A new featurette for Paul Greengrass’ “Green Zone” starring Matt Damon has arrived. It comes via Apple, but folks like FirstShowing have pulled it down for embed.
It’s fairly intriguing stuff and yes, while, as some have said (including us), “Green Zone” does look a little like “Bourne 4” its motivations and characters seem to be in a totally different world.
While the idea of a U.S. Army officer (Damon) who goes rogue as he hunts for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq seems a little far-fetched (dude’s ass would be tarred and feathered and locked up for good), it’s still a fascinating concept. Here’s the official synopsis.
Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass re-team for their latest electrifying thriller in Green Zone, a film set in the chaotic early days of the Iraqi War when no one could be trusted and every decision could detonate unforeseen consequences. During the U.S.-led occupation of Baghdad in 2003, Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Damon) and his team of Army inspectors were dispatched to find weapons of mass destruction believed to be stockpiled in the Iraqi desert. Rocketing from one booby-trapped and treacherous site to the next, the men search for deadly chemical agents but stumble instead upon an elaborate cover-up that inverts the purpose of their mission. Spun by operatives with intersecting agendas, Miller must hunt through covert and faulty intelligence hidden on foreign soil for answers that will either clear a rogue regime or escalate a war in an unstable region. And at this blistering time and in this combustible place, he will find the most elusive weapon of all is the truth.
Greengrass seems to be pretty confident that audiences will connect with this picture and hopefully they will, but it could have more politics than many of them would like (the script sure suggests this), despite being positioned as a thriller. The picture also stars Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson, Amy Ryan, Khalid Abdalla, and Jason Isaacs and is due in theaters March 12.
While it’s seems like a dark horse, “The Hurt Locker” does have a decent chance of winning Best Picture this year at the 82nd annual Academy Awards. That ceremony takes place on March 7. Should it win, could that help out a similar action-Iraq war thriller like, “Green Zone” which comes out a week later? Probably not, but we can hope, no? “Green Zone” was shot in early 2008, let’s hope it hasn’t been marinating for too long.