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Damon Prepared To Take on 'Bourne' Identity Again
18 October 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Matt Damon indicated Wednesday that he would make another Bourne sequel if only to express his gratitude. In an interview in Tokyo with the French news agency Agence France Presse, Damon said, "Personally, the character means a lot to me because the character has done so much for my career. You know, it put me in the position where I have a lot more choices of kind of movies I want to make." He said that if director Paul Greengrass asked him to take on the character again, "then I would do it, too. ... I don't think either of us completely put the character to bed yet."

Movie Reviews: 'The Bourne Ultimatum'
3 August 2007 (StudioBriefing)
British director Paul Greengrass (United 93, The Bourne Supremacy) continues to impress critics, this time with The Bourne Ultimatum, starring Matt Damon. "Greengrass brings a degree of honesty to a completely implausible fantasy that's remarkable," writes Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times. "Mr. Greengrass shatters movie space like glass," says Manohla Dargis in the New York Times, adding, "Mr. Greengrass knows how to do his job, and there's no one in Hollywood right now who does action better." Comments Claudia Puig in USA Today: "Let's just say it now: Paul Greengrass should direct every action thriller. The world of movies would be better for it." And Lou Lumenick in the New York Post, while calling the film, "far and away this summer's best three-peat," remarks that Greengrass "knows how to stage and edit bravura action sequences, generating almost unbearable suspense while deploying a superb cast." But Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post comments that the film makes no sense, is "frenetic to the point of crazy while achieving a mark that barely exceeds the mediocre," and that Greenglass's style is "sorely overused nere, never settling down to give us poor protoplasm sacks a chance to rest." And Jan Stuart in Newsday, while writing a mostly favorable review, concludes, "I'm definitely swearing off bologna before the next Paul Greengrass movie."

Awards, Awards, Awards
12 February 2007 (StudioBriefing)
In the latest awards ceremonies prior to the Oscars, the Orange British Academy Film Awards (the BAFTAs) crowned The Queen best film of the year and its star, Helen Mirren, best actress. Forest Whitaker won the best actor trophy for his portrayal of Uganda's Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. British director Paul Greengrass took the director prize for United 93. Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America agreed with most critics groups as it presented its top screenplay honors Sunday to Michael Arndt for Little Miss Sunshine in the original category and to William Monahan for The Departed in the adapted category. The decision lifts each film into frontrunner position for this year's Oscars competition. Finally, Pixar's Cars sped away with the top prize Sunday at the annual Annies animation awards.

'United 93' Named Best Film in U.K. Critics Poll
5 February 2007 (StudioBriefing)
U.K. film critics selected British director Paul Greengrass's United 93 as the best film of 2006 at Sunday's 34th annual Evening Standard British Film Awards. Daniel Craig received the best actor prize for his role as the new James Bond in Casino Royale, while Dame Judi Dench won the best actress award for her performance in Notes on a Scandal (beating out Oscar favorite Helen Mirren, who was up for The Queen). Sacha Baron Cohen won the Peter Sellers Award for comedy for Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Peter Morgan picked up the Best Screenplay award for two films, The Queen and The Last King of Scotland.

Bond Star Craig Picks Up Best Actor Award
5 February 2007 (WENN)
James Bond star Daniel Craig picked up best actor for Casino Royale at last night's 34th annual Evening Standard British Film Awards - but Dame Helen Mirren lost out on the best actress award. Mirren, who is an overwhelming favorite to pick up the Best Actress Oscar for The Queen at this month's US ceremony, lost out to Dame Judi Dench for her performance as a manipulative schoolteacher in Notes On A Scandal. The best actor prize for Craig is his first award honoring his portrayal of the British superspy, which was both a critical and box office favorite. Paul Greengrass' harrowing 9/11 drama United 93 picked up the best film prize, while Peter Morgan won the best screenplay award for his two scripts - The Queen and The Last King Of Scotland. The Queen and My Beautiful Laundrette director Stephen Frears received a special award "for making British film reverberate around the world." The Evening Standard awards are sponsored by London's afternoon newspaper and selected by a jury of film critics.

