It seems like forever since we last experienced the unique thrill ride that is a Paul Greengrass movie - ok, it's only two years but we're still happy to report that (a) Green Zone is close to completion and (b) Bourne 4 is still very much on the cards.
Although he'd give us only a 'yes' to the question of whether Bourne 4 was still on his agenda, the director was more fulsome on Green Zone. "It's almost done. It’s a thriller, it’s got a lot of action, and I made it about something I feel very passionate about," he said of the post- Iraq-war thriller, which sees Matt Damon's WMD-hunting chief warrant officer Miller make powerful enemies within the US-run administration.
Greengrass said that the source material, Washington Post reporter Rajiv Chandresekaran's Imperial Life In The Emerald City, provided colour rather than narrative drive to the movie. "It gave us a very powerful sense of time and place, of Baghdad at that time, but it’s not an adaptation in that sense."
Fellow Green Zoner and Empire favourite Jason Isaacs was also in attendance at the Jameson Empire Awards, minus the sinister 'tache that went down a storm at last year's event. "That was for my character, and I’m absolutely delighted to say goodbye to it" he said. Isaacs plays Major Briggs, a special forces officer who he describes as being prepared to "do what’s necessary to get the job done".
So what can we expect from the final edit? “I haven’t seen the final cut. Paul makes films like nobody else - it's not just true of his process and preparation, but also how he shoots it and how he edits it. So I don’t know what the final thing will look like, but I know it was as exciting to make as his films are to watch and I can’t wait to see it." And so say all of us.