Paul Greengrass
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Paul Greengrass (b. August 13, 1955 in Cheam, Surrey) is an English writer and film director. He specialises in dramatisations of real-life events and is known for his signature use of hand-held cameras. He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge University.
He first worked as a director in the 1980s, for the ITV current affairs programme World in Action. At the same time he co-authored the notorious book Spycatcher with Peter Wright, former assistant director of MI5, which contained enough sensitive information that the British Government attempted (unsuccessfully) to ban it. He then moved into drama, directing made-for-television films such as The One That Got Away, based on Chris Ryan's book about SAS actions in the Gulf War, and The Fix, a fictional story of corruption in football.
His 1998 film The Theory of Flight starred Kenneth Branagh and Helena Bonham Carter, who played a woman with motor neurone disease. The film dealt with the difficult issue of the sexuality of people with disabilities.
The Murder of Stephen Lawrence (1999) told the story of Stephen Lawrence, a black youth whose murder was not properly investigated by the Metropolitan Police, and led to revelations about institutional racism in the police. Bloody Sunday (2002), depicted the 1972 Bloody Sunday shootings of Northern Irish anti-internment activists by British soldiers; it shared First Prize at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival with Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away. Another film, Omagh, depicted of the 1998 bombing of Omagh.
Greengrass has also directed purely fictional films; The Bourne Supremacy starred Matt Damon as literary hero Jason Bourne, an amnesiac who realizes he was once a top CIA assassin, now being pursued by his former employers. Greengrass is also set to direct the film's sequel The Bourne Ultimatum due for release in 2007.
As of 2005, Greengrass was tipped to direct They Marched Into Sunlight, another fact-based film, this time revolving around the controversy surrounding the Vietnam conflict. Greengrass was also attached to direct the screen version of Watchmen in 2005 discussing his approach in a number of interviews but the production was shut down a few weeks before filming was due to start.
His film United 93, based on the September 11th hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93, was released in the United States on April 28, 2006.
