Director Paul Greengrass ("United 93") to do Iraq invasion film

Greengrass lines up Iraq movie

'Imperial Life' will be produced by Working Title
By ADAM DAWTREY

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.

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http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117957772.html?categoryId=19&cs=1&nid=3078

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What he had to reveal about the way post-invasion Iraq was completely devastating, the kind of thing that would sicken any decent person.

What is particularly damning is how operations were staffed based on ideology and loyalty to the administration, not competence.

This is not the discussion I heard but gives some idea of the content of his book. See transcript below:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/08/28/DI2006082800508.html

Excerpts from the book here. Bear in mind that the James O'Beirne mentioned is married to right-wing pundit Kate O'Beirne, who comments on the administration on, for example, MSNBC without revealing her own husband's involvement in the bloody disaster that is Iraq Remember that the next time Chris Matthews or someone else dutifully trots her out.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/16/AR2006091600193_pf.html

After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.

To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration.

O'Beirne's staff posed blunt questions to some candidates about domestic politics: Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000? Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror? Two people who sought jobs with the U.S. occupation authority said they were even asked their views on Roe v. Wade .

Many of those chosen by O'Beirne's office to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq's government from April 2003 to June 2004, lacked vital skills and experience. A 24-year-old who had never worked in finance -- but had applied for a White House job -- was sent to reopen Baghdad's stock exchange. The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq's $13 billion budget, even though they didn't have a background in accounting.

Greengrass deals with hard truths in his films, without having to editorialize (See Bloody Sunday, which appears to have been at least partially derived from journalist accounts in Those Are Real Bullets.

But be careful when you read it, because it will make you want to throw things. The Iraq mess is far worse than we ever thought it was because the incompetent ideologues who were running the show turned it into a hopeless clusterfuck.

MKJ

He's very talented... and very Leftist.

Flight 93 was the most important film ever made and that anybody who saw it would have no choice but to back Bush in his insanity.

Flight 93 was the A&E film which wasn't bad but looked like a TV movie - but no comparison to United 93.

Sorry, just had to clarify.

I'm looking forward to seeing this new one. Be great if it was out in '08 in time for the elections.

United 93 makes the government look very, very bad.

passengers was horrific. MKJ

I was confused by why people think it makes the government look really bad. It certainly shows the confusion and hints at some degree of incompetence on the ground, but I thought it was fairly neutral...much more so than my opinions on the issue are.

Because it's neutral. It just presents what happened (or at least all what they know happened).

showing the (understandable) confusion of air traffic controllers really made THE GOVERNMENT look bad. I wish they had been more explicit about that.

Apart from the wackos who think there were no hijackers, it attempts to deal with all positions in a nuanced and even-handed way. I was impressed.

He's currently doing the third Bourne movie, and it should be out this summer.

Haven't seen "United 93", but I guess I've been living under a rock or something.

i hear theres a lot of "shooting" going on there

Whatever the supposed ideological content, I thought it was a savvy film, and some of the character sketches 9even and especially of the hijackers) were nuanced and smart.

Another slant on reality bull shit movie so someone else can profit off the war and murder .

Who will forget how bush got us into this attack or the sounds of all the bombing .

And that flight 93 was crap , I watched just enough to leave sick , no one knows what the hell happened on that jet except the ones who were on the jet .

Who whine of supposed liberal Hollywood - here the whining is about supposed Bush supporting Hollywood.

I don't think Greengrass and United 93 is the latter.

invaders. :)

It will be gritty, unsentimental, and very handheld camera.

Maybe you should try reading the book before you tell us what the film will be about.

Imperial Life in the Emerald City

I highly recommend it.