'Dreamgirls': All Bets Are Off
23 January 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Leaving many Oscar handicappers scratching their heads, Dreamgirls failed to win a nomination for best picture of the year despite garnering more nominations -- eight -- than any other film. Several film critics had suggested that the movie would be the frontrunner for this year's top Oscar. (The movie had won the Golden Globe award as best picture in the musical/comedy category last week.) Those that did win nods for the top film included Babel (which won the Golden Globe for best dramatic picture), The Departed, Letters From Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, and The Queen. Babel received six additional nominations, including one for best director for Alejandro González Iñárritu, who will compete against Martin Scorsese (The Departed), Clint Eastwood (Letters From Iwo Jima), Stephen Frears (The Queen), and Paul Greengrass (United 93). Best actor nominations went to Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond), Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson), Peter O'Toole (Venus), Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness), and Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland). Actress nominees are: Penélope Cruz (Volver), Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal), Helen Mirren (The Queen), Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada), and Kate Winslet (Little Children).

Stars Bring Glitter To Awards Show in Palm Springs
8 January 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Unlike other smaller-market film festivals, the Palm Springs International Film Festival was able to attract winners of its top awards to Saturday night's presentations, including Brad Pitt, who flew cross-country on the same day in order to be among the cast members of Babel to pick up the festival's award for Best Ensemble Performance. Also on hand were Babel director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu, who received the Director of the Year Award; Kate Winslet (Little Children), who received the Desert Palm Achievement Award for Acting; and Cate Blanchett, winner of the Career Achievement Award for her performances in Babel, Notes on a Scandal and The Good German. Meanwhile, the Spanish-language Pan's Labyrinth was named best picture Saturday by the National Society of Film Critics. Paul Greengrass received the best director award for United 93. The group's acting awards went to Helen Mirren for The Queen and Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland.

Mirren, Whitaker Win National Society of Film Critics Awards
8 January 2007 (WENN)
Dame Helen Mirren has been named Best Actress by America's National Society of Film Critics for her role in The Queen, with Forest Whitaker taking the Best Actor prize for his turn in The Last King Of Scotland. Mark Wahlberg won the Best Supporting Actor award for his role in crime drama The Departed, with Meryl Streep as Best Supporting Actress prize for two roles, as a formidable fashion editor in The Devil Wears Prada and as a singer in A Prairie Home Companion. Spanish-language film Pan's Labyrinth, telling the story of a mother and daughter who come to live in an enchanted forest at the end of Spanish fascism, won the Best Picture prize at the 41st annual awards. Paul Greengrass took home the Best Director award for helming United 93, a film about passengers who rebelled against hijackers on the jet that crashed in rural Pennsylvania during the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Screenwriter Can Continue 'Bourne Identity' Lawsuit
20 December 2006 (WENN)
A screenwriter who claims he was "embezzled" out of his rights to the Matt Damon movie The Bourne Identity has been told he can resubmit his lawsuit for another review. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Bernard Fried ruled that Anthony Lazzarino can continue to pursue his claim. In 1981, Lazzarino was paid $175,000 for a deal with the no-longer-in-existence Orion Pictures. He alleges he wrote a screenplay based on Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Identity. Lazzarino said, "They embezzled me. They took my rights and converted them as though they were Ludlum's rights. My argument is based on the original contract and what it says. The other side has fabricated documents that were never a part of the original deal." However, defense lawyer Marshall Beil, representing Ludlum's agent Henry Morrison, told the New York court, "We are arguing Lazzarino has no rights because the events he said took place never happened." Directed by Doug Liman, The Bourne Identity film was a hit in 2002. It spawned the 2004 sequel The Bourne Supremacy, directed by Paul Greengrass.

