Greengrass has fitted easily into the sometimes crazy world of Hollywood. And the studios trust him. He told a Bafta audience last year: "I think an awful lot of bunkum gets talked over here about Hollywood. They see it as this place where devils with horns on their heads massacre your films. On the two experiences I've had, and this is the third now, I've been treated with great respect."
And he seems to have been given as much space and control as he would want with United 93, surely the most daunting project imaginable to take on, with some believing it too early for Hollywood to tackle Sept. 11.
Khalid Abdalla, who played the lead terrorist, Ziad Jarrah, said: "Paul does work differently to other directors. We weren't working with a text for one thing. We were all standing there with our call sheets one day, and Paul said, 'If you're looking at the call sheet, then you've never worked with me.'"
The actor, who has just finished filming the lead role in a version of Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner, is full of praise for Greengrass. "It's almost like he's trying to extend himself and everyone follows him and it always seems to turn out right. He takes you to the limit of your faith and you love him for it."
Bevan, too, believes no one could have made United 93 as well as Greengrass did. "There was a vibrancy on the set of United 93 which I don't expect to experience ever again. He is fun and he is bright. There are very few feature film directors around who have a brain the size of Paul Greengrass.'"
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