While still in film school, Kinberg sold a pitch to
Warner Bros., then went on to write scripts for
Disney,
Sony, and
DreamWorks, working with
Steven Spielberg and
Jerry Bruckheimer, among others. After finishing school, Kinberg moved to Hollywood, where his first screenwriting credit was a sequel to the hit action film
XXX (2002),
XXX: State of the Union (2005). His next screenwriting venture was
Mr. & Mrs. Smith, directed by
Doug Liman and starring
Brad Pitt and
Angelina Jolie. The script began as Kinberg's thesis project for film school. Kinberg also wrote the pilot episode for a television adaptation of
Mr. & Mrs. Smith for
ABC. He also has a
cameo appearance in the movie, as the banker who converses with John Smith at the dinner party. Kinberg's next screenwriting job was the third movie in the
20th Century Fox X-Men film series:
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), which he co-wrote with
Zak Penn. Comic-book writer
Chris Claremont, who wrote the Dark Phoenix storyline that served as the primary source material for the film, also wrote the novelization of the film and made Kinberg a character in the book. Kinberg reunited with director
Doug Liman for the film
Jumper (2008). Kinberg wrote and produced the film, which stars
Samuel L. Jackson,
Hayden Christensen, and
Diane Lane. The following year, Kinberg was writer of
Sherlock Holmes, directed by
Guy Ritchie, starring
Robert Downey Jr. and
Jude Law. In April 2010, his production company, Genre Films, signed a first-look deal with
20th Century Fox. Kinberg was the producer of
X-Men: First Class (2011), and both writer and producer of
This Means War (2012). He was also co-screenwriter and an executive producer of the film
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter in that same year. In 2013, Kinberg produced
Elysium. The following year, Kinberg was the writer and the producer of the film
X-Men: Days of Future Past. That same year, he produced ''
Let's Be Cops. In 2015, Kinberg produced the Neill Blomkamp film Chappie and the live-action version of Cinderella at Walt Disney Pictures. He also worked on Fantastic Four as writer and producer. His final film of the year was The Martian'', directed by
Ridley Scott. He wrote and produced
X-Men: Apocalypse, the next film in the
X-Men franchise following
X-Men: Days of Future Past. Kinberg produced 2016's
Deadpool, 2017's
Logan, 2018's
Deadpool 2, 2019's
Dark Phoenix (the latter of which also served as his directorial debut) and
The New Mutants, all of which are
X-Men spin-off films. He also produced
Murder on the Orient Express, an adaptation of the
Agatha Christie novel
of the same name.
The Hollywood Reporter initially reported that
Lawrence Kasdan, writer of
The Empire Strikes Back and
Return of the Jedi, and Kinberg would write and produce Episodes VIII and IX of the new
Star Wars films. A week later the publication stated that Kasdan and Kinberg would be working on future
Star Wars projects, but not necessarily on Episodes VIII and IX. In television, he is an executive producer on ABC's
Designated Survivor starring
Kiefer Sutherland,
Legion created by
Noah Hawley for
FX, and
The Gifted on
Fox. He executive produced the
third revival of the science fiction anthology series,
The Twilight Zone which premiered in 2019 on CBS All Access (now
Paramount+). In July 2019, it was announced that Kinberg and his production company Genre Films was leaving Fox after 20 years. On November 7, 2024, it was announced that Kinberg has been hired by
Lucasfilm to write and co-produce a new trilogy of
Star Wars films along with
Kathleen Kennedy. ==Personal life==