Journalism Greengrass first worked as a director in the 1980s, for the
ITV current affairs programme
World in Action. At the same time, he co-authored the infamous book
Spycatcher (1987) with
Peter Wright, a former assistant director of
MI5. It contained enough sensitive information that the
British government made an unsuccessful attempt to ban it. In the mid 80s, the book was banned due to revealing insights into how MI5 operated.
Film , and Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzō Abe at the
Tokyo International Film Festival Greengrass moved into drama, directing non-fiction, made-for-television films such as
The One That Got Away, based on
Chris Ryan's book about the experiences of the
British Army's
Special Air Service during the
Gulf War and
The Fix, based on the
1964 British betting scandal. His 1998 film
The Theory of Flight starred
Kenneth Branagh and
Helena Bonham Carter, who played a woman with
motor neurone disease. The film dealt with the difficult issue of the sexuality of people with disabilities. Greengrass directed
The Murder of Stephen Lawrence (1999), an account of
Stephen Lawrence, a Black British youth whose murder was not properly investigated by the
Metropolitan Police. His mother's investigations resulted in accusations about
institutional racism in the police. His next film,
Bloody Sunday (2002), depicted the 1972
Bloody Sunday massacre during
the Troubles in an almost documentary style; it shared First Prize at the 2002
Berlin Film Festival with
Hayao Miyazaki's
Spirited Away.
Bloody Sunday was inspired by Don Mullan's politically influential book
Eyewitness Bloody Sunday (Wolfhound Press, 1997). A schoolboy witness of the events of Bloody Sunday, Mullan was co-producer and appeared as a figure in
Bloody Sunday. In 2004, Greengrass co-wrote the television film
Omagh with Guy Hibbert. Based on the
Omagh bombing of 1998, the film was a critical success, winning
British Academy Television Award for Best Single Drama. This was the first professional film that Greengrass had not directed; he was credited as a writer and producer. He had been working on
The Bourne Supremacy. The film was directed by
Pete Travis. It was the second film Greengrass had written about terrorism and mass killing in Ireland after
Bloody Sunday. Based on that film, Greengrass was hired to direct 2004's
The Bourne Supremacy, a sequel to the 2002 film
The Bourne Identity. The first film's director,
Doug Liman, had left the project. The film starred
Matt Damon as
Jason Bourne, an amnesiac who realises he was once a top
CIA assassin and is being pursued by his former employers. An unexpectedly major financial and critical success, it secured Greengrass's reputation and ability to get his smaller, more personal films made. In 2006, Greengrass directed
United 93, a film based on the
11 September 2001 hijacking of
United Airlines Flight 93. The film received critical acclaim, particularly for Greengrass's quasi-documentary-style. After receiving many Best Director awards and nominations from critics' circles (including the
Broadcast Film Critics Association), Greengrass won the
BAFTA award for
Best Director at the
60th British Academy Film Awards and received an
Oscar nomination for
Achievement in Directing at the
79th Academy Awards. For his role in writing the film, he earned the
Writers Guild of America Award and a BAFTA nominations for Best Original Screenplay. Greengrass then returned to the
Bourne franchise with
The Bourne Ultimatum. Released in 2007,
Ultimatum was an even bigger success than the previous two films. Greengrass was nominated for
BAFTA Best Director at the
61st British Academy Film Awards. In 2007, he co-founded
Directors UK, a professional association for British directors. He served as founding president until July 2014. Greengrass's
Green Zone stars
Matt Damon as the head of a U.S. military team on an unsuccessful hunt for
weapons of mass destruction in
post-war Iraq. It was filmed in
Spain and
Morocco and released in 2010. The film was first announced as based on the bestselling, award-winning, non-fiction book
Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, the
Washington Posts Baghdad bureau chief. But the final film is a largely fictionalised action thriller only loosely inspired by events in the book.
Captain Phillips, Greengrass's film about the
Maersk Alabama hijacking in 2009, was based on the book ''
A Captain's Duty.'' It starred
Tom Hanks,
Barkhad Abdi and
Faysal Ahmed. It was shot in 2012 in
Massachusetts and
Virginia in the United States, as well as
Malta. It was released in 2013. In September 2014, it was announced Greengrass would return to direct the fifth Jason Bourne film,
Jason Bourne, with Damon starring again. The film was released on 29 July 2016. In 2017, Greengrass began filming
22 July, a docudrama film following the
2011 Norway attacks perpetrated by
Anders Behring Breivik and their aftermath, on location in
Norway. The film was released on
Netflix and in select theaters on 10 October 2018. In February 2019, Greengrass signed on to direct the
film adaptation of the
Paulette Jiles novel
News of the World for
Fox 2000 Pictures, reuniting him with actor
Tom Hanks. The film was eventually released in the United States by
Universal Pictures on 25 December 2020 and released internationally by
Netflix in 2021. In May 2022, it was announced that Greengrass would write and direct medieval action film
The Hood, starring
Benedict Cumberbatch and based on the story of the English
Peasants' Revolt in 1381. On 15 September, it was announced Greengrass would write and direct an adaptation of the
Stephen King novel
Fairy Tale after King, a fan of Greengrass's films, sold him the option to adapt the film; Greengrass will also produce alongside
Gregory Goodman. In November 2023, it was announced that Greengrass would write and direct a film adaptation of the
T. J. Newman novel
Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421 for
Warner Bros. Pictures. In January 2024, it was announced Greengrass would direct the thriller
The Lost Bus, written by
Brad Ingelsby and based on the 2021 nonfiction book
Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire by
Lizzie Johnson, about the
2018 California wildfires, for
Apple Studios;
Matthew McConaughey and
America Ferrera will star in the project. He was appointed
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the
2022 New Year Honours for services to the arts. ==Criticism and praise of shaky cam style==