Lauded director Paul Greengrass (United 93) and Hollywood favourite Matt Damon (The Informant!) have teamed up again after The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum and returned to London for their new joint project Green Zone, which opens in cinemas on 10 March.

Green Zone is an action-packed thriller seasoned with political intrigue set against the turbulent backdrop of Iraq right after the American occupation in 2003. The story follows Roy Miller (Damon), a US Army officer in charge of finding the elusive weapons of mass destruction (WMD). When the intelligence provided by his superiors conflicts with Miller’s own findings, he finds himself fighting his way to uncover the truth.

Not Your Typical War Film

Despite the contemporary backdrop of the film – laying bare the elongated post-war period and ongoing public inquest in the UK – Greengrass insists Green Zone is not a war film, but rather a story which is enhanced by its setting in the midst of a conflict. A former war correspondent for ITV at the start of his career, Greengrass stresses that “this is not a movie about the war in Iraq. It’s a thriller set in Iraq, and that’s a very different proposition. In my experience, thrillers are at their best when they’re in extreme environments where the moral challenges are acute.”

Oscar®-nominated Greengrass is well known for his sensitive approach to delicate issues. After United 93, regarded as one of the most truthful and accurate films about 9/11 made to date, UK producers Working Title Films were eager to collaborate with Greengrass again and they jumped at the opportunity when Green Zone came along.

Green Zone is inspired by ‘Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone’, the best-selling non-fiction book by former Washington Post Baghdad bureau chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran – who has a cameo in the film. With Oscar-winning screenwriter Brian Helgeland (LA Confidential, Mystic River) penning the script, however, the story of the WMD hunter became that of a man in an all-time classic quest of finding an elusive truth.

In Greengrass’ head, the best man for the job was always Oscar-winner Matt Damon. For Damon, Green Zone meant not only a chance to re-team with the Surrey-born director, but also the opportunity to work with servicemen who fought in Iraq: “They were the ones who really made our cast. They helped create an environment that felt very authentic. To be around people who are alert and who have been in those situations before is invaluable as an actor.”

Supporting Damon and the real life veterans is an international cast including Greg Kinnear (Ghost Town), Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges), Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone), Khalid Abadalla (United 93) and Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter franchise).

London, Capital of Iraq

Given the impossibility to shoot in war-torn Iraqi territory, Green Zone was filmed on location in Spain, Morocco and the UK. Filming began in January 2008 in the South East Spanish region of Murcia, where Saddam Hussein’s intelligence headquarters and exterior scenes at the palace were shot and continued in Rabat, Morocco’s capital city, which provided the perfect architecture of flat roofs to effortlessly evoke the streets of Baghdad.

The production moved to London in mid-March, using a variety of locations in the capital. Paul Greengrass is no stranger to filming in London. He often chooses to shoot in the capital and does not shy away from pushing the boundaries of filming in London (he famously filmed one of the key scenes for The Bourne Ultimatum in a commuter-crammed Waterloo Station).

Most of the interiors in Green Zone were shot on location between the capital and Surrey. Freemasons’ Hall doubled as the grand rooms of Iraq‘s Republican Palace, whilst scenes set in an Iraqi hotel were shot at The Renaissance Hotel, metres away from Heathrow Airport. Part of the filming in the hotel took place on the very day Terminal 5 opened with infamous delays, forcing them to juggle filming with an additional 275 delayed passengers and 12 broadcasters covering the breaking news. Other locations used for the film included Bloomsbury's Victoria House and the marbled ballrooms of the Hilton Park Lane Hotel.

Finally, the Millennium Mills in the Docklands was chosen to play Saddam’s rumoured maze of underground tunnels and bunkers, allegedly riddled with WMDs. One of climactic scenes in Green Zone, which involves a dramatic fire fight, takes place here.

Despite the difficult task of being transformed into a Middle Eastern territory on the verge of conflict, it can be argued the capital managed to pull it off. As Jamie Lengyel, one of the location managers on the film, puts it: “We received fantastic support and flexibility from all of our London locations, as we dealt with the challenge of setting up new Baghdad-set scenes of impressive scale, often at very short notice.”

Greengrass is confident he also carried it off: “For both Matt [Damon] and me, our creative mission was ‘Can we create a film that’s every bit as compelling, filled with action, exciting, mysterious, and a privileged inside view to a secret world as the Bourne films, but can we do it in that extreme environment of downtown Baghdad in those desperate weeks immediately after the invasion?’ I’m confident the audiences will say, ‘Yes, they can.’”

Green Zone opens in cinemas across the UK on 10 March.