Paul Greengrass CBE (born 13 August 1955) is an English film director, film producer, and screenwriter.
He is well known for shooting his films in a docudrama style and with liberal handheld camera usage for his action scenes.
Filmography:
- Resurrected (1989)
- The Theory Of Flight (1998)
- Bloody Sunday (2002)
- Jason Bourne films:
- The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
- The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
- Jason Bourne (2016)
- United 93 (2006)
- Green Zone (2010)
- Captain Phillips (2013)
- 22 July (2018)
- News Of The World (2020)
Tropes present in his films include:
- Auteur License: Gained one after The Bourne Supremacy and has kept it ever since.
- Based on a True Story: Bloody Sunday, United 93, Captain Phillips and 22 July. Some of his earlier TV work qualifies as well.
- The Film of the Book: The Bourne movie series (if only loosely), Green Zone, Captain Phillips, 22 July, and News of the World.
- He Also Did: Worked as a journalist before becoming a filmmaker - among other things, he helped former MI5 operative Peter Wright write his autobiography Spycatcher, which the British government infamously attempted to ban.
- Jitter Cam:
- A notorious and acclaimed user of this trope, with his entries in The Bourne Series being the most famous examples.
- Averted with News Of The World however, which uses a more traditional shooting and editing style.
- Signature Style: Ripped from the Headlines plots along with a documentary-style aesthetic, rapid editing and copious amounts of Jitter Cam.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: His films are as dark as possible while still being classified as "realistic".
- What Could Have Been:
- At one point planned to direct Rush before ultimately choosing Captain Phillips.
- Was one of several directors attached to the Aaron Sorkin-written The Trial of the Chicago 7 during its status in Development Hell before Sorkin finally took the reins himself.
- After Darren Aronofsky left Watchmen, Greengrass took over, planning to cast Joaquin Phoenix as Dan Dreiberg and Hilary Swank as Laurie, before he himself left the project by December 2005 before Zack Snyder entered the picture.
- He was in talks with 20th Century Fox to direct a film adaptation of Civil War that would have starred the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Deadpool and Daredevil until it was cancelled due to the success of X-Men: First Class.
