In fact, it was love at first read for Owen when he first finished the script, written by Michael Clayton scribe Tony Gilroy, who directed the film as well.

"I went crazy for the script. I was going through a phase where I was turning everything down. This gem landed. I finished the last page and called my agent," Owen said at a QA he attended with Gilroy at the Soho Apple store on Tuesday afternoon. "It was a rare gem."

How exactly did Owen and Gilroy connect? It was all thanks to Gilroy's Michael Clayton star George Clooney. Midway through the filming of Clayton, Owen was at a party and was a fan of the Bourne spy films that Gilroy had written.

"I hung out with Tony, and we talked," Owen says. "We just sat down and talked and got on very well. And apparently at the party, George said to Tony, 'That's who you should get for this movie.' "

As for Gilroy, "I was toying with the idea of a movie about spies who were in love. It was the idea of taking that and putting that in the corporate espionage world."