Greengrass takes punt on Iraq

Director Paul Greengrass took on what some say is a fool's errand in making a pricey movie about the Iraq war.

Greengrass says, ultimately, one of them has to work.

The $US11-million Hurt Locker has proved that a low-budget war story in limited distribution can bring in significant praise and modest receipts.

There are few such economies on Greengrass' Green Zone.

With a budget of $US100 million and Matt Damon in a starring role, it is Hollywood's biggest bet yet on modern conflict, an ambitious mix of political drama and popcorn diversion.

"I don't accept the proposition that cinema can't look to Iraq and bring people to it," Greengrass said during filming.

If there's any film-maker who can reverse Hollywood's history on the subject - the commercial underachievers include Stop-Loss, Rendition, Body of Lies and Oscar winner The Hurt Locker, which for all of its awards has grossed just $US12.7 million - it's Greengrass.

The former documentarian transformed Ireland's deadly 1972 civil rights march into the powerful Bloody Sunday, and in between his last two kinetic Robert Ludlum blockbusters - The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, both of which starred Damon - the British director was able to craft a riveting drama about an event few film-makers would dare tackle: the 9/11 attacks in his United 93.

Yet, not everyone wishes him well in his endeavour.

Conservative commentators who have attacked films such as The Hurt Locker as either anti-military or anti-American in general, have slammed Green Zone, with one calling for a boycott.

When Greengrass six years ago first considered making a movie about the invasion, he wasn't certain what he wanted to explore.

He toyed with a movie about extraordinary rendition before focusing on the hunt for weapons of mass destruction.

"It was a pivotal subject in why we went to war and how the war was sold," Green Zone screenwriter Brian Helgeland said of WMDs.

Greengrass and Helgeland crafted a character loosely based on Chief Warrant Officer Richard Lamont Gonzales (played by Damon in the film), who in Iraq led a mobile exploitation team charged with finding WMDs.

The hunt for the nonexistent weapons gave Green Zone its narrative foundation, but it wasn't until Greengrass read Rajiv Chandrasekaran's Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone that the movie found its thematic shape.

The book focuses on the ruinous decisions made by Paul Bremer and his Coalition Provisional Authority as the United States tried and failed to bring order to Iraq.

"Will it work? Who knows?" Greengrass said.

"I am a born optimist. ... Nobody is insulated from the pressure. But in the end, if you can craft a compelling story with a clearly defined central character and the biggest possible stakes, then you have a chance."