Matt Damon: 'Coens are master filmmakers'

Matt Damon has insisted that his True Grit directors Joel and Ethan Coen are among the best directors working today.

In an interview with Deadline, the Oscar winner explained that the Coens' mastery of the filmmaking process is nearly unrivaled in the motion picture industry.

"There is a very small number of people who have a mastery of every phase of the process," he said.

"They write unbelievably well. They do storyboarding to the point you're actually given the movie in comic book form before you go shoot it. They have the ability to improvise on the day if a better idea strikes one of them, or is suggested by somebody who's working on the movie."

Damon further asserted that the Coens' success is also due in part to their involvement in every stage of producing a film.

"As directors, they cull out of us what they need and want. And they post and edit the movie as well as anybody. You're supposed to have strengths and weaknesses, but those guys just do it all on an exceptionally high level.

"There's no way you can make as many great movies as they've made by accident. That's why actors are desperate to work with them," he remarked.

Over the course of their 27-year career, the Coens have worked will such high-profile stars as Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, George Clooney and Brad Pitt.