Filmmaker and producer Francis Lawrence started out in Hollywood as an assistant director in the 1993 comedy Marching Out of Time, and subsequently enjoyed phenomenal success as a music video director. Between his stint as an assistant director in the early 1990s and feature film directorial debut in 2005, Lawrence worked with an array of top pop singers from Jennifer Lopez to Rihanna, Shakira, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake - earning much praise for his unique style and imaginative scripts.

In 2005, Lawrence debuted with the occult detective film Constantine, which was a blockbuster despite the mixed reviews. The post-apocalyptic sci-fi horror flick I Am Legend (2007) was the director's next, and went on to collect close to $600 million at the box office after opening to positive reviews. Between 2013 and 2015, Lawrence directed three of the four films in The Hunger Games film series, and was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Director for his work in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013). Besides films, he has also been associated with tv shows like Kings, Gotham and Touch. Other notable feature film credits include Water for Elephants (2011) and the 2018 spy thriller Red Sparrow (2018).