Eastwood Film Wins Top Award From L.A. Film Critics
11 December 2006 (StudioBriefing)
Clint Eastwood's Letters From Iwo Jima, which presents the bloody World War II battle from a Japanese viewpoint (and is the companion film to his Flags of Our Fathers), has been named best picture of the year by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Eastwood himself, however, did not win the best director prize, which instead went to Paul Greengrass for United 93. In a surprise, the group reported a tie in the best-actor category, handing out awards to Sacha Baron Cohen for Borat and Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland. Helen Mirren won for best actress for her performance in the title role of The Queen. Meanwhile, the Boston Society of Film Critics awarded Martin Scorsese The Departed (which coincidentally is set in Boston) its best-picture prize. The Boston critics also selected Whitaker and Mirren for the actors prizes.

LA Critics Pick 'Letter from Iwo Jima'; New York Favors 'United 93'
11 December 2006 (WENN)
Is there a favorite emerging? After picking up the National Board of Review's top honor, Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima was also named Best Picture by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association on Sunday. Though the Japanese-language World War II drama nabbed the group's biggest award (and Eastwood was the runner-up for director honors), overall the LA critics favored The Queen, which took home four awards, including Best Actress for Helen Mirren and Supporting Actor for Michael Sheen, as well as screenplay and score honors; the Queen Elizabeth II drama was also the runner-up for Best Picture. The Best Actor award was a split decision, going to both Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland and, in a bit of a surprise, Sasha Baron Cohen for the hit comedy Borat. Other major awards included United 93's Paul Greengrass for Best Director, Luminita Gheorghiu for Best Supporting Actress for The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, The Lives of Others for Best Foreign Language Film, Happy Feet for Best Animated Film and An Inconvenient Truth for Best Documentary.

UPDATE: The New York Film Critics Circle voted on their awards Monday morning, giving their top honor to September 11th verite drama United 93 and Best Director to Martin Scorsese for The Departed. Racking up yet even more wins were the now-ubiquitous Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) and Helen Mirren (The Queen), taking home their third Best Actor and Actress awards thus far; The Queen was also honored with the screenplay award. Supporting awards went to former child star Jackie Earle Haley for his role as a pedophile in Little Children, and star-in-the-making Jennifer Hudson for her scene-stealing turn in Dreamgirls. Other major awards included Army of Shadows for Foreign Language Film (the 1969 Jean-Pierre Melville film received its first US release just this year), Happy Feet for Animated Film, Deliver Us from Evil for Non-Fiction Film, Pan's Labyrinth for Cinematography, and Half Nelson for Best First Film. --Mark Englehart, IMDb staff

LA Critics Pick 'Letter from Iwo Jima'
8 December 2006 (WENN)
Is there a favorite emerging? After picking up the National Board of Review's top honor, Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima was also named Best Picture by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association on Sunday. Though the Japanese-language World War II drama nabbed the group's biggest award (and Eastwood was the runner-up for director honors), overall the LA critics favored The Queen, which took home four awards, including Best Actress for Helen Mirren and Supporting Actor for Michael Sheen, as well as screenplay and score honors; the Queen Elizabeth II drama was also the runner-up for Best Picture. The Best Actor award was a split decision, going to both Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland and, in a bit of a surprise, Sasha Baron Cohen for the hit comedy Borat. Other major awards included United 93's Paul Greengrass for Best Director, Luminita Gheorghiu for Best Supporting Actress for The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, The Lives of Others for Best Foreign Language Film, Happy Feet for Best Animated Film and An Inconvenient Truth for Best Documentary. --Mark Englehart, IMDb staff

How Will 'United 93' Fly Abroad?
26 May 2006 (StudioBriefing)
The director of United 93 said that he wanted the film to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival a full month after it opened in the U.S. because it is "the greatest film festival in the world" and a place where "films that demand attention" are presented. At a news conference that included three members of the families of the victims aboard the 9/11 flight, British director Paul Greengrass observed that "cinema has many missions" beyond the mission to entertain. "There is the cinema of private passion," Greengrass continued, indicating that his was to help answer the question of why the 9/11 tragedy occurred and help prevent a similar tragedy from happening again. He said that at every interview he has been asked whether it was too soon to bring the 9/11 story to the screen. He dismissed such questions as "nonsense," noting that hardly a day has gone by over the past five years without the press itself referring to the events of that terrible day.

