USA: Matt Damon takes the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq onto the big screen

Record ID: 219987

  • Title: USA: Matt Damon takes the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq onto the big screen
  • Date: 1st March 2010
  • Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 25, 2010) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) MATT DAMON, STAR OF "GREEN ZONE", SAYING: "It's a great one for an action thriller, you know. Because it is a simple question. Movies, ultimately, are trying to tell a story in two hours. Simple, strong themes are good - and this is the kind of classic thriller architecture where you have your protagonist thinking one thing, realizes things aren't what they seem and then tries to figure out what is going on. It is a very simple thing to follow, but if it is done well, it can be exciting."
  • Embargoed: 16th March 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVA1VTVU3VPB4O4283VG6QA76CSL
  • Story Text: Matt Damon premiered his latest action-thriller, "Green Zone", in New York City on Thursday (February 25), reuniting with his "Bourne Supremacy" and "Bourne Ultimatum" director Paul Greengrass to take the search for weapons of mass destruction onto the big screen.
    "It's a great story for an action thriller," Damon told Reuters at the film's world premiere at the AMC Loews Lincoln Center in Manhattan.
    "It is a question that every person at one time or another asked, 'Well, what was the deal with that?'"
    In "Green Zone", Damon stars as a U.S. Army officer who discovers covert and faulty intelligence, forcing him to go rogue as he hunts for weapons of mass destruction in an unstable region.
    "(It's) the great premise for a conspiracy thriller," the film's director/producer, Greengrass, said.
    "It gives you a character who goes there with a noble cause, who goes there because he is going to find these weapons, disarm the dictator and what he finds, of course, is a conspiracy which drives him on a great, dangerous journey."
    The film has been a long time coming, after being plagued with budgetary problems. While the factual source material was provided by Rajiv Chandrasekaran's book "Imperial Life in the Emerald City", "Green Zone" is largely fictional and follows in the action movie success of the "Bourne" franchise Damon and Greengrass collaborated on.
    However, in "Green Zone", Greengrass employed military veterans in a bid to create a level realism.
    Actor Jerry Della Salla worked as a military police officer at the controversial Abu Ghraib prison, which was plagued with allegations of torture, rape, sodomy and homicide.
    Della Salla, whose work at Abu Ghraib came after the headline-grabbing scandal, joined the U.S. Army after the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York on September 11, 2001.
    He said "Green Zone" accurately portrayed the military's occupation of Iraq.
    "I think in many ways, in researching it, because again it wasn't my mission, but in the locations and the setting and a lot of the things we did movement wise, as a team in the movie, where very very ap ra pro from what I understood being in the military. Kudos to everybody involved; it just an example of the hardwork that Matt (Damon) and Paul (Greengrass) and everybody behind the camera does, to get it right," said Della Salla said.
    The action thriller opens in U.S. theaters on Friday, March 12, 2010.
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