- Born
- Height6′ (1.83 m)
- Paul Greengrass started his filmmaking career with a super 8 camera he found in his art room in secondary school. Those short movies were animation horror films he made using old dolls, artist dummies, and the general art room clutter.
After studying in Cambridge University he got into Granada Television School and spent the first ten years of his career roving global hot spots for the hard-hitting documentary series, World in Action. By this time he became very interested in the Northern Ireland conflict.
In 1989, he directed his first fiction movie, "Resurrected", that won an award in Berlin. He continued his career as a fiction filmmaker with a series of TV movies dealing with social and political issues: Open Fire (a police scandal about a policeman accused of murder), The One that got away (about a military operation during the first Gulf War).
His documentary style became more dynamic and intense with each movie. In 2002, Bloody Sunday achieved international acclamation and won the first prize in the Berlin Festival. After that he has continued his career in the United States with "The Bourne Supremacy" starring Matt Damon.- IMDb mini biography by: enrique bocanegra enrique_bocanegra@hotmail.com
- ParentsJoyce GreengrassPhilip Greengrass
- RelativesMark Greengrass(Sibling)
- Usage of handheld cameras to create an aesthetic of realism.
- Stories based on real-life events.
- Co-author of the infamous book "Spycatcher" (1987) which was banned by the British government in the mid-1980s for revealing insights into how the British Secret Service (MI5) operated.
- Originally slated to direct Rush (2013) but ultimately switched with Ron Howard for Captain Phillips (2013) instead.
- Ranked #28 on EW's The 50 Smartest People in Hollywood.
- Was the ghost writer of the memoir "Spycatcher" (1987) for MI5 officer Peter Wright.
- Was set to direct the doomed movie adaptation of the comic book miniseries "The Watchmen" after previous directors Terry Gilliam (back in the 1980s), Darren Aronofsky, and briefly David Hayter all left the project.
- [on his time with British current-affairs TV show 'World in Action'] A festival of puerile self-importance, intense paranoia, fiddled expenses and brilliant creativity.
- By the time I'd done Bloody Sunday (2002) I felt I reached the end of a chapter. I could feel it. I wanted to try something new, something different. Then, to my amazement, "Bloody Sunday" won lots of theatrical prizes, the audience award at Sundance, and then, to my even greater amazement, I had the opportunity to make a film in Hollywood. I mean, you wouldn't think, looking at my films, oh, there's a guy who's going to make films in Hollywood.
- [on first turning down a 4th Bourne movie] I just felt that I'd done it. There's nothing unnatural about that. To make a film is eighteen months of your life. It's seven days a week. It's twenty hours a day. There were just too many other things that I was interested in. I felt that I had a wonderful, wonderful time. I loved it and I want it to continue and I hope that it does.
- [how he developed his distinctive hand-held camera style] To be perfectly honest, i couldn't afford tripods.
- [on Captain Phillips (2013)] Tom Hanks has built his career playing ordinary men. This performance is a study of endurance and heroism, but he crafts it from pieces of doubt, uncertainty and fear. It's not built from hubris.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content