Matt Damon claims his role in 'The Informant' is one of the best he has ever been offered.

The actor — who plays Mark Whitacre in Steven Soderbergh's new comedy — was first approached about the part eight years ago and ever since then he has been keen to get the project started.

He said: "It's one of the best roles I have ever been offered. And what's funny is that it came up a while ago. It was in 2001.

"I was on my fourth round of reshoots on 'The Bourne Identity', I'd had two movies come out that totally bombed, the 'Bourne' movie had been delayed for a year, and all the signals were that it was going to be a disaster too.

"So it was in that climate Steven called me and said he had found something for us to do together. I was so confused because no one had called me for a job in like nine months and by any measure I was really cold in Hollywood."