'United 93' To Open Tribeca Film Fest
30 March 2006 (StudioBriefing)
Robert De Niro's Tribeca Film Festival has selected Universal's United 93 as the opening-night film on April 25. The movie, written and directed by Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, The Bourne Supremacy), describes the hijacking of the United Airlines flight that crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001. Tribeca officials said that family members of those who were killed in the crash have been invited to attend the screening. The festival itself was founded in the wake of the 9/11 attacks as part of an effort to revitalize the economy of Lower Manhattan. In a statement announcing the selection of United 93 as the festival opener, co-founder Jane Rosenthal took note of the festival's original purpose when she remarked: "We are honored to showcase a film that portrays a story of bravery and sacrifice of the men and women who dedicated their lives that day aboard United Flight 93. ... 9/11 changed us, in indescribable personal ways, but also by forever altering our downtown community."

Greengrass To Helm 'Bourne Ultimatum'
15 March 2006 (WENN)
Hollywood movie-maker Paul Greengrass has signed up to direct Matt Damon in The Bourne Ultimatum - the third installment of the action franchise. Speaking at Monday night's Empire Awards in London, the director, who also helmed The Bourne Supremacy after The Bourne Identity director Doug Liman pulled out, insisted The Bourne Ultimatum will be bigger and better than its predecessors in every way. He says, "We've got a script and we're underway. It's a new story, completely different from the novel. It was written by Tony Gilroy and Tom Stoppard. It's going to have all the excitement you'd expect from a Bourne film and all the intensity you'd expect from a Bourne story. I can't wait - it's just going to be f**king fantastic. It's going to rock. That's honestly what it's going to do. What direction? We'll have a better car chase, have more exciting action, more intensity and just generally be a f**king classy film. I think Matt Damon's looking forward to it like I am. It's going to be an absolute laugh."

Tempers Run High Over U.K. Flick Bloody Sunday
17 January 2002 (StudioBriefing)
Several British journalists have arrived in Park City, Utah in hopes of landing an interview with director Paul Greengrass, the director of Bloody Sunday, which has drawn heated controversy in Britain for its portrayal of the Jan. 13, 1972 encounter between British paratroopers and Irish-Catholic civil-rights protesters in which 13 people were killed. The film has received high praise from critics who viewed it at the Sundance Film Festival this week. However, Conservative Party politicians in Britain have denounced it as Irish propaganda and have especially criticized the fact that it was partially funded by a grant from the British lottery. Nevertheless, in an interview appearing in today's (Thursday) Toronto Globe & Mail, director Greengrass remarked. "I'm not [an Irish] republican. I'm British, and I'm very proud to be British." In fact, the newspaper described the film as "moderate, balanced" and observed that it was unlikely to please extremists on either the Irish or British side. The film is due to be shown on Britain's ITV on Jan. 20.

Sheridan To Make Bloody Sunday Movie
18 December 2000 (WENN)
Award-winning Irish director Jim Sheridan is to make a multi- million dollar (pound) movie about the controversial Bloody Sunday killings in Derry, Ireland. The film about the day that the British army opened fire in Irish civilians, will be directed by Paul Greengrass and produced by Sheridan. James Nesbitt is in line for a major role in the movie. Funding for the $4.8 million movie is already in place, and filming will begin early next year. Greengrass is to hold a reception in Derry this month to discuss the movie with relatives of those killed in the massacre and to introduce them to the screenplay.