anger through the film. He shared with The Guardian:
Most of all – this is the core of it really – it was a film made out of my sense of affront and anger. I wanted to say, ‘I know what you did.’ And that statement has immeasurably more power if it’s made to a broad audience in the vernacular of popular genre cinema.
BothDamon and Greengrass had exited theBournefranchiseat the time, although they returned to the franchise forJason Bourne.Green Zonewas a box office bomb as it made only $94 million on a budget of $100 million (via Box Office Mojo).
Green Zoneis now available for rent on AppleTV.
Hashim Asraff
Senior Writer
Articles Published :3018
Hashim Asraff is a Senior Entertainment Writer at FandomWire, with over 2,800 articles published on celebrity culture, comic book movies, and major TV franchises. With a background in Sociology and a keen interest in pop culture, Hashim brings a unique lens to breaking news stories, character deep-dives, film rankings, and fan-driven perspectives.His coverage often includes the MCU, DCU, hit network shows, and celebrity profiles, giving readers a rich blend of entertainment and analysis. A longtime fan of crime and investigative series, Hashim has watched thousands of episodes of NCIS, Criminal Minds, Law & Order: SVU, Bones, Blue Bloods, and The RookieA passionate storyteller and wordsmith, Hashim has also worked as a ghostwriter and managed multiple social media handles. He brought his writing expertise to FandomWire to also pursue his lifelong love for cinema and television.
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