Paul Greengrass
Greengrass was director/writer of his breakthrough movie, the highly acclaimed Northern Ireland-set drama, Bloody Sunday (2002), with James Nesbitt, Tim Pigott-Smith, Nicholas Farrell and Gerard McSorley, premiering to acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival (and several subsequent major festivals, including the Berlin Film Festival where it won the Golden Bear prize) before distribution by Feature Film Company. Greengrass’s career went on an entirely new trajectory when he took on the director’s chair for two of the 21st century’s best spy action movies based on Robert Ludlum’s thriller novel series—The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and the sequel, The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)—both starring Matt Damon, the first with Franka Potente, Brian Cox, Julia Stiles, Karl Urban, Gabriel Mann and Joan Allen, the second with Stiles, Allen, David Strathairn, Scott Glenn, Paddy Considine, Edgar Ramirez and Albert Finney, and which grossed $755 million globally for Universal Pictures.
Paul Greengrass earned his first Directorial Oscar nomination as director/writer/producer of one of his most acclaimed movies, his intense docudrama version of Sept. 11, 2001 events aboard United 93 (2006), with the ensemble of Khalid Abdalla, Lewis Alsamari, Jamie Harding, Omar Berdouni, Gregg Henry, Christian Clemenson, Cheyenne Jackson, David Alan Basche, Peter Herrmann and Patrick St. Esprit, produced by Working Title Films/Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and grossing an excellent $77.6 million (based on estimated costs) for Universal Pictures. Greengrass as director/producer reunited with Matt Damon as star of the Iraq War-set Green Zone (2010), adapted by Brian Helgeland from Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s 2006 chronicle, Imperial Life in the Emerald City, co-starring Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson, Amy Ryan, Khalid Abdalla, Jason Isaacs and Yigal Naor, produced (in part) and released by Universal Pictures.
Greengrass was unaccountably passed over for a Best Director Oscar nomination for the six-Oscar-nominated (including Best Picture and Screenplay) true-life thriller, Captain Phillips (2013), based on Phillips’s memoir by screenwriter Billy Ray, starring Tom Hanks, Catherine Keener, Barkhad Abdi and Michael Chernus, produced (in part) by Columbia Pictures and Scott Rudin Productions, and earning Sony Pictures Releasing $220.6 million worldwide. Greengrass again reunited (for their fourth movie) as director/co-writer with Matt Damon for the sequel, Jason Bourne (2016), co-written by Christopher Rouse (who’s also Greengrass’s regular film editor) with an original scenario not based on a specific Robert Ludlum novel, with Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel, Julia Stiles and Riz Ahmed, and which was produced (in part) and released by Universal Pictures for a $416.2 million return.
Paul Greengrass was again director/writer/producer of a contemporary fact-based thriller about rightwing terror attacks in Norway in 2011, 22 July (2018), based on a book-length chronicle by Asne Seierstad, produced (in part) by Scott Rudin, starring Anders Danielsen Lie and Jon Oigarden, and released theatrically and on streaming by Netflix. Greengrass reunited with Tom Hanks as director/co-writer (for his sixth movie with Universal Pictures) of the big-screen version of Paulette Jiles’s 2016 novel, News of the World (2020), co-written by Luke Davies, co-starring Helena Zengel, Michael Angelo Covino, Ray McKinnon, Mare Winningham, Elizabeth Marvel, Fred Hechinger and Bill Camp, released by co-producer Universal and nominated for four Oscars.
Greengrass returned to true-life thriller drama mode as director/co-writer (with co-writer and producer Brad Ingelsby) of The Lost Bus (2025), based on Lizzie Johnson’s acclaimed book, Paradise, on the disastrous 2018 Camp Fire, and which starred Matthew McConaughey, America Ferrera, Yul Vazquez and Ashlie Atkinson, produced (in part) by Jamie Lee Curtis and Jason Blum, and which launched at the Toronto Film Festival and was then distributed theatrically by Apple Original Films and streamed on Apple+. Greengrass was director/writer/producer of his first historical period epic, The Uprising (2026), about the 1381 English Peasants’ Revolt, starring Andrew Garfield, Jamie Bell, Stephen Dillane, Tom Hollander, Cosmo Jarvis, Thomasin McKenzie, Jonny Lee Miller, Woody Norman and Katherine Waterston, and was released wide by Focus Features (U.S.)/Entertainment Film Distributors (U.K.)/Leonine Studios (Germany).
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Known For
Paul Greengrass Movies
Director
Previous (6)
- 2026 |
The Uprising
Based on the true story of the uprising that inspired the legend of Robin Hood, Andrew Garfield stars as the leader of a rebellion against the tyranny of King Richard II in a fight for justice.
- 2020 |
News of the World
A Civil War veteran agrees to deliver a girl taken by the Kiowa people years ago to her aunt and uncle against her will. They travel hundreds of miles and face grave dangers as they search for a place that either can call home.
- 2016 |
Jason Bourne
The CIA's most dangerous former operative is drawn out of hiding to uncover more explosive truths about his past.
- 2013 |
Captain Phillips
The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the U.S.-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.
- 2007 |
The Bourne Ultimatum
Jason Bourne dodges a ruthless C.I.A. official and his Agents from a new assassination program while searching for the origins of his life as a trained killer.
- 2004 |
The Bourne Supremacy
When Jason Bourne is framed for a CIA operation gone awry, he is forced to resume his former life as a trained assassin to survive.
Producer
Previous (1)
- 2016 |
Jason Bourne
The CIA's most dangerous former operative is drawn out of hiding to uncover more explosive truths about his past.
Writer
Previous (2)
- 2020 |
News of the World
A Civil War veteran agrees to deliver a girl taken by the Kiowa people years ago to her aunt and uncle against her will. They travel hundreds of miles and face grave dangers as they search for a place that either can call home.
- 2016 |
Jason Bourne
The CIA's most dangerous former operative is drawn out of hiding to uncover more explosive truths about his past.
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