The Iowa Filmmaker Who Directed ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and ‘F1’

When you're featured in a picture standing next to Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, you clearly have done something right. That 'person' standing with those two acting legends is director Joseph Kosinski, and he grew up in Iowa.

Iowa Director Working With Hollywood Heavyweights

According to IMDB, Joseph Kosinski has only had five movies released in theaters. However, those five films have earned $2.8 billion worldwide, and have Kosinski mentioned among the top directors in Hollywood. His most recent success was F1: The Movie, which teamed him up with Brad Pitt.

The film was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards and won the Oscar for Best Sound. Kosinski is also responsible for getting Tom Cruise back into a fighter jet for the movie Top Gun: Maverick. Despite the awards and acting A-listers he gets to hang around, Kosinski was raised in central Iowa.

Hollywood Director Raised in Iowa

The Des Moines Register reports that Kosinski moved to central Iowa, Marshalltown specifically, at the age of five. He graduated from Marshalltown High School in 1992. The Register reports that he then studied mechanical engineering at Stanford and got his Master's in architecture from Columbia University. He even briefly taught at the school!

The Register reports that Kosinski finally moved to Hollywood in the early 2000s. One of his first projects was a post-apocalyptic sci-fi graphic novel. That story was reworked into the movie 'Oblivion' starring Tom Cruise. It was the first film Kosinski ever directed.

Hollywood Director Often Returns Home

The Register notes that Kosinski credits his creativity to the freedom he had as a kid growing up in Iowa. The director returns to Iowa occasionally, as the Register reports that he was back in Marshalltown last November, where he appeared at a fundraiser for the town's Performing Arts Center.

As for what project Kosinski is working on next? He's directing Oscar winners Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler in a remake of 'Miami Vice', according to the Register. The film is scheduled to be released in late summer 2027.