It surprised plenty of people that an unknown—much less someone whose experience lies mostly in commercials—was selected to direct the new Tron movie: "What, an insanely expensive sequel to a cult movie that came out 28 years ago? Get me the guy who made that Chevy commercial with the baby a couple years ago!"
Yet that's what happened with Joseph Kosinski, the man directing the highly anticipated Tron: Legacy. His personal website looks like it belongs to a skilled multimedia designer, not the guy in charge of $170 million movie. (Visitors can download PDFs of interviews with him, like one from the Oct. 2007 issue of Creativity. Adorable!)
But it's no fluke. An expansive story about Kosinski from The New York Times last week examines his background, citing how an awesome iPod commercial he did on spec helped land him the Tron gig. Check it out:
[h/t Vulture]