In two weeks United 93,
the first narrative feature film to deal directly with the events of
9/11, will open the Tribeca Film Festival. It’s really fitting –
Tribeca began as an answer to the devastation the terrorist attacks had
visited upon the economy of downtown Manhattan (we’ll argue about where
Tribeca is exactly later. It all depends on whether or not you’re a
real estate agent). I see the film on Monday, and I’ll be doing the
press day on Tuesday, so expect a lot of coverage next week.
This
week what I’m going to be doing is bringing back my original interviews
with Paul Greengrass, which ran on this site over the course of the
last year and a half. I first started talking with Paul when he was
attached to direct Watchmen; when that production fell apart and he moved on to United 93 (called Flight 93 at
the time of the interviews we did), we stayed in touch. I think that
these interviews are some of the most interesting and meaty things we
have run on this site, and I look forward to keeping up with Paul as he
moves on to The Bourne Ultimatum
this summer and then upward and onward to whatever projects he tackles
next. Honestly if my career was one day summed up as “He interviewed
Paul Greengrass… a lot,” I wouldn’t mind, since I think Paul’s one of
the most interesting, unique and intelligent people making movies these
days.
I’m going to start this little resurrection back at the Watchmen interviews.
A lot of the stuff in these interviews obviously has turned into
nothing more than wishful thinking, but you really get a sense of the
kind of person and director that Paul is from these chats.
Click here to read Part 1 of my interview with Paul Greengrass about Watchmen.