Is Paul Greengrass taking up the reins of ‘Chicago 7?’

Filmmaker Paul Greengrass has been drawn to the sphere of politics since day one in his career as a filmmaker. He launched into the fray with 2002’s blisteringly realistic “Bloddy Sunday” (an account of the Derry massacre of 1972) and followed it up with a “Bourne” installment, putting his unique knowledge of covert military operations to use.

2005’s “United 93” was a tightrope walk that managed to land him a Best Director nomination, while 2007’s “The Bourne Ultimatum” was easily one of the best films of last year. He has been a director on an upward curve, settling quite comfortably in his role as an artist to watch, if not the artist to watch.

One of my most anticipated productions of 2009 is Greengrass’s “Green Zone,” an adaptation of Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s “Imperial Life in the Emerald City” that could be a hell of a windfall for the Iraq stalemate when it finds its way to screen. Matt Damon will star and Greengrass will have yet another stage for his brand of cinema.

Finally, though I’m excited for the visual splendor and dedication to source material of Zack Snyder’s upcoming “Watchmen,” I think we all would have been interested in Greengrass’s spin on the material had it come to fruition when the project was at Paramount Pictures a few years ago. The “‘Citizen Kane’ of comic books” certainly knows from the beast of politics.

Now word is circulating that the director may be attached to direct DreamWorks SKG’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” a film originally stuck in Steven Spielberg’s ever-rotating wheel house of ideas. If it’s true, count this viewer excited.

Here’s what Neil Miller of Film School Rejects has uncovered:

Then this evening, out of almost pure chance, I was skimming through the pages of Production Weekly, checkout which productions are currently in active development when I ran across an updated listing the The Trial of the Chicago 7. After cross checking some other participants, including writer Aaron Sorkin and Producers Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald, I deduced that this was the same production. The only odd part was that instead of listing Steven Spielberg or no director at all, the production listed a different director: Paul Greengrass.

Well…that’s a development, to say the least.

Greengrass has shown in all the aforementioned films an adeptness to the even keel when dealing in hot button issues of war and policy. He spends a considerable amount of time focusing on character rather than the situation.

I remember interviewing Kevin Macdonald in early 2006 about his then upcoming “The Last King of Scotland,” and he made it a point of mentioning that he was more interested in the way politics affects the individual, rather than the statement of the politics themselves. I think that characteristic is applicable to Greengrass’s work ethic as well.

So count me in on this one.  I’ve never seen Brett Morgan’s “Chicago 10” documentary, but I’ve always thought this story could be a hell of a showcase in narrative form on screen.  Greengrass would be a great fit.