Tony Gilroy
Tony Gilroy found major success in 2007 when he teamed up with George Clooney for Michael Clayton, a film that brought him a Best Director and a Best Picture Oscar nomination.
This week sees the return of the director as he reunites Clive Owen and Julia Roberts, who starred together in Closer, in Duplicity.
CIA officer Claire Stenwick (Roberts) and MI6 agent Ray Koval (Owen) have left the world of government intelligence to cash in on the highly profitable cold war raging between two rival multinational corporations. Their mission? Secure the formula for a product that will bring a fortune to the company that patents it first.
For their employers industry titan Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson) and buccaneer CEO Dick Garsik (Paul Giamatti) nothing is out of bounds.
But as the stakes rise, the mystery deepens and the tactics get dirtier, the trickiest secret for Claire and Ray is their growing attraction. And as they each try to stay one double-cross ahead, two career loners find their schemes endangered by the only thing they can't cheat their way out of: love.
But Gilroy didn't start his career behind the camera. Son of Pulitzer Prize writer Frank Gilroy it's no surprise that he followed in his father's footsteps as he kicked off his film career in writing.
He began with The Cutting Edge in 1992 before moving on to Dolores Claiborne and The Devil's Advocate.
Major success came his way in 1998 when he penned disaster/sci-fi script Armageddon. The film went on to star Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler and Ben Affleck and was the biggest grossing movie of 2008.
But it was the Bourne trilogy that cemented Gilroy as a true script writing force. Based on the novels by Robert Ludlum The Bourne Identity was released in 2002 with Matt Damon in the lead role.
Grossing over $213 at the global box office the franchise had begun. The Bourne Supremacy followed in 2004 and it was another solid performance grossing over $288 million.
But it was The Bourne Ultimatum 2007 that was the most successful both at the box office and with the critics.
But in 2007 he made the switch to directing when he moved behind the camera for Michael Clayton, also penning the script.
The film followed Michael Clayton is an in-house "fixer" at one of the largest corporate law firms in New York. A former criminal prosecutor, Clayton takes care of Kenner, Bach & Ledeen's dirtiest work at the behest of the firm's co-founder Marty Bach.
Though burned out and hardly content with his job as a fixer, his divorce, a failed business venture and mounting debt have left Clayton inextricably tied to the firm. At U/North, meanwhile, the career of litigator Karen Crowder rests on the multi-million dollar settlement of a class action suit that Clayton's firm is leading to a seemingly successful conclusion.
But when Kenner Bach's brilliant and guilt-ridden attorney Arthur Edens sabotages the U/North case, Clayton faces the biggest challenge of his career and his life.
Although it was a hit with the critics the film didn't do well at the box office, despite this the film found itself on the receiving end of a string of awards and nominations.
It went on to be nominated for seven Oscars.
Gilroy has a second project later this year as he penned the script for State of Play, an adaptation of the hit BBC television series.
Duplicity is out now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw