He attended the University of South Florida and graduated with a BFA degree in Art History. He then moved to Los Angeles where he worked for 12 years as a Screenwriter before making his 2002 film, Equilibrium. In numerous interviews he cites Equilibrium as his directorial debut and first film, in which he also has a cameo role as a practitioner of the fictional martial art Gun Kata; however his actual directorial debut was the 1995 action film One Tough Bastard, starring Brian Bosworth and Bruce Payne.
