Ladies and gentlemen, we suspect that this may be the best news you'll hear all day (unless you're getting married / having a baby / winning the lottery, in which case fair enough). Paul Greengrass, one of the best directors in the world today, and Matt Damon, consistently underrated star and one of the best actors around, are set to collaborate for a third glorious time on Imperial Life In the Emerald City, Greengrass' Iraq-war based drama.
The story is based on Rajiv Chandrasekaran's non-fiction account of life in Baghdad's "Green Zone", the area of the city populated by Westerners charged with making Halliburton a profi- sorry, with rebuilding the infrastructure of Iraq and bringing stability to the country. Damon will be playing a composite character incorporating elements of several real people in the book.
This will be the third time that Damon and Greengrass have worked together, following the two Bourne sequels (the latter due out in August), and apparently talks are currently being finalised with only scheduling issues left to work out.
It seems like a good fit for both - while Greengrass' fiery world views are pretty well known, Damon's quietly been building up a body of politically slanted films, with Syriana, The Good Shepherd and **Team America **(OK, not the latter). Fingers crossed that everyone involved can make their timetables work, because this is one bit of casting we want to see.