Kosinski grew up in
Marshalltown, Iowa, the son of Patricia (née Provost) of Skokie, Illinois, and Joel Kosinski, a doctor of Polish descent. After graduating from
Marshalltown High School in 1992, he studied mechanical engineering at
Stanford University and architecture at
Columbia University,GSAPP. While teaching at Columbia after graduating in 1999, Kosinski co-founded a design firm, KDLAB, with a classmate, Dean Di Simone, where he made digital short films, and went into directing commercials. Kosinski signed with
Anonymous Content after moving to
Los Angeles and meeting
David Fincher. His first major film was the special effects-heavy
Tron: Legacy. The film was in
Disney Digital 3-D and
IMAX 3D, with a release of December 2010 and grossed $400 million worldwide. After moving to
Los Angeles in 2005, he began writing a
film treatment which would eventually develop into an unpublished
graphic novel by the title
Oblivion for
Radical Comics. In August 2010,
Walt Disney Pictures acquired the rights to the work.
William Monahan worked on the screenplay for a film adaptation. In March 2011, it was reported that Karl Gajdusek would rewrite the screenplay. Attempts to keep the film with a PG rating were unsuccessful, leading to Disney giving up the rights which were acquired by
Universal Pictures, and agreed to a
PG-13 rating. The $120-million-budgeted
Oblivion began filming in March 2012, with
Tom Cruise in the lead role, and was released in April 2013 to mixed reviews and grossed $286 million worldwide. , admiral
Kenneth R. Whitesell,
Tom Cruise, Kosinski, and
Jerry Bruckheimer at the
Naval Air Station North Island premiere of
Top Gun: Maverick In 2017, he directed
Only the Brave, originally titled
Granite Mountain, based on the true story of the
Granite Mountain Hotshots (wildland firefighters). In June 2017, it was announced he was set to direct the sequel to
Top Gun, titled
Top Gun: Maverick, reuniting with
Oblivion star Tom Cruise. The film was released in theatres on May 27, 2022, by
Paramount Pictures and grossed $1.496 billion worldwide, becoming Cruise's highest-grossing film at the box office. Kosinski also directed a
Formula One racing film named
F1, reteaming with
Top Gun: Maverick producer
Jerry Bruckheimer and screenwriter
Ehren Kruger, with racing driver
Lewis Hamilton also serving as producer. The project, acquired by
Apple Studios in June 2022, stars
Brad Pitt and will receive an exclusive theatrical run "of at least 30 days" starting internationally on June 25, 2025, and in North America on June 27, 2025, before streaming on
Apple TV+. On February 18, 2025, it was announced that Kosinski and Bruckheimer would reunite on an untitled conspiracy thriller film centred around
UFOs, with
Zach Baylin writing the screenplay. On March 24, it was announced that the project had been acquired by Apple Studios. In April 2025, it was announced that Kosinski would direct a
Miami Vice film with a script by
Dan Gilroy and
Eric Warren Singer. This film would be developed after his upcoming UFO conspiracy thriller. It will be a reboot of the
Miami Vice franchise following the
original television series and
2006 film. The film is set to begin filming in 2026, with an May 19, 2028 release date.
Unrealized projects Kosinski has been attached to several as-of-now-unmade projects, including remakes of '70s science-fiction films ''
Logan's Run and The Black Hole, the science-fiction film Archangels
, an untitled action-thriller from Halt and Catch Fire
writers Christopher Cantwell and Christopher C. Rogers, and The Twilight Zone''. Kosinski was confirmed to direct the third
Tron film in March 2015, but in May of the same year it was announced that Disney had canceled the project. Kosinski also signed on to direct a film adaptation of the
Gran Turismo video game series for
Sony Pictures in March 2015, but in February 2018, it was reported the project was no longer moving forward.
The project would eventually be directed by
Neill Blomkamp and released in theatres on August 25, 2023. In June 2020, he was hired to direct the reboot of
Twister for Universal Pictures, the original film's international distributor, but in October 2022, Kosinski stepped down after the project was repurposed into a legacy-sequel,
Twisters, and replaced by
Lee Isaac Chung as director; Kosinski was ultimately credited for the film's story.
Academia Kosinski is an alumnus of
Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), and was an adjunct assistant professor of architecture helping students in 3D modeling and graphics. In 2008, he spoke in detail about his education in architecture, pushing the technological envelope in commercials and his eventual progression to feature films. == Awards ==