Esquire cover, interviews

Matt is on the cover of the October issue of Esquire magazine. The cover is below, from Ohlalamag and the title is: Matt Damon. Why is this man smiling? The follow-up line inside the magazine reads as follows: Matt Damon: The Celebrity Shall Save You. Matt wants to rescue the third world with a smile, a bulk e-mail list, and a wad of cash. Are you rolling your eyes yet?

Matt provided an update on Bourne 4 and Green Zone to Empire online:

"Maybe, if we can figure out a good story. If you have a good fourth Bourne story, call Universal and they'll give you a bunch of money!"

Is there pressure to do another one?

"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because even if we made a horrible movie, it would make money, and they know that. There's a huge amount of pressure."

On Green Zone, Damon and Paul Greengrass' Iraq drama, the star said, "It's great, I've seen it. They're finishing some of the effects, and it'll be ready for March. We got a $100m Iraq movie, so we'll see! I do have high hopes for it, though. I think it's really good. I know the Iraq movies haven't been particularly popular so far, but hopefully this will find an audience. It's a thriller, really, set against the canvas of Iraq in 2003."

Small photos of Matt and Lucy leaving Venice by water taxi on Tuesday are at Film Magic.

Back in New York, Matt was interviewed by Canada's Q radio show. A summary of the interview and the audio clip is at the CBC Q site. Matt discussed how The Informant! is a small $20 million movie, and they're not hoping for a home run, but maybe a single or double.

On Mark Whitacre
"He did some things that were extraordinarily brave and he wore a wire for 2½ years and uncovered this huge price-fixing scandal — this international price-fixing scandal — where these huge companies were ripping people off all over the world and he changed a lot of laws because of what he did … but at the same time he did some morally indefensible things."

He calls The Informant! reminiscent of 1970s films, because Soderbergh had a free hand in creating it. Unlike big Hollywood films with a $100-million budget US, it was made without studio interference, he said.

"We made it for $20 million US and that meant we were left alone creatively and Steven was able to do what he wanted to do," Damon said.

"I hope it finds an audience. I'm of a mind that if you have a good screenplay and a great director you'll have a good movie, and people will find a good movie."

Steven Soderbergh discussed the movie and plans for Liberace at Canada.com:

"Matt really understood what his job was," notes Soderbergh, who shot the modest $22-million project in just 37 days. "I think there were only one or two times where I had to tell him, 'Don't forget where this guy lives in his head.' He understood what world we were creating."

During a court-sentencing scene, in particular, Soderbergh remembers telling Damon this little tidbit: "I said to Matt, 'This is the Oscar acceptance-speech moment.' We realized by then that Whitacre's always happy to be the centre of attention, regardless of the circumstances."

"We should be ready for next summer," he says of the Liberace filming. "It's going to be tricky, because we have a certain amount of money for re-staging the elaborate shows. But I think Michael Douglas is going to crush it."

Readers can submit questions for Matt (and vote for which questions should be asked) at this Digg dialogg.

Matt discusses the death of Heath Ledger and how he's working fewer hours per day with a young family in this interview from a Uraguay newspaper.

Video footage from Venice is at these sites: here, Marie Claire and YouTube. More good photos from the premiere are at Jezebel.

There's a great headline and caption with a Matt link at Gawker.

Randomly, Matt and family were sighted recently on vacation in Halifax, Nova Scotia, according to this report.