While the film lover in me might be happy to see Matt Damon branching out with roles that don't trade on his looks, the red-blooded girl in me is happy to see Damon back in fighting form. Empire has the first still from the Iraq drama, The Green Zone, and he's back to the Matt Damon that we all know and love.

Zone is based on the 2006 book Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Damon stars as Chief Officer Roy Miller, a soldier stationed in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein charged with the task of locating weapons of mass destruction. During the investigation, Miller begins to suspect that the WMDs may not exist, and then things really get dangerous. Amy Ryan also stars as a NYT correspondent, along with Jason Isaacs and Brendan Gleeson as fellow military men.

Studios might have a 'complicated relationship' with Iraq war films, but there is no chance that Zone is going to fall into the same trap of preaching to audiences. Damon made it pretty clear to Empire that Zone is strictly a Hollywood affair: "[We're] not trying to make a statement, particularly with a movie that costs $80 or $90 million. Hopefully this will feel like an accurate portrayal of what things were like for these guys. You can't do a polemic – you should be blogging if that's what you want to do." Maybe it's for the best, but I happen to think there is nothing wrong with mixing a little politics into your entertainment -- how about you?

Green Zone is expected to arrive in theaters in 2010.

It has been a number of months since Matt Damon was first cast in Paul Greengrass' adaptation of Rajiv Chandrasekaran's book, Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone back in June of last year. Months went by until Amy Ryan and Greg Kinnear joined the feature back in January, and then Jason Isaacs earlier this month. Now, finally, Variety reports that the last leading role has been filled by another Harry Potter co-star -- Brendan Gleeson -- who you might also recognize as Harry Potter's Mad-Eye Moody, Beowulf's Wiglaf, or New York gang member Monk McGinn -- to name a few. He'll play an American soldier.

The still untitled film, written by Brian Helgeland, centers on "the dichotomy between the Green Zone, where troops are housed, and the streets of Baghdad after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein." The feature is sure to tick off those who are already sensitive to the themes of recent Iraq dramas -- it "posits that bureaucrats are making policy decisions about the country's rebuilding even though they're in a sheltered enclave without a clear view of all that is happening." Since Baghdad itself isn't the most desirable filming location out there, the project is currently in production in Spain of all places.

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From a magical private school to the heart of the Iraq war is quite a jump. Luckily, Jason Isaacs is just the kind of versatile actor to pull it off. (If you don't believe me, take a look at the man's IMDB page -- talk about well-rounded!) Variety reports that Isaacs (aka Lucius Malfoy of Potter fame) has signed to star in Paul Greengrass' military drama, Green Zone. Isaacs will play an American officer in Iraq in the days following the fall of Saddam Hussein. Matt Damon stars as an investigator searching for weapons of mass destruction, Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) plays as a foreign correspondent from the NYT, and Greg Kinnear makes an appearance as a CIA agent.

Zone is based on the non-fiction book by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, titled Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Baghdad's Green Zone. For those of us who maybe don't watch the nightly news as much as we should, here is a little reminder: "The Green Zone, (the common name for the International Zone of Iraq), is a 10 km² (4 mile²) area in central Baghdad that was the center of the Coalition Provisional Authority and remains the center of the international presence in the city." Chandrasekaran's book highlighted the "absurdities, incompetence, and bureaucratic failings which prevented a timely transfer of power to the Iraqis and bred the growing insurgency" -- you know, just your usual fun bedtime reading.

Greengrass wrote the original script for the military thriller, but eventually L.A. Confidential scribe Brian Helgeland was brought aboard to help smooth out some of the rough edges. Green Zone started filming in Spain last month, and will then move to Morocco (the two locations have served as stand-ins for Iraq, since the production could obviously not work in the actual area). The film has yet to secure a release date, but is scheduled to arrive in theaters sometime in 2009.

Frankly I'm amazed that the announcement for a fourth Bourne movie wouldn't get a little more fanfare than buried half way down an article. In a press release in Variety, Universal announced that Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass will be returning for a new installment of the Bourne franchise. Originally, when the two were peppered with questions about a fourth film, they had the stock answer that Damon would only reprise his role if Greengrass returned to direct, and Greengrass would only return to direct if Damon was willing to star. Confused? Don't be, it was basically the PR equivalent of keeping the idea of a film on the back-burner without promising anything too specific.

