Green Zone 2010 British-French-American war thriller film

Green Zone is a 2010 British-French-American war thriller film directed byPaul Greengrass. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written byBrian Helgeland, based on a 2006 non-fiction book Imperial Life in the Emerald City by journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran. The book documented life within the Green Zone in Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The key players in the film are General Mohammed Al-Rawi (Yigal Naor), who is hiding in Baghdad during the invasion of Iraq and U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon), a Mobile Exploitation Team (MET) leader who is searching for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Miller finds that the majority of the intel given to him is inaccurate. Moreover, Miller's efforts to find the true story about the weapons are blocked by Pentagon official Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear). The cast also features Brendan Gleeson, Amy Ryan, Khalid Abdalla and Jason Isaacs.

The film was produced by Working Title Films, with financial backing fromUniversal Pictures, StudioCanal, Relativity Media, Antena 3 Films andDentsu. Principal photography for the film project began during January 2008 in Spain, later moving to Morocco and the United Kingdom.

Green Zone premiered at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in Japan on February 26, 2010, and was released in Australia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia and Singapore on March 11, 2010, followed by a further 10 countries the next day, among them the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. The film generally received mixed critical reviews and was a box office flop, as it cost $100 million to produce plus $40 million in marketing, while the global theatrical runs only gave $94,882,549 in gross revenue.

On March 19, 2003, Iraqi General Mohammed Al-Rawi (Yigal Naor) meets with his officers and aides in Baghdad to discuss the invasion of Iraq. Al-Rawi decides to wait for the Americans to arrive and offer him a deal.

Four weeks later, U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) and his platoon check a warehouse for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. To Miller's surprise, the warehouse has not been secured, with looters making their way in and out, as soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division are too few to do much. After a firefight with a sniper, Miller finds that the warehouse is empty, the third consecutive time he has found nothing. Later, at a debriefing, Miller brings up the point that the majority of the intel given to him is inaccurate and anonymous. High-ranking officials quickly dismiss his concerns. Afterward, CIA agent Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson) tells him that the next place he is to search was inspected by a UN team two months before.

Meanwhile, Pentagon official Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear) welcomes returning Iraqi exile politician Ahmed Zubaidi (Raad Rawi) at the airport. There Poundstone is questioned by Wall Street Journal reporter Lawrie Dayne (Amy Ryan). She says she needs to speak directly to "Magellan", but Poundstone brushes her off.

Meanwhile, while checking another unpromising site, Miller is approached by an Iraqi who calls himself "Freddy" (Khalid Abdalla). Freddy tells him that he saw some Ba'ath Party VIPs meeting in a nearby home. Miller and his men burst into the house. Al-Rawi narrowly escapes, but one of his men is captured. Before Miller can extract much information, the prisoner is taken away by Special Operations personnel - however, Miller keeps the man's notebook. Dayne complains to Poundstone again, but he states that the stakes are much larger than her role in selling newspapers.

Miller goes to Brown's hotel room in the Green Zone, where he tells him what happened and gives him the notebook. Brown arranges for Miller to get into the prison where Al-Rawi's man is being interrogated. Miller is then approached by Dayne, who questions him about the false reports of WMDs. Miller bluffs his way in to see the Iraqi. Near death after being tortured, the man tells Miller that they "did everything you asked us to in the meeting." When Miller asks what meeting he is talking about, the man says one word: "Jordan." Miller then confronts Dayne about the bogus intel she published, but she refuses to identify Magellan, her source. After Miller tells her he suspects that Al-Rawi is Magellan, Dayne reluctantly confirms that Magellan met with a high-ranking official in February in Jordan.

Miller realizes that Poundstone's men are hunting Al-Rawi, and can think of only one reason: Al-Rawi confirmed there was no Iraqi WMD program and is now a major liability. Poundstone confiscates the notebook from Martin; it contains the locations of Al-Rawi's safe houses. When Miller tries to arrange a meeting with Al-Rawi, he is abducted by Al-Rawi's men following Poundstone's announcement of the decision to disband the entire Iraqi army. Al-Rawi tells Miller that he informed Poundstone that the WMD program had been dismantled after the First Persian Gulf War; Poundstone, however, reported that Al-Rawi had confirmed there were WMDs so the US government would have an excuse to invade. Poundstone's men attack the locations listed in the notebook. When they get to the general's hiding place, he flees, ordering one man to kill Miller. Miller manages to kill his captor and races after Al-Rawi. Miller finally captures Al-Rawi, but Freddy suddenly appears and shoots the general, stating that the fate of Iraq is "not his to decide." With his only witness against Poundstone now dead, Miller tells Freddy to flee.

Later, Miller writes a scathing report. He confronts Poundstone in a meeting and gives him the report, but Poundstone dismisses it, telling Miller that WMDs do not matter. Poundstone then rejoins the meeting, only to see Iraqi factional leaders reject Zubaidi, the US's choice as leader of Iraq, as an American puppet and storm out. Afterwards, Dayne receives Miller's report by email. The recipient list includes reporters for major news agencies around the world.

CastMatt Damon as Roy Miller, an idealistic US Army chief warrant officer. Roy Miller is based on real-life Army Chief Warrant Officer Richard "Monty" Gonzales.[citation needed] Damon joined the film with the assurance that production would conclude by April 14, 2008. so he could start working on the Steven Soderbergh film The Informant! on April 15, amid scheduling difficulties caused by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.
Amy Ryan as Lawrie Dayne, a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journalwho investigates the Bush administration's claims of the existence of weapons of mass destruction.[6] One reviewer noted that, "it's crystal-clear that...Dayne is formerNew York Times reporter Judith Miller."
Brendan Gleeson as Martin Brown, the CIA Baghdad bureau chief, loosely based onJay Garner.
Greg Kinnear as Clark Poundstone, Pentagon Special Intelligence official. One reviewer saw Poundstone as Paul Bremer, the "...Coalition Provisional Authorityhead in 2003–04...
Yigal Naor as General Mohammed Al Rawi, loosely based on the real-life informant Rafid Ahmed Alwan, aka "Curveball".
Jerry Della Salla as Platoon Sergeant Wilkins
Nicoye Banks as Perry
Jason Isaacs as Major Briggs, a special operations commander on the hunt for High-value targets
Martin McDougall as Mr. Sheen, CIA Baghdad assistant bureau chief.
Khalid Abdalla as Freddy, an Iraqi Army veteran who lost his leg in 1987 during the Iran–Iraq War. Abdalla was cast in the role after impressing Greengrass with his performance in United 93. The actor, who is of Egyptian descent, prepared for his role by learning the Iraqi Arabic dialect and reading Iraqi blogs like Riverbend and Alive in Baghdad.
Michael O'Neill as Colonel Bethel
Antoni Corone as Colonel Lyons
Tommy Campbell as the Chopper Comms Commander
Paul McIntosh as a CIA officer
Sean Huze as Sergeant Conway, a member of Roy Miller's MET team.
Robert Harrison O'Neil as a TV Journalist
Ben Sliney as the bureaucrat at VTC[clarification needed]
Said Faraj as Seyyed Hamza
Abdul Henderson as Marshall, a member of Roy Miller's MET team