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The Oscar nominated British director Paul Greengrass seems drawn to “issue” movies. His feature directorial debut was the disease-of-the-week movie The Theory of Flight](The Theory of Flight (1999) - Movie | Moviefone) (1998), and he found acclaim with the explosive Bloody Sunday](Bloody Sunday - Movie | Moviefone) (2002) and the gripping, grueling United 93](http://www.cinematical.com/2006/04/27/review-united-93/) (2006), though none of those exactly resulted in a bonanza of ticket sales. He seemed to come closer to his true calling with the second two Bourne films, The Bourne Supremacy](The Bourne Supremacy (2004) - Movie | Moviefone) (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum](http://www.cinematical.com/2007/08/03/review-the-bourne-ultimatum-scotts-review/) (2007), bringing his gift for tense action as well as uncommon intelligence to a pair of summer action films. If there were any “issues” in those movies, they were buried deep in the kinetic plots.
Now we find Greengrass at a crossroads. Clearly the issue movies bring more glory and more personal satisfaction, but the action movies bring in happier customers and more riches. It’s a conundrum many artists have faced since the days of Sullivan’s Travels](Sullivan's Travels (1941) - Movie | Moviefone) (1941), when a comedy filmmaker hit the road to make a film about the “real America.” But Greengrass has asked an interesting question: why not do both at once? The answer to that question is Green Zone](Green Zone (2010) - Movie | Moviefone). Loosely based on a nonfiction book by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, it’s a fictionalized thriller with fictionalized characters, taking place in a realistic setting. (Greengrass credits the 2006 book with helping him jump-start a project he had begun working on in 2004.)