Universal released the info in a release about their upcoming slate of films, and according to them both Damon and Greengrass are definitely returning to work together on the spy franchise. There are two books left in the Bourne series, so at least there would be some source material to start with. The two are currently working on the Iraq drama, The Green Zone, and Damon has already signed to star in The Informant for Steven Soderberg and is also in talks to star in The Human Factor for Clint Eastwood. Greengrass is also going to be busy with his upcoming Vietnam drama, They Marched into Sunlight. So it could be as late as 2010, before the two can even get started on making another Bourne flick, let alone get one into the theaters. However, with Bourne Ultimatum taking home three Oscars last night (three!), I imagine the fourth flick might be made a priority. For Universal's sake, I hope this one is a done deal. I can't help but think how embarrassing it must have been for MGM's Harry Sloan when his studio got a little overzealous about a certain spy franchise.

[via Empire]

I get very excited about the upturns some actors and actresses' careers take following awards season, especially when those performers end up Oscar winners. I always enjoyed reading the post-Oscar write-ups on "What's Next for ____?", though it's less of a thrill nowadays because I typically already know what is in their pipeline. For example, thanks to Variety, I now know that Amy Ryan will be co-starring in Paul Greengrass' "untitled Iraq war thriller". She joins the movie, along with Greg Kinnear, which already starred Matt Damon (who has worked with Greengrass on two Bourne films) and which reportedly began filming in Spain yesterday. While Kinnear and Damon will both play CIA agents involved in the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Ryan has been cast as a New York Times correspondent investigating the WMD investigation.

A front-runner for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (for Gone Baby Gone), Ryan has already had one heck of a year (she also appeared in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead and Dan in Real Life). In fact, I'm sure I'm not the only one to admit I'd never heard of her until 2007. But she may still not be a household name, and that should surely change following her expected win (she's also the best bet for the Golden Globe this Sunday). The supporting actress category is sometimes a bit of a joke, as it was throughout most of the 1990s (starting with Whoopi and ending with Angelina, with a Mira in the middle), but Ryan is hopefully going to be one of the few actresses that shows us how much she deserves the accolades by continuing to take respectable roles. In addition to Greengrass' film, Ryan will be co-starring in Clint Eastwood's The Changeling, which also stars Angelina (whose "What's Next ... " in 1999 included Gone in 60 Seconds and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider). By the way, for those not keeping track, after making The Changeling, Ryan will have worked with four of the ten 1990s supporting actress Oscar winners (Marisa Tomei is in Before the Devil; Juliette Binoche and Dianne Wiest are both in Dan). Perhaps Greengrass can find a part in his new film for Anna Paquin?

Unlike the film critics in American cities, who this week have been naming their year-end award winners, the folks across the pond are waiting until February 8 to reveal their favorites. But they have at least announced the nominees for their awards, many of which distinguish the importance of British filmmaking. See, the London Film Critics' Circle gives two separate awards each for the categories of best film, best director, actor and actress, so that one award is given to the best British film, director, actor and actress. Sometimes this leads to an overlap, as in the case of last year, when both Helen Mirren and Judi Dench were nominated for best actress and best British actress and The Queen was nominated for best film and best British film.

This year's nominees don't appear to have that overlap problem (see the full list here), which could very well mean the Circle has changed its rules since last year. Either that or there really is no clear enough front-runner this year in any of those categories. Or maybe the Circle just felt there were too many non-British films, directors and performers worthy of notice and didn't need to exclude any of them just to spotlight their own movies more than necessary. The one interesting thing is that while Daniel Day Lewis could be considered a British actor, he is only nominated in the more general Best Actor category. Also, it is interesting that Paul Greengrass is nominated as best British director for The Bourne Ultimatum, a movie nominated only in the more general Best Film category.

The best thing about having the British-only categories is the recognition the LFCC gives to terrific films like Control and This is England, which aren't on the radar enough in America to be given notice here. Also, the British-only directing category allows for the general best director nominees to include other foreign (non-American) directors like Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 weeks, 2 days) and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others).

Wait -- what's that -- Matt Damon wants to do another Bourne film? But I thought he was done with the character? Right? Right? Maybe wrong. Back in May while promoting Ocean's Thirteen at the Cannes Film Festival, Damon told the press that he was done with anything related to Jason Bourne. His exact words: "I'm definitely done with that. I think we've ridden that horse as far as we can. The character lives on in the books and if someone else wanted to play it, I guess they could." Well, what if that someone else is, um, Matt Damon? Keep in mind these comments came a few months before The Bourne Ultimatum slid onto the scene, capturing the world's attention with its slick action sequences and ... other cool stuff. Since then, the film has gone on to make lots of moolah, it was given lots of praise, and -- ya know what -- considering the fact it's rare we get a good action film, I think people want to see more Bourne in the future.

