BRENDAN GLEESON has been signed to play one of the leading roles in the Iraq war film, Green Zone, it was announced yesterday.
The Irish actor will play an American soldier in the film, which also features Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Amy Ryan and Jason Isaacs. Filming is now under way in Spain.
The thriller is inspired by the Rajiv Chandrasekaran book, Imperial Life in the Emerald City, and focuses on the dichotomy between the Green Zone, where troops are housed, and the rest of Baghdad after Saddam Hussein is overthrown.
The film takes the view that bureaucrats are making policy decisions about the country's rebuilding, even though they are in a sheltered enclave without a clear view of all that is happening.
The director is Paul Greengrass, whose credits include The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Ultimatum, and the 9/11 hijacking drama, United 93. He also wrote and directed Bloody Sunday, starring James Nesbitt, and wrote and produced Omagh, starring Gerard McSorley. The screenplay is by Brian Helgeland, who won an Oscar for LA Confidential.
One of Ireland's busiest actors,Gleeson co-stars with Colin Farrell in Martin McDonagh's dark comedy-thriller, In Bruges, which is the box-office leader at Irish cinemas. Released on 70 Irish screens last Friday, it earned €456,176 over its opening weekend.
A native of Dublin, Gleeson will be seen later this year in Churchill at War, in which he plays former British prime minister Winston Churchill.
He played Michael Collins in the 1991 RTÉ film, The Treaty, and was cast as Dublin criminal Martin Cahill in John Boorman's The General (1998).
Gleeson plans to make his directing debut with At Swim-Two-Birds, which he has adapted from Flann O'Brien's novel.
"It's really exciting," he told The Irish Timesrecently. "Cillian Murphy, Gabriel Byrne, Eamon Morrissey and Colin [ Farrell] . . . some of the coolest people in the country are involved.
"We just have to make sure we do it properly. Every so often I get really shaky ankles and then the thought of the performances makes me go on."