A pioneer in shooting Indian films abroad, Chopra and his company have worked with the industry's biggest stars, including Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan.

We did a rigorous content analysis of romantic comedies and found that the same issues were being portrayed in these films," the university's Dr Bjarne Holmes says.

Stark shots of the mountainous Abruzzo region and intense close- ups of Clooney and the supporting cast give the film an intimate feel not normally associated with assassin stories.