Damon, well, he's beginning to warm up to the idea. While in Tokyo, he made the following comments: "If Paul Greengrass, maybe years down the road, was interested in doing another one, then I would do it, too. I don't think either of us completely put the character to bed yet." Great, this means my nightmare of having to write seven different "Damon Says He Might Maybe Possibly Star in Fourth Bourne Film" posts is beginning to come true. But doesn't everyone always say the same thing? They throw out the "years down the line" comment to fend off the media, give us something to write about, and then continue to repeat the same thing (while we continue to report on it) until, eventually, there's a fourth film. Honestly, since the series has been so damn successful, I have a feeling we'll be hearing more about a fourth flick sooner rather than later.

Oh, and regarding our dream that Bourne would face off against James Bond in a film, Damon says: "He keeps himself in very good shape. I would like to avoid any confrontation with Daniel Craig if I can." Drats!

Recently, director Quentin Tarantino said that he'd love to "make a cool sex movie that would take place in Stockholm, with a couple of Americans visiting a couple of Swedish friends ... just going out, drinking, having a good time, hooking up." Yeah, tell it to The Weinstein Co. -- I'm sure after Grindhouse, they'd love to take a chance on a Tarantino sex flick, considering the fact that it would almost certainly be rated NC-17. While Tarantino might be able to imitate other sexy directors to the best of his ability, we all know there'd be no originality and, most likely, it would stick to one level below porn ... but with a kick ass soundtrack.

With that in mind, Vulture put together a list of ten directors who would make an even unsexier movie than Quentin Tarantino -- going so far as to imagine how the directors themselves would pitch it. Among those on the list, we have folks like Oliver Stone ("It would take place in Vietnam, with a couple of American GIs visiting their friends . . . just going out drinking, committing atrocities, hooking up"), Paul Greengrass ("It would take place in London, Vienna, Prague, Bangkok, Sydney, and New York, with an international spy searching for the truth of his existence. In between waterboardings, he hooks up with his CIA handler"), M. Night Shyamalan ("It would take place in Philadelphia, with a guy having sex with a bunch of women, but in the end, you would find out that the main character has been hallucinating it all, and actually he's just been masturbating"), Woody Allen ("It would take place in New York, with a guy reliving the women he's loved over his life, in homage to Fellini's 8 1/2. I would play the man and would have sweaty sex with Scarlett Johansson, Beyoncé Knowles, Lauren Conrad, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and Emily Blunt"), and my personal favorite, Mel Gibson ("It would take place in ancient Egypt, be performed completely in hieroglyphics, and consist of 117 minutes of a slave being beaten to death.")

Swing on over there to check out the rest of the list, and the quotes, then come back here and see if you can come up with your own. Which unsexy directors did they leave off the list? Are there any other directors out there who couldn't direct a sexy movie even if their life depended on it?

Alright, all you movie hounds. We know you've spent all summer watching the endless slew of sequels, from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End to Shrek the Third, from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to The Bourne Ultimatum, from Spider-Man 3 to Rush Hour 3 -- it's been one long, hot, summer. But how well do you know your movie sequel history? Over at the Guardian, they have a nifty little quiz up with questions that will test your sequel mettle. I scored 70% on the first pass, not too bad, I guess (hey some of the questions are a little tricky, I'm not that up on my Leonard Part 6). Go check it out, then let us know how you did.

Now here's a little movie sequel pop quiz for you: Can you put the three stills of each of these series in order?



More after the jump ...

Can an action film also be a work of art? That's one of the questions raised by The Bourne Ultimatum, Paul Greengrass's third installment in the thriller series starring Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, an ex-assassin on a mission to discover a personal history obliterated by amnesia and clouded by years on the run. Bourne's past memories are fragmentary; his present-tense instincts are rock-solid. He can't tell you his real name or hometown, but he can field-strip a gun without looking at it, find a way out of any trap, hotwire a car with less effort than it would take the owner to find, insert and turn the key. But these killing skills can't get him to the center of his shattered life -- who he was, what he did.

And The Bourne Ultimatum does have elements of art: Political and social resonance, visual and linguistic symbolism, references to the world the films have shown us and the world outside of it, rich characters with fully-developed personalities. It also has all the elements of the modern action thriller -- how'd-they-do-that stunt work, crazy-fast fight action, tautly-wound scene construction that culminates in moments that leave you breathless. The Bourne Ultimatum picks up precisely where The Bourne Supremacy (also directed by Greengrass) left off -- Bourne, wounded and alone, is in Moscow. He's just atoned to the daughter of two of his victims -- killed not in the name of national security or the public good, but rather for private gain. Bourne's work was a secret -- but Simon Ross (Paddy Considine), a journalist for The Guardian has been running pieces about Bourne's work and Treadstone, the black ops group he worked for. Bourne would like to know who Ross's source is. So would the people who are trying to re-start Treadstone under the new name Blackbriar, to make it "... the sharp end of the stick ..." in America's arsenal.