Director D.J Caruso has had only a short film career, his first picture coming in 2002 in the form of The Salton Sea, beginning, as so many do in television.
A graduate from Pepperdine University and a life-long film fan Caruso's career in the industry he so desperately wanted to be a part of started as a production assistant.
He first credit came in 1991 when he worked as associate producer on Michael J Fox's action comedy The Hard Way. After that his production career took off as he went on to work on Nick of Time, Drop Zone and Point of No Return.
After four years he moved into the director's chair for the very first time as he directed an episode of science fiction series VR.5 in 1995. This led to work on Martial Law and Buddy Faro gaining confidence and experience.
He moved into bigger television shows such as Smallville, the teenage years of Superman, and Dark Angel before making the next step into feature films, and this began in 2002 with The Salton Sea.
Starring Val Kilmer as Danny Parker the film follows the jazz musician into a world of violence and drugs as he desperately tries to find the person who murdered his wife.
But it was to be his next movie Taking Lives, a psychological thriller/neo-noir film which starred Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke, where he began to make a name for himself.
A top FBI profiler, Special Agent Illeana Scott doesn't rely on traditional crime-solving techniques to unravel the mysteries of a murderous mind. Her intuitive, unconventional approach often makes the crucial difference between catching a killer and sending a dead-end case to the cold file.
When Montreal detectives, handling a local homicide investigation, reluctantly ask for an outsider's help to get inside the head of a cunning serial killer, Agent Scott joins the case. With meticulous insight, she theorizes that the chameleon-like killer is 'life-jacking', assuming the lives and identities of his victims.
As the pressure mounts to catch the elusive murderer, Agent Scott's unorthodox methods alienate her from a territorial police team that feels threatened by her uncanny abilities. Her seemingly cold demeanour belies an unparalleled passion for her work, and she's at her best when she's working alone but she soon finds herself on a terrifying journey and in serious danger.
His next movie Two for the Money, which starred Al Pacino, Matthew McConaughey and Rene Russo did not perform well at the box office and was a miss with the critics, grossing just $30.5 million at the global box office.
Despite the big names that he had worked with in the past it was to be his 2007 thriller, of relatively small budget and little know cast, Disturbia that was to be a surprise hit at the box office.
An updated version of Hitchcock's Rear Window Disturbia starred Shia LaBeouf, and it seems that anything he has touched in the last eighteen months has turned into box office gold, and true to form the film shot to the top of the US box office.
LaBeouf stars as Kale who becomes sullen, withdrawn, and troubled after the death of his father so much so that he finds himself under a court-ordered sentence of house arrest.
His mother, Julie, works night and day to support herself and her son, only to be met with indifference and lethargy.
The walls of his house begin to close in on Kale. He becomes a voyeur as his interests turn outside the windows of his suburban home towards those of his neighbours, one of which Kale begins to suspect is a serial killer. But, are his suspicions merely the product of cabin fever and his overactive imagination?
The film is considered a huge financial success grossing $117 million at the global box office, easily making back it's modest budget of $20 million. A sequel is already in the pipeline.
His new film Eagle Eye re-unites him with his Disturbia leading man Shia LaBeouf and the pair have once again been a hit with cinema go-ers, despite mixed reviews from the critics.
Also starring Michelle Monaghan Eagle Eye follows a young man and a single mother who are brought together and coerced by an anonymous caller into carrying out a terrorist cell's plot.
His next project will see the director helm the big screen adaptation of hit comic book series Y: The Last Man.
Eagle Eye